the past with the present, and suggesting a complex interaction between
them. Greg, Stevie Caine and the ghost-like figure on the lawn all exist at
separate points in time, and are pulled from different social contexts, but
are nevertheless interconnected in the psyche of the elderly woman
and her experiences of loss and recovery. When we are reading this story,
it’s very easy for its structure to pass us by because we become absorbed in
the events. But it is the narrative organisation which links past and present
experience, personal and historical memory. This kind of structure should
be the basis for your text in Exercise 9.
Time in Sophie’s story (even accepting that this is really only a
fragment of a narrative) could be structured in many alternative ways.
For example, we could start (i) with Sophie’s dismissal, and then move
back into various points in the near-, far- and mid-past to events which
had led to it. Or we could begin (ii) halfway through the story at the point
at which Sophie’s problems are starting to gather momentum, and the
narrative could alternate between moving back to the near-, mid- and
far-pasts, and forwards in the present to the climax of the story. Or
the narrative could (iii) ‘begin at the beginning’ and tell Sophie’s
story from the time of her appointment to her dismissal. Each of
these ways of structuring the narrative has certain advantages and effects:
for example, starting with Sophie’s dismissal means that we know what
the denouement of the story is, we will then be able to interpret, as
we read, how the preceding events have led to this. On the other hand,
if we do not know the end when we start to read, there will be more
opportunities for suspense and manipulation by the narrator of what we
do and don’t know.
Let’s set out (ii) which starts halfway through the story:
Example 5.17
Present : A boardroom vote in which Sophie realises that people she
regarded as allies want her removed from her position.Near-past: Bob and Eric come to see her to complain about lack of
representation of their work. They also hint that they will not
support Sophie in the boardroom unless she does represent their
work.Mid-past: Sophie is appointed as director of the art gallery.Far-past: Sophie looks back to the time she was an art student.Further on in the present: The boardroom moves against Sophie and
dismisses her.106 The Writing Experiment