From Two Books to One - Rhetorical Darwinism - page 113

D isPlacement anD the n aRRativity of h istoRy
It seems quite evident that the explicitly providential orientation of Bacon
and Turgot was transformed into the progressive orientation of Condorcet
and his successors, but how did this happen? The theory of displacement
that I will use to answer this question is an effort to give account for that
ubiquitous literary pattern by which, as Frye puts it, “mythology merges
insensibly into, and with, literature.” 18 Displacement explains the persis-
tence of sacred meaning in secular imitations of myth by positing a neces-
sary relationship between dianoia (theme) and mythos (plot). Because the
thematic elements of a literary work arise from mythos , that is to say, from
the sequence of actions which comprise the whole of a narrative, plot and
theme may be recognized as commensurable literary features. Dianoia , in
other words, denotes the “larger pattern of simultaneous significance” that
arises when a reader follows the plot of a story. 19 The sequence of events
that the reader traces out in following a story can be expected to solid-
ify into a thematic whole. Readers may not remember, for instance, the
detailed way in which the plot of Robinson Crusoe moves from one event to
the next in the course of reading it, but they will likely understand that it
is “a story about the intolerableness of isolation.” A story's mythos , in other
words, is ephemeral, but its theme is enduring. We remember its theme,
what “the work of fiction was all about ,” rather than the precise sequence
of actions that produced that meaning. Thus Frye notes that “as we go on
to study and reread the work of fiction, we tend, not to reconstruct the
plot, but to become more conscious of the theme, and to see all incidents
as manifestations of it.” 20 “We listen to the poem,” Frye observes,
as it moves from beginning to end, but as soon as the whole of it is in our
minds at once we “see” what it means. More exactly, this response is not
simply to the whole of it, but to a whole in it: we have a vision of meaning
or dianoia whenever any simultaneous apprehension is possible. 21
Because theme arises from plot in this gestalt fashion, the displacement
of a sacred plot into a secular narrative will also preserve the original's
dianoia , whether or not this theme is recognized. This transference of mean-
ing may be detected, especially in secular romance, by notable vestiges of
religious language or symbolism that carry over in “some form of simile:
analogy, significant association, incidental accompanying imagery, and the
like.” 22 The divinity of the Christian protagonist which is signaled by the
fact that he has no earthly father in this fashion carries over symbolically in