From its first appearance in 1759, Laurence Sterne’s comic masterpiece reveals its parodic nature by subverting the typical conventions of the novel as a genre (Folkenflik, 2009). From its very title, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman mocks the usual denomination of “Life and Adventures”, which had become the standard way of presenting a narrative since the successful appearance of The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719). By subtly recasting the hackneyed formula, Sterne shifts the reader’s attention from outside to inside: from the factual, objective level of events and actions to the inner dimension of subjective opinions and emotions (Keymer, 2006). Furthermore, the purpose of the title is
This traditional form of narrative writing appears to reflect a well-known type of paradigmatic structure, brilliantly discussed by Frank Kermode in his book The Sense of an Ending (1967).
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the ways in which The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, with its very peculiar writing style, opposes the conventional linear progression towards an ending, by emphasizing what could be called “the sense of a beginning”. Indeed, there are more than one beginning in Tristram Shandy. The following analysis aims to show the crucial passages that reveal, throughout the novel, this fundamental insight about the significance of a continuously renewed
From this perspective, Tristram’s metanarrative underlines the general necessity of telling the story of one’s life in order to achieve self-awareness through the knowledge and acceptance of the past. The process of arranging and reworking former events, shaping them into a compelling though fragmentary story, can lead to a plausible construction and understanding of the self. It is not without reason that the greatest part of Sterne’s novel is devoted to describing in detail all the disasters of Tristram’s first years: his interrupted conception, his adventurous birth, the choice of his name, his bungled christening, the accident with the sash-window that circumcises him (Harries, 2009). Furthermore, the narration of these events is literally interwoven with the voices of the Shandy family, and the narrator is called upon to interpret them, acknowledging the absolute singularity and otherness of each
Rochette-Crawley, S. (2004) James T. Farrell. The Literary Encyclopedia. April 2, 2004. Retrieved on May 13, 2009 from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1487
The contemporary reviewers of Bleak House fall into two categories when discussing its structure. There are those who like it and there are those who do not. More specifically, those who dislike the novel’s construction complain of the absence of plot and lack of connection between characters and their actions. Opposing this view are the reviewers who find the characters in Bleak House remarkably intertwined in the story, especially since it was written as a series for a literary magazine.
One of the first instances of intertwining fates is at the beginning of the novel when the narrator is a junior in college. His temporary identity in this case is that of a southern college student. T...
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Laurence Sternes’ “Tristam Shandy”, specifically volume 1 ch: 12, holds patronage to sentimentality through a compilation of juxtaposing emotions that are exchanged between the two characters Yorick, and Eugenius. This exchange moving towards the climatic moment in the chapter where Parson Yorick’s is murdered by the ambiguous debtors who desired revenge for his sallies. However, the chapter in entirety is expressed in a particular manner. Since the time-span of the chapter itself is short, and spontaneous. In effect, I will analyze volume 1, chapter 12 of “Tristam Shandy”, put emphasis to the literary innuendoes and (half-)ironic moments expressed through the exchange of dialogue. For chapter 12 sets Yorick and Eugenius as binaries (or foils)
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
In the story, the narrator is forced to tell her story through a secret correspondence with the reader since her husband forbids her to write and would “meet [her] with heavy opposition” should he find her doing so (390). The woman’s secret correspondence with the reader is yet another example of the limited viewpoint, for no one else is ever around to comment or give their thoughts on what is occurring. The limited perspective the reader sees through her narration plays an essential role in helping the reader understand the theme by showing the woman’s place in the world. At ...
...ing, not literary genres, which belong to the broader mode of fictional writing. In the same way, meta-metafiction belongs to the broader mode of metafictional writing. These modes of writing are not mutually exclusive to each other, but indicate different degrees of self-reflexivity that can be simultaneously present within the same text. In order to shift from one degree of self-reflexivity to another, the text alternately exposes and conceals the frames of reference—the literary structures—that organise the reader’s experience and interpretation of fictional texts. These frames can range from literary conventions such as the “happily ever after” ending in a fairy tale, to narrative techniques such as stream of consciousness narration in modernist novels like Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), to the framing device of stories within stories in metafiction.
Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing”. Ed. Edgar V.Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5th Compact ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 914-26. Print.
Pyle, Fitzroy. The Winter's Tale: A Commentary on the Structure. New York: Routledge & Paul, 1969.
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.
In the simplest form, there is a basic structural pattern to narratives, as expressed through Tzvetan Todorov’s explanation of narrative movement between two equilibriums. A narrative begins in a stable position until something causes disequilibrium, however, by the end of the story, the equilibrium is re-established, though it is different than the beginning (O’Shaughnessy 1999: 268). Joseph Cam...
·Author unknown. "Metafiction." The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Publication Date Unknown. original date unknown. 29-October-2003. <http:// www2.gvsu.edu>
Arp, Thomas R., Greg Johnson, and Laurence Perrine. Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 11th ed. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 807. Print.
Tridib receives conflicting feedback from the people in his life about his identity, resulting in internal incoherence. Ghosh portrays how the narrator and the grandmother disagree about whether Tridib can be considered a success. The narrator perceives Tridib as a creative heroic figure, who is a source of information about the world. In contrast, the grandmother perceives Tridib as a passive unsuccessful failure. The narrator views Tridib as a heroic figure because he admires Tridib’s active imagination. From Tridib, he learns that, “a place does not merely exist, that it has to be invented in one’s imagination” (21). Tridib is an active agent in constructing his perception of the world. He realizes that imagination provides the means for framing perception. The narrator has an extremely vivid memory of the past as a result of Tridib’s influence. He recalls, “I could not forget because Tridib had given me worlds to travel in and he had given me eyes to see...