Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of essays studies the encounter between allegedly ahistorical concepts of narrative and eighteenth-century literature from across Europe. At issue is the question of whether the theoretical concepts underpinning narratology are, despite their appearance of ahistorical generality, actually derived from the historical study of a particular period and type of literature. The essays take on aspects of eighteenth-century texts such as plot, genre, character, perspective, temporality, and more, coming at them from both a narratological and a historical perspective.
Table of ContentsLiisa Steinby and Aino Mäkikalli (University of Turku) Introduction: The Place of Narratology in the Historical Study of Eighteenth-Century Literature Michael McKeon (Rutgers University) The Eighteenth-Century Challenge to Narrative Theory John Richetti (University of Pennsylvania) Formalism and Historicity Reconciled in Henry Fielding's Tom Jones Monika Fludernik (University of Freiburg) Perspective and Focalization in Eighteenth-Century Descriptions Aino Mäkikalli (University of Turku) Temporality in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe Liisa Steinby (University of Turku) Temporality, Subjectivity and the Representation of Characters in the Eighteenth-Century Novel: From Defoe's Moll Flanders to Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre Dorothee Birke (University of Freiburg) Authorial Narration Reconsidered: Eliza Haywood's Betsy Thoughtless, Anonymous's Charlotte Summers, and the Problem of Authority in the Mid-Eighteenth-Century Novel Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo) Problems of Tellability in German Eighteenth-Century Criticism and Novel-Writing Claudia Nitschke (University of Durham) Immediacy: The Function of Embedded Narratives in Wieland's Don Sylvio Christine Waldschmidt (University of Mainz) The Tension between Idea and Narrative Form: The Example as a Narrative Structure in Enlightenment Literature Penny Pritchard (University of Hertfordshire) 'Speaking Well of the Dead': Characterization in the Early Modern Funeral Sermon Pat Rogers (University of South Florida) The Use of Paratext in Popular Eighteenth-Century Biography: The Case of Edmund Curll Teemu Ikonen (University of Tampere) Peritextual Disposition in French Eighteenth-Century Narratives
