"Snowed up"

a structuralist reading

Julian Cowley

pp. 41-56

in: Julian Wolfreys, William J. Baker (eds), Literary theories, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1996

Abstract

"I"ve got a fire in my bedroom tonight, and am writing cosily before I retire as the books say" (21). Edie's diary entry for "Jan. 4th" alludes to conventions of literary expression, to phrases that characterize the writing of fiction. The reference to what "the books say" affirms the diary's factuality; it too is written, yet it is distinct from those completed works of imagination. Here we may see the writer writing, in a particular place, at a specific time. What could be more real?