Answer to either or both:
- This short story is based on the Mandarin Paradox, posed in 1802 by the French writer and philosopher François-René Chateaubriand, and later retaken by Eça de Queirós in his novel "The Mandarin". Look at the qoute by Chateaubriand, as he phrased the paradox, and relate it briefly to at least two diasporic texts read in the class (including, of course, the one by Vaz):
I ask my own heart, I put to myself this question: "If thou couldst by a mere wish kill a fellow-creature in China, and inherit his fortune in Europe, with the supernatural conviction that the fact would never be known, wouldst thou consent to form such a wish?" (Chateaubriand, 1802)
- Synesthesia has become a stylistic mark for Katherine Vaz. Where do you find it in the story and what are its effects?
Katherine Vaz uses synesthesia in “The Mandarin Question” to blend different sensory experiences, which intensifies the emotional meaning of her words.
ReplyDeleteFor example, she describes a color as “summer sunsets boiled down” (p. 106). This mixes her views with tasting, turning perception into a personal experience.
A “smooth shape” that produces a “screech” (p. 106) combines touch and sound, making the reader experience a sense of tension when reading about the physical interaction.
She also describes landscapes with synesthesia, in the line “artichoke fields bled altogether green” (p. 108) where an image is mixed with a bodily activity.
These examples of synesthesia create a dreamy atmosphere while still focusing on the story’s message, which is that thought and action cannot be clearly separated, just as the senses.
-Clarita Kroon
In "The Mandrin Question" we can observe several instances of the text where synesthesia is applied for a heightened sensorial experience and additional depth. Katherine Vaz's descriptions combine seemingly regular objects and other non-living things with inherently human reactions and bodily function.
ReplyDeleteFor example, "But what if you felt you were eating a serenade in a body, and wouldn't that pile song upon song inside of you, so at the hour of death you might combat your own dark-cutting?" (p. 107), here we see the poetic use of "serenade" or "lulling songs" with a dark twist, where what is meant to comfort you in reality only distracts as it vises your end. This irony can also be further accentuated through Vaz's choice of expression by describing serenades as something one eats. On page 106, "That's why violinists always shut their eyes at some point when their bow sings, because there's no mortal sight worth having when you're stroking a creature that's crying." we see the use of personification of an inanimate object by comparing the violin to a comfort needing creature, yet its sound although it can be considered painful (crying) can still be perceived as melodical as it's stroked by the violinist's bow. Lastly we can also use as an example, "That night in bed, where the bee had pierced its sword below my breast (...)" on p.111. Here we can see how the use of this metaphorical depiction vises to intensify the character's experience through the combination of pain embedded in the visual of the stinger as a sword.
Elisa Alves