Literature and Becoming in the Classroom: The Epiphany of Knowing in Stoner (1965), by John Williams

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of the transformation process faced by the character William Stoner, the protagonist of Stoner (1965), by John Williams, based on his disturbing contact with Literature at university. Born under the impositions of work in his family's farm, Stoner sees in the opportunity of studying Agricultural Sciences a way of providing a better future for his parents. However, the discovery of Literature, through a decisive encounter with Professor Archer Sloane, restructures the character's trajectory, leading him to a new perception of reality, no longer marked by the utilitarianism that alienated him from the enjoyment of life. In light of Paulo Freire's conception of educação libertadora (1985), in which the act of asking questions establishes a community construction of knowledge, and Antonio Candido's (1988) view of Literature as an experience that is far from being "harmless", we seek to examine the moment of Stoner's transformation in the novel: the reading of Shakespeare's sonnet 73 in class, and Sloane's questioning, which will make Stoner discover the existence of something – a kind of key – that can be achieved to give meaning to Literature and, by extension, to life.