Character in literature /

Finding references to character in contemporary critical theory is difficult. Hochman proposes to rescue this useful concept by a process analogous to our reading of people in actual life. He wishes to psychologize characters in fiction as one does in interpreting others and to assume congruity between perception of people in literature and in life. His reading, using a Freudian scheme, permits tension between conscious and unconscious motives and also conscious conflicts. He proposes a taxonomy of eight paired categories, one list involving stylization, coherence, wholeness, literalness, complexity, transparency, dynamism, and closure, and the other their opposites (i.e., for stylization, naturalism; for literalness, symbolism). The categories are combined in discussions of characters taken from a range of British, American, and European literature. Not wishing to detach character permanently from the fictional work, however, Hochman shows in an afterword how character may be resolved into themes, environments, symbol patterns, or conflicts. He supplements character theories in Seymour Chatman's Story and Discourse (CH, Feb '79) and W.J. Harvey's Character and the Novel (CH, Jul '66). This study offers a useful outline and thoughtful discussions of character especially appropriate for advanced undergraduates. There is a helpful bibliography.-R.E. Wiehe, University of Lowell