Scene: The Emergence of a Methodology in Story Interpretation

Scene, as a literary technique, has a special role in storytelling and interpretation. Informed by Persian fiction, this article aims to show that stagecraft is not limited to Western literature and is present in Persian literature as well. By applying Stéphane Lojkine’s theories to Émile Zola’s Germinal, this study attempts to investigate the theorist’s understanding of this concept while explaining the meaning that the scene in question could have for the reader. However, we were mindful of the fact that each text is unique in itself and its creation, which led us to refrain from any comparative study between the two texts, despite their contents. This study concludes that the meaning of a scene is the result of the emotional impact that it has on the reader, who has now accepted the role of a spectator. This effect, for Zola, stems from a set of factors inherent in the author’s oeuvre. Among them are the impressionistic images, symbolism, and the creation of composite forms, which characterize the author’s epic aesthetics.
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Scene, as a literary technique, has a special role in storytelling and interpretation. In this article, by applying Stéphane Lojkine’s theories to Émile Zola’s Germinal, this study attempts to investigate the theorist’s understanding of this concept while explaining the meaning that the scene in question could have for the reader, and adding some observations on the theorist’s understanding of this concept. To achieve this goal, I will briefly explore the role that images and their perception by the reader play in understanding narrative texts, focusing on their emotional dimension. After that, I will discuss the concept of the scene, its place and function in the narrative, and its importance in literary interpretation. Finally, I will provide an analysis of a scene from Émile Zola’s Germinal (1885) to explicate how the scene leads to the discovery of aspects of the text that would otherwise have been overlooked.
2. Methodology
Informed by Persian fiction, this article aims to show that stagecraft is not limited to Western literature and is present in Persian literature as well. By applying Stéphane Lojkine’s theories to Émile Zola’s Germinal, this study attempts to investigate the theorist’s understanding of this concept while explaining the meaning that the scene in question could have for the reader. However, I was mindful of the fact that each text is unique in itself and its creation, which led us to refrain from any comparative study between the two texts, despite their close content.
3. Theoretical Framework
In the literary genre of the novel, as discernible in Catherine Grall’s "La Vue Imageante, Dépassement ou Exhibition du Processus Fictionnel?" (2008) and Stéphane Lojkine’s La Scène de Roman, Méthode d'Analyse (2002), the logic of the image opposes the logic of the narrative. In the image, the narrative stops, and the equivalent discourse is suspended. Sometimes, as Lojkine has exhibited in his work, the image is realized in the light of the “scene.” Although the scene is organised around description, it goes beyond it, so that every scene is a specific form of description, but not every description necessarily forms a scene; the scene lies between description and narration. Although this article is informed by Lojkine’s theories and analytical methods, compared to the pieces included in his work, the scene includes a wider range of texts that do not necessarily meet all the conditions he enlists.
4. Discussion and Analysis
The analytical section of this study explores selected scenes from the fifth chapter of the fifth part of Zola’s novel, Germinal, which describes the revolt of the angry miners of the Monceau Mine from the perspective of the terrified bourgeois who are hiding in a nearby stable. In this example, “the stable and the gap in it” becomes a means of circumventing the “prohibition of being seen,” which is a characteristic of the scene. Interestingly, in our study of Germinal, contrary to what we usually encounter on stage, in its classical meaning and examples in literature, the POV is not from the outside in and into a closed and private space, but from the inside out and into an open and public space. The contrast between these two spaces represents the contrast and confrontation between the upper and lower classes, and the two social classes of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. On the other hand, the characters’ emotions and behavior eloquently show the transition from the linguistic mechanism to the visual mechanism, for they either do not speak, or mumble, or say something meaningless in relation to the situation in which the story is set.
5. Conclusion
In this study, by providing two examples from different literatures and cultures, I attempted to explain one of the most common narrative techniques employed by storytellers. As we have seen, what distinguishes a scene from a typical narrative discourse is the reader’s active role in representation and understanding. This study concludes that the meaning of a scene is the result of the emotional impact that it has on the reader, who accepts the role of a spectator. This effect, for Zola, stems from a set of factors inherent in the author’s oeuvre. Among them are the impressionistic images, symbolism, and the creation of composite forms, which characterize the author’s epic aesthetics.
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