To understand the place of the huma

To understand the place of the human body within theories of narrative character, we must first define what we can call the normal science of narrative character. That is, how have narratologists usually approached characterization, and what are their primary assumptions about character? We learn a great deal about the presentation and use of character traits in a narrative in W.J. Harvey’s classic study, Character and the Novel (1965). Although Harvey’s study seems dated in places—his principle polemic is against New Criticism’s lack of interest in character—it provides us with a rare effort at theorizing precisely those ideas about character that we take for granted in most interpretive work. Harvey’s overall definition of character uses the commonplace image of a “web” of human relationships: