When I consider the audience-construction which is based on my theory in Mole People, it would be difficult to see how we are lead into the same field of the genre by reading this story in terms of discussion and argument, even though the audience-construction exists absolutely. Because the contents about people who live in the tunnel underground are really unfamiliar for us, it is difficult to bring up any specific mental images in our mind. The field of the genre is broad. Although we might be able to consider ambiguous themes, it would have a difference to the time when we read, for example, the novel Our Nig. At the time, it was really clear what kinds of the genre we should be lead into because the story has a logical development that starts from poverty, through discrimination and violence, to Frado's death. However, in Mole People, the story has not a fluid development but an intermittent development because each chapter has many characters and they seem to introduce their situation and explain what things happen in the tunnel on people.
That is, the process by which we are lead gradually into the field to the genre is hard to be found in this story. Furthermore, because the characters sometimes refer to any specific impression, our position may be not as an audience who discusses but as an observer who receives the facts about mole people.
However, as I wrote above, even though the story is unfamiliar for us, we are created as audience because we can compare some ideas between the fact of mole people and our life in above ground, their past state in above ground, and their current state in the tunnel. Although each chapter seems to be an intermittent development, the developments have any specific message that we can receive it immediately much stronger than the mental images. Therefore, we would be also constructed as audience by not the author but the characters who are mole people.
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Ryosuke, I completely agree that "The Mole People" has complex forms of audience construction present. Jennifer Toth presents the story in such a way that the reader is exposed to numerous perspectives, stories and ideas.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that by introducing the characters in the way that she does lends itself most significantly to the construction of the audience. By doing this, Toth is presenting multiple stories of various individuals. She therefore is portraying to the reader the normality and common occurrences of homelessness in New York City. The multitude of stories told within the novel forces the reader to acknowledge the problem of "the tunnel people" and humanize those that are involved.