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Thinking the Thinking of Criticism

The ' reading' in Reading Frames in Modern Fiction would appear not to be a verb, but an adjective, telling us what kind of frames are in question: frames infoftfor reading. The verbal form could be intended, though, so we would have a book of instruction on how to read frames. What are frames, at least what are frames in writing or reading? There seems to be no satisfactory answer to this question, but this does not stop Caws from pursuing her book. Her major thesis is simple enough: ' that often, in the most widely read and enduring narratives, certain passages stand out in relief from the flow of the prose and create, in so standing, different expectations and different effects.' There are, that is to say, what she calls 'noticeable passages,' amidst, we must assume, a lot of unnoticeable passages. How can we be sure that the case is as she says? Again because of a simple hypothesis; 'We perceive borders .... ' Now, a whole theoretical disquisition could be built on that last claim; before hinting at the shape it could take, let me add the words that complete the sentence: 'We perceive borders as if signalled by alterations of pattern and architectural, verbal or diegetic clues.' Dare we ask what is the function of the 'as if' in that sentence? But let us consider the problem of perceiving borders, since it is the problem of 'reading frames,' in other words. Why do we perceive borders? Are they perceivable because they are given? or because they are constituted by perception? We might notice that the alternatives we are forced into here are those so fully analysed by