The Visual Poetics Of Raymond Carver

The Visual Poetics of Raymond Carver The Visual Poetics of Raymond Carver AYALA AMIR LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Lexington Books A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.lexingtonbooks.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2010 by Lexington Books Excerpts from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver copyright © 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpts from Cathedral by Raymond Carver copyright © 1981, 1982, 1983. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpts from Fires copyright © 1983, 1984 by the Estate of Raymond Carver. Excerpts from Where I’m Calling From copyright © 1986, 1987, 1988 by Raymond Carver. Cover Photography: “Phonebooth” by Tirtza Even copyright © 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Amir, Ayala, 1963The visual poetics of Raymond Carver / Ayala Amir. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-3921-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-3923-3 (electronic) 1. Carver, Raymond, 1938-1988—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PS3553.A7894Z53 2010 813'.54—dc22 2010010238 ⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Key Abbreviations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi PART I: MOVEMENT 1 2 “I Don’t Do Motion Shots”—Representation of Movement “Does That Have a Hidden Meaning?”—Dialogue 3 21 PART II: THE EYE OF THE CAMERA 3 4 “Whoever Was Using This Bed”—Voice “Why Do I Notice That?”—Vision 47 69 PART III: SEEING AND MEANING 5 6 Raymond Carver’s “Man in a Case”—Frame and Character Singularity or Doubleness—Effet de réel or Symbol?— Toward Conclusion 105 145 Conclusion 175 References 179 Index 189 About the Author 197 v Works by Raymond Carver KEY ABBREVIATIONS V WYPB WWTA Cathedral WICF Fires AOU CIYN CS “View Finder” Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? What We Talk about When We Talk about Love Cathedral Where I’m Calling From: Stories Fires: Essays, Poem, Stories All of Us: The Collected Poems Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose Collected Stories vii Acknowledgments My first encounter with Raymond Carver’s stories took place in 1989, through the Hebrew translation of Cathedral. A long time passed from that day until I began to write about Carver. However, I am still grateful to the translator of that slim volume—Moshe Ron—who eventually introduced a very enthusiastic Israeli audience to all of Carver’s short fiction. Professor Ron also read an early version of this study and helped me greatly with his keen remarks. Baruch Hochman accompanied this project from the very beginning. I cannot thank him enough for the time and effort he invested in it, and for his insightful comments and suggestions. Shimon Sandbank tirelessly read