"Soft Filters": Some Sunshine on "Cat in the Rain".(Critical Essay)

David Herman introduces his collection Narratologies with a citation from David Lodge's essay on Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain." Lodge's essay posed a question of continuing relevance, namely, can narratology help readers achieve more refined interpretations? Contemporary narratology, as represented in Herman's book, seems to reverse the issue, arguing that interpretations, variable as they may be, play an important role in narrative analysis, not only in determining plots, characters, and setting, but also in shaping our understanding of the discourse itself. When we say, for…