Defining the Hole

When the term "gestalt" came up in class, I immediately thought of the Gestalt principles that I had learned about in psychology last year. In psychology, Gestalt principles refer to the ways in which we perceive what we see. The principles are based on the idea that the parts of whatever our brains are analyzing are what define the whole. Similarly, the literary gestalt acts as the framework for the gestell, or hole, in the story. Just like Gestalt principles are applied to define whatever is being perceived, the literary gestalt is used to define the hole that it surrounds.

One specific Gestalt principle that is especially relevant here is that of closure. The way that we perceive an object such as the ones below is that we first recognize the emergence of a pattern and then our brains construct the rest of the missing details. Thus when we look at the three incomplete circles in figure A, we see a triangle because our brain perceives the three angles and constructs the three sides to go along with the angles.

In much the same way, the literary gestalt acts as the black outline in any of these images; it establishes a clear pattern that helps us define an otherwise indefinable center. The center cannot be recognized without an outline to give it form, just as (as Coetzee tells us) a button hole cannot function without fabric surrounding it to define it as a button hole. Specifically in Foe, Coetzee is able to define the anchoring point of his story (and all other stories) as silence because he constructs characters whose own failed attempts to define that point paradoxically define it anyway. Although Susan and Foe are never able to put words to Friday's story, it is exactly this inability to pin down Friday's silence that gives it substance. By trying again and again to understand the story behind Friday's lost tongue (like by using pictures, making up the story, etc.), Susan and Foe establish a pattern that the reader can then use to define the hole in the story--because the characters continually fail at verbalizing Friday's silence, then the hole comes to represent that silence.

Thus the hole in the story and in the figures above is at once indefinable and only able to be defined by the contents that surround it--its existence, or as Coetzee would say: its substance, is contingent upon the external pattern that gives the hole its form.

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Image is from here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Reification.jpg

Thanks to Prof. Schwartz and the class discussion for inspiring this post!