suspension of knowledge...

[jargon_dudette]

my beloved teachers,
can you tell me more about SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF? and can we say that Fall of House of Usher used this lit. technique? what other literary work used this and by whom?

[bianca]

You can see this 'suspension of disbelief' in children - they would believe almost everything, their world is a fictive, an imaginary one. And this is due to their innocence and creative mind. This literary device, or technique is a poetic one and meant to appeal to our innocence, imagination and creativity. Getting us to cross boundaries between realism and fantasy, and detach us from our world, is really powerful. You have probably seen science fiction movies, read fairy-tales, gothic stories, fantasy writing (Tolkien's: The Fellowship of the Ring...) Shakespeare's live plays are immersed by this technique.


'Suspension of disbelief' reminds of literary styles such as 'magic realism', a genre originating in Latin America that combines fantastic or dreamlike elements with realism. The difference between the two is that the latter is set in a normal, modern world with authentic descriptions of humans and society, while the former is pure (childish) fantasy.

[jargon_dudette]

i NEED MORE INFO. AGAIN, WAS IT USED IN POE'S FALL OF TH HOUSE OF USHER?

[bianca]

Yes, of course. I gave you plenty of details above (gothic stories use this technique, for instance) to make you deduce the answer to your own question. Sometimes it is best to think a little by yourself with a little help, than receive the answer right off. This forum is not exactly an 'answers-r-us'. But, since you couldn't figure out the answer, maybe my comment was in vain.

In "The Fall of the House of Usher", the overall eerie feeling in the story, the irredeemable gloom hanging over and pervading it gives you the creeps, right? That means that you have suspended your disbelief in the surrealism of the story, and are drawn into it. Here you go...