Minds made up: Conviction in fiction and the narrative theory of tolerance

This dissertation argues that self-conscious participation in narrative exchanges leads to toleration. Turning to the novel as a laboratory wherein relationships between narrative and ideology can be best examined, I show that whereas narrative strategies that pit one story against another often fail to transcend adversarial intransigence, more mutualistic, inclusive tactics use narrative to subvert ideology from within. I start with an introduction that defines tolerance psychologically (as an attitude) and then posits a role for narrative in producing the mental changes necessary to overcoming intolerance. Next, I read Don Quijote as the tale of an ideologue whose convictions are ultimately unmade by his creative collaboration in storymaking. Chapter 3 analyzes Samuel Richardson's Pamela and Denis Diderot's Jacques le fataliste to posit a "dissident force" in narrative that draws opponents (even against their wishes) into dialogic relationships. Chapter 4 treats Benito Perez Galdos' Dona Perfecta as a critique of liberal intolerance, and explores in detail the failings of an adversarial narrative strategy. In Chapter 5, I present Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses as a model of open narration, and show that the despite the adversarialism of the "Rushdie Affair," the novel's subversive power is inclusive rather than exclusive. Chapter 6 concludes by suggesting some practical implications of the theories developed throughout the dissertation, first, by reading the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" as a site of mutualistic narrative exchanges, and second, by critiquing the comparatively adversarial strategies used to exclude Hamas and similar "terrorist" groups from negotiations.