Abstract: In this dialogue, we read Louise Erdrich's The Sentence and Ali Smith's Companion Piece as modeling two ways of plotting the pandemic: as an artifact and as a portal, respectively. We argue that Erdrich and Smith utilize these two models to present the pandemic as predominantly a site of interpretation and train their reader so that they, too, can come to scrutinize the pandemic as a narrative event. Together, we suggest The Sentence and Companion Piece open possibilities for ongoing interpretive engagement precisely where we might otherwise think the pandemic forecloses it.
Boyd et al. (Mon,) studied this question.