Narrativity and the Case against Contradiction

Abstract This chapter focuses on the single concept which seems crucially instrumental to both deconstructors and Marxists in their interpretative efforts. This concept is basically that of contradiction. In the deconstructive case, the critics in question produce both their own formulations, such as ‘double logics’ or ‘self-deconstruction’, and their own definitions to deal with the problem, and the author's own critique is based on these formulations and definitions. Nevertheless, both categories of critic claim that from a certain angle of analysis many or even most narratives will be logically incoherent in their internal organization. The chapter concentrates on the work of two influential critics of a Marxist persuasion, Terry Eagleton and Pierre Macherey. The critique has a dual aspect. It seeks to question the way in which the concept of contradiction is applied by Eagleton and Macherey, and in doing so it seeks to advance an opposing theoretical approach based on the concept of a logic of narrativity.