Seeing, Hearing, and Knowing in 'The House of Fame'

Description: Though the first two sections of HF abound in expressions of personal experience--"I saw," "I heard"--the pattern of use and the shaping force of art and science undermine the trustworthiness of appearance. The switch to third-person narrative in the description of Fame in bk. 3 and the unmediated experience of sound and sight in the presence of Rumour represent direct visions, but the absence of a frame that would impose coherence makes this knowledge no more trustworthy.; "The lack of conclusion 'is' the meaning of a work...(about) the varied ways of knowing" (p. 55).