The one vs. the many : minor characters and the space of the protagonist in the novel / Alex Woloch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woloch, Alex, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Characters.

Austen, Jane.

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870--Characters.

Dickens, Charles.

Balzac, Honorâe de, 1799-1850--Characters.

Balzac, Honorâe de.

Sophocles--Characters.

Sophocles.

Homer--Characters.

Homer.

Characters and characteristics in literature.

European fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

European fiction.

Realism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (402 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

One versus the many

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Does a novel focus on one life or many? Alex Woloch uses this simple question to develop a powerful new theory of the realist novel, based on how narratives distribute limited attention among a crowded field of characters. His argument has important implications for both literary studies and narrative theory. Characterization has long been a troubled and neglected problem within literary theory. Through close readings of such novels as Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and Le Père Goriot, Woloch demonstrates that the representation of any character takes place within a shifting field of narrative attention and obscurity. Each individual--whether the central figure or a radically subordinated one--emerges as a character only through his or her distinct and contingent space within the narrative as a whole. The "character-space," as Woloch defines it, marks the dramatic interaction between an implied person and his or her delimited position within a narrative structure. The organization of, and clashes between, many character-spaces within a single narrative totality is essential to the novel's very achievement and concerns, striking at issues central to narrative poetics, the aesthetics of realism, and the dynamics of literary representation. Woloch's discussion of character-space allows for a different history of the novel and a new definition of characterization itself. By making the implied person indispensable to our understanding of literary form, this book offers a forward-looking avenue for contemporary narrative theory.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue. The Iliad's Two Wars

Introduction. Characterization and Distribution

Chapter One. Narrative Asymmetry in Pride and Prejudice

Chapter Two. Making More of Minor Characters

Chapter Three. Partings Welded Together: The Character-System in Great Expectations

Chapter Four. A qui la place?: Characterization and Competition in Le Pére Goriot and La Comédie humaine

Afterword. Sophocles' Oedipus and the Prehistory of the Protagonist

Notes

Works Cited

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-382) and index.

ISBN:

9786612158155

9781282158153

1282158155

9781400825752

140082575X

OCLC:

436059948