DESCRIPCION DE CASOS DE USO DEL PORTAL DE IRFEYAL

Steme often d isru p ts the easy flo w o f the eye across the page b y e m pha sizin g the p h y s ic a lity o f T ristra m Shandy; the book cannot rem ain a mere veh icle fo r v e rb a l m eaning. He uses co m p o sitio n techniques to call

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attentio n to the visu a l appearance o f w o rd s o r th e ir p h ysical arrangem ent on the page o r in the bo ok structure. W hen w o rd s com m unicate throug h more than one m ode at once, the u n fa m ilia r synaesthesia reconfigures the reader's progress th ro u g h the book and the o ve ra ll u n d e rsta n d in g of

Sterne's text.

The co m b in a tio n o f w ord s, images and m aterials th ro u g h o u t the book is encapsulated in the em blem atic m arbled page. Steme com m ands his "unlearned reader" to "Read, read, read, read" the page (III, xxxvi,

168/164), though there are no w ord s to read in a conventional way. Instead, it is necessary to in te rp re t the visual image o f the colored m a rb lin g and also to m ake sense o f the m a teria l characteristics o f this double-sided, specially crafted leaf. In spite o f the fact that the m arbled leaf was created separately and the page "tip p e d in ," the re plication o f the m a rg in stru ctu re (th rou gh the m a rb lin g process) creates a visual correspondence between the m arbled pages and the pages o f lin g u is tic text.64

A la in Bony w rite s th a t this passage, because it is juxtaposed w ith the page "th a t comes fro m the w o rld o f b o o k b in d in g " (18), entraps the reader into be lie ving that 'i t is im possible to get m eaning o u t o f books.' Since it is im possible to read the m aterial o f a book, Bony concludes, Steme m ust be p o sitin g a disparaging v ie w o f the enterprise o f re adin g altogether: the m arbled page is a "s ig n o f a tru th that is destined never to leave the w e ll of b o oks" (27).65 The " tr u th " w ill alw ays rem ain in e xtrica b ly b o u n d into the

64 See section A.3. for a full discussion of these aspects of the marbled page.

6® "signe d 'u n e verite destinee a ne jamais sortir du puits des livres" (27). This does not necessarily mean that the truth is forever buried in the materials of Tristram Shandy itself; since the m arbled pages reference a common element of printed books, Bony implies that the truth is always just out of reach, contained within some other book or spread among the whole of publishing so that the one "truth" can never be known.

m aterial o f the book. Roger Moss s im ila rly concludes tha t the m arbled pages "d o indeed o ffer an allegory o r em blem, o f the meaninglessness o f a ll in k y m arks upon paper, o f the fact that books fin a lly have n o th in g to o ffe r" (194).

Instead o f p o in tin g tow ards a dead-end to meaning, o r a d isju n ctio n between w o rd s and th e ir m aterial em bodim ents, I believe Steme brings together the act o f reading w o rd s w ith the perception o f the book's

m a te ria lity. Sterne's o w n practice o f in te g ra tin g the modes th ro u g h o u t the novel shows h o w readers can b rin g together the w o rld s o f the m ute

m aterial and the speaking story. By in se rtin g a sym bol o f b o o kb in d in g w ith in the text o f the book, therefore, Steme asks us to com bine th e ir codes instead o f re lin q u ish a ll fa ith in th e ir accessibility. To be sure, there is a tension between o u r a b ility to in te rp re t the m arbled page and its deliberately veiled m ystery, b u t this tension underscores the connection ra th e r than o b lite ra tin g it.

Steme in te rru p ts the flo w o f the n a rra tive b y "d ig re s s in g " in to the n o n -lin g u is tic modes o f v is u a l elements and the m aterials th a t construct the book. These are perceived tout a coup, so they a b ru p tly rem ove the reader fro m the s tric t process o f reading one w o rd a fte r another. But the relation ship between these modes is never oppositio nal: a ll o f them are, after all, perceived v is u a lly . Sometimes the visua l elements in clu d e the typ o g ra p h y o f the p rin te d text itself.

1. P h ysical/V isu a l Words

W ords are in h e re n tly images, in the sense that w e lo o k at them in o rd e r to read them . As Johanna D ru c k e r w rite s in The Visible Word:

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Experimental Typography and M odern A rt, type fun ction s synaesthetically; the letter is received sim ulta ne ously as a visual and verbal sign. Sometimes Steme h ig h lig h ts the visua l fu n c tio n o f w ords in the novel b y m a kin g the typeface stand o u t fro m the page o f continuous text. This adds in fle ctio n (and hu m or) to his w ord s; the same text w ritte n in a u n ifo rm style w o u ld com m unicate on o n ly a denotative register. Instead o f separating the s ig n ify in g action o f w ord s fro m that o f images, as do Prim eau, Bony and Moss, Sterne's use o f typeface brings these modes together synaesthetically.

L ik e other eighteenth-century w riters, Sterne uses italics and

ca p ita liza tio n lib e ra lly to in fle ct the p rin te d phrases. M ichel Butor, w ritin g about this phenom enon in Rabelais, refers to the " tw o typ o g ra p h ic 'colors': rom an and ita lic " as d iffe re n t tones o f voice in the text (52). This

characterization corresponds w ith Sterne's o w n v ie w o f his text. As Shandy reflects, "W ritin g , w hen p ro p e rly managed, (as yo u m ay be sure I th in k m ine is) is b u t a d iffe re n t name fo r conversation" (II, xi, 68/77). The varied to n a lity o f the typeface adds an im ag inary in fle ctio n to the w o rd s as they are read.

Sterne diverges fro m o th e r eighteenth-century novelists'

typo gra ph ica l habits, how ever, w hen he uses an O ld E nglish typeface to give isolated phrases a regal air. For example, pa rt o f a sermon on conscience that C o rp o ra l T rim reads to Uncle Toby, W alter Shandy, and D r. Slop is p rin te d thus: "Conscience has got safely entrenched b e h in d the Letter o f the Law; sits there invu ln era ble, fo rtifie d w ith

C a f t !

and

fte p o rtf

so strongly on a ll sides; " (II, x v ii, 121/93). The "L e tte r o f the L a w " does n o t just sig n ify the exact rules o f jurisprudence; it also lite ra lly referes to a typeface fo r legal docum ents. Its strong architectural lines appear in vu ln e ra b le

com pared to the usual text type; it therefore seems to fo r tify any assertion p rin te d in tha t style.

O ld English also signifies the “ L e tter o f the L a w " w hen Shandy includes portion s of his m o ther's m arriage settlem ent in the text. Steme p rin ts key legal phrases in O ld English, such as

"flnll tf)l< Indenture

fttrtfter toitneffeth"

(I, xv, 87/28). T yp o g ra p h y indicates a h ig h -fa lu tin

tone, b u t it also punctuates the long text w ith a visual re m inde r o f its legal status. Some o f the w ord s Steme p rin ts in O ld English have no connection to legal discourse, however, such as

"flitIt a l i o "

(I, xv, 89/29). These

phrases p a rod y legal docum ents w h ile v is u a lly in d ica tin g the presence o f a foreign docum ent in the book.

In these examples, the novel becomes a place to fin d a collection o f diverse typefaces: this is the co m positio nal eq uivale nt o f M ik h a il Bakhtin's the ory o f dia lo gism in his book, Discourse in the Novel. A c co rd in g to B akhtin, juxtaposed rhetorics o f d iffe re n t socioeconomic o r so cio cu ltu ra l groups ty p ify no velistic style. Steme creates "d ia lo g is m " b y ju xta posin g d is tin c t class-identified discourses not ju s t in the gram m ar o f th e ir rhetoric, b u t in the typeface o f th e ir rhetoric. O ld E nglish signifies a h ig her class o f p rin te d discourse that stands o u t against the u n ifie d p rin t o f the text page.

W hen Steme uses O ld E nglish in his fin a l volum e, w here he "tu rn [s ] back to the tw o b la n k chapters" after chapter xxv, he is therefore

co m m an ding a higher-class, legalistic p o w e r to change the sequence o f the no vel's chapters. Chapters eighteen and nineteen are firs t left blank; Shandy later re tu rn s to them b u t m ust d is tin g u is h them fro m the other chapters so tha t the game w ith sequence is clear. T h e ir headings — " flh e e i g h t e e n t h

Chapter

" and

"Chapter the nineteenth"

— are w ritte n o u t com pletely,

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w h ile o th e r chapter headings use the m ore in fo rm a l a b b re via tio n "C H A P ." and indicate the nu m be r w ith rom an numerals. The O ld E nglish typestyle deviates from the typ o g ra p h ica l pattern o f the o th e r chapter headings, w h ich shows th a t Steme the com poser is in com m and o f the law s o f sequence th a t govern his novel.

Scholar W illia m H o ltz is not alone in asserting th a t "Sterne's typographical devices . . . [reveal] the essential inadequacy o f p rin te d

language" ("T y p o g ra p h y " 252).66 But Sterne's im agistic ty p o g ra p h y reveals the richness that is possible to convey on the p rin te d page if the composer does n o t adhere to con ventio nal textual appearance. Steme is n o t just s h o w in g w ha t language cannot offer; he is dem onstrating w h a t the book can

offer. Steme enlarges the a c tiv ity o f reading w ords by in te g ra tin g them w ith non-verbal in fo rm a tio n and thereby co m m un ica ting a rich e r n a rra tive and a more com plex com positio n.

2. Page Layout

W hen prose is read aloud, its la yo u t is im m aterial, b u t if the reader is lo o kin g at the page, w o rd s are necessarily perceived in the context o f the ir visual presentation.67 Steme makes a general practice o u t o f arra n g in g elements w ith in page m argins so th a t they are "re a d " sim u lta n e o u sly as page-bound visua l as w e ll as verbal elements. This is the spatial equivalent o f typo gra ph y; w o rd s are read in the context o f th e ir placem ent in the page layout. By p la yin g w ith the spacing o f w ord s on the page, Steme forces us to

66 Ronald Primeau also shortchanges Sterne's visual digressions by considering them merely a demonstration of the limitations of language.

67 As Keith Smith asserts, "The page is irrelevant to its content only w hen w ords are perceived through someone else's recitation" (Text 44).

attend to the spaces as w e ll as the w ords. This technique has the same effect as narrative digression: it alters the process o f p e rceiving the book and makes the reader conscious o f the book's deliberate construction.

In Tristra m Shandy, Steme occasionally inflects sentences b y placing them in unexpected arrangements on the page. In volu m e II (x v ii, 142/99), for instance, this one-sentence paragraph is centered between the rig h t and left m argins:

C orp ora l T rim read on.

The placem ent o f the sentence makes it take on the tone o f a stage direction. In vo lu m e IX (x x v ii, 118/451), a one-sentence paragraph appears centered in relation to a ll fo u r m argins o f the page.

^ ^ Y uncle Toby's M ap is carried d o w n into the kitch e n ."

This is the o n ly sentence on this page; it form s a com plete chapter. S till, it does n o t begin at the top o f a page. Instead, Steme illustrates the d o w n w a rd m o tion o f ca rry in g the map by locating these w ords lo w e r than usual in the page layout.

Steme som etimes com bines w o rd s and images in an unusual

arrangm ent fo r a heightened effect. W hen Shandy describes Y o nck's grave, for instance, the w ord s "A L A S , POOR Y O R I C K !" inscribed on the gravestone lo o k m onum ental because Steme places them in a box (see fig. A.21.). The d ra w in g extends the com m un ica tive fu n c tio n o f the language by s u p p ly in g m ore in fo rm a tio n w ith w h ic h to b u ild a m e n ta l p ic tu re o f the scene. The visu a l digression, w h ic h R onald P rim eau calls "th e tom bstone effect," also makes the act o f reading m ore d iffic u lt. As Roger Moss w rites

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about a ll o f Sterne's visual digressions, "th e y con tribu te to the u n fo ld in g o f the narrative, w h ile at the same tim e blo ckin g narrative progress" (195).

A fte r this d ra w in g o f the gravestone, Shandy reports that a ll people w ho see the gravesite sigh and repeat to themselves the line, "A L A S , POOR Y O R IC K!" as they pass. A ll are distracted from th e ir thoughts b y the

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