Tristram Shandy as an Anti-Novel
Tristram Shandy: An Anti-Novel
Laurence Sterne’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, was published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1766. The text is suggested to be the autobiography of Tristram Shandy, as the title proposes, but the most of the events of the book occur even before Tristram is born. In fact the event of Tristram’s birth, which is first introduced in the very first chapter does not finally occur until Volume IV. The novel largely concerns itself with events and personages from before the author’s birth. Sterne’s text is often called radical as it experiments with the novel form and deviates from the given norms, thus establishing itself as an anti-novel.
Ian Watt, in his book The Rise of The Novel (1957) suggests that the novel came into being in the eighteenth century. Watt’s book focuses on three novelists of the eighteenth century, includes Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson and through their works he tries to establish how the novel as a form developed. Watt’s thesis is that rise of middle class, rise of literacy, rise of the novel were all are bound up together strongly, as to be inseparable and mutually inclusive. Watt’s argument is that the novel as a new form developed through the emphasis placed on realism by the eighteenth century novelists.
However, other critics such as Margaret Anne Doody argue that the novel as a genre has a continuous and comprehensive history which is over two thousand years old. It has historical roots in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, and in the tradition of the novella. Don Quixote, first published in 1605, written by Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes is considered the first significant European novel by most. Terry Eagleton, in his book, ‘The English Novel an Introduction’ disagrees to this and says Don Quixote is less about the origin of the genre than a novel about the origin of the novel.
The eighteenth century novel is primarily
Laurence Sterne’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, was published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1766. The text is suggested to be the autobiography of Tristram Shandy, as the title proposes, but the most of the events of the book occur even before Tristram is born. In fact the event of Tristram’s birth, which is first introduced in the very first chapter does not finally occur until Volume IV. The novel largely concerns itself with events and personages from before the author’s birth. Sterne’s text is often called radical as it experiments with the novel form and deviates from the given norms, thus establishing itself as an anti-novel.
Ian Watt, in his book The Rise of The Novel (1957) suggests that the novel came into being in the eighteenth century. Watt’s book focuses on three novelists of the eighteenth century, includes Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson and through their works he tries to establish how the novel as a form developed. Watt’s thesis is that rise of middle class, rise of literacy, rise of the novel were all are bound up together strongly, as to be inseparable and mutually inclusive. Watt’s argument is that the novel as a new form developed through the emphasis placed on realism by the eighteenth century novelists.
However, other critics such as Margaret Anne Doody argue that the novel as a genre has a continuous and comprehensive history which is over two thousand years old. It has historical roots in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, and in the tradition of the novella. Don Quixote, first published in 1605, written by Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes is considered the first significant European novel by most. Terry Eagleton, in his book, ‘The English Novel an Introduction’ disagrees to this and says Don Quixote is less about the origin of the genre than a novel about the origin of the novel.
The eighteenth century novel is primarily