“Throw[ing] the Longest Shadows”: The Significance of the Bogus Quotation for Arcadia by Jim Crace

Sylwia Wojciechowska

doi:10.2478/v10231-012-0063-6

Authors

Sylwia Wojciechowska Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/v10231-012-0063-6

Abstract

Preceding his Arcadia with a non-existing quotation, Jim Crace proves to be no Arcadian innocent: challenging the shrewdness of his readers, the contemporary novelist seems to take pleasure in inviting them to an intellectual game which begins before the novel unfolds. The highly evocative title and the bogus quotation are bound to evoke associations which become the subject of minute examination in the novel. Its result turns out to be as astounding as the uncommon aphoristic trap laid for the readers. This article examines the significance of the bogus quotation as a part of the novel’s message and a key to its interpretation.

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Author Biography

Sylwia Wojciechowska, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Sylwia Wojciechowska is a doctoral student in the Department of English Literature, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń. Originally a student of classical philology, she is interested in Greek and Latin reminiscences in contemporary British literature. Her research mainly focuses on the pastoral convention in post-Romantic Anglophone fiction. Her recent article is “Locus amoenus or locus horridus: the Forest of Arden as a Setting in As You Like It,” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia (46/3), 2011.

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