The sense of a beginning : theory of the literary opening / Niels Buch Leander.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buch Leander, Niels, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--Philosophy.

Literature.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

195 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Copenhagen : Museum Tusculanum Press, [2018]

Summary:

The Sense of a Beginning is the first comprehensive exploration of the literary opening. With a title that deliberately echoes Frank Kermode's famous book on endings, the book addresses the formal challenge of opening lines, especially in modernism, and illustrates their significance to both literary creation and literary criticism. Niels Buch Leander's approach is wide-ranging, examining how beginnings in fiction relate to beginnings in nature, how they work from a formal and narrative point of view, how modernist self-awareness plays out in openings, and how openings have altered criticism itself through intertextuality. Drawing on examples from D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Paul Valery, and more, as well as appraisals by critics like Roland Barthes and Edward Said, Leander fills a truly surprising gap in literary scholarship.

Contents:

Prologue: How To Begin

Chapter 1 To Begin With The Beginning: A Cosmology Of Openings

The Ambiguity of Genesis

The Combinational Cabala: Mode of Creation vs. Mode of Beginning

The Relation between Literary Openings and Cosmologies

The Natural Beginning and the Authority of the Literary Opening

The Infinite Regress of the Beginning

Differentiating Origins from Beginnings

Beginnings and the Human Sciences

The Make-Believe of a Beginning

Birth and the Complication of the Natural Beginning

Conclusion: The Beginning of a Story Is the Story of a Beginning

Chapter 2 Initiating The Contract Of Fiction: A Theory Of Openings

The Bait and the Performativity of Literary Openings

Homodiegetic Narration

Heterodiegetic Narration

The Literary Act and the Contract of Fiction

The Taxonomy of Openings

Exceptions to the Five Signals

Demarcation of the Opening

When Is an Opening "Abrupt"?: Understanding in medias res Correctly

Perspectival Abruptness: The "Painful" Beginning

Towards the Conclusion: The Opening as the Key to the Work

Conclusion: Is Literature "Cooperative"?

Chapter 3 Beginnings And Modernity: A History Of Openings

Opening vs. Endings

Death and the Desire for Finality

Modernism and its Urge for Self-Definition

Intertextuality and the Critical Challenge of Modernism

Barthes's Beginnings: Where to Begin?

Refusal of the Beginning: Modernist Critics Make Literature Modernist

Said's Beginnings: The Elusive Opening

Conclusion: Modernism as a Shift in the Communicative Model

Chapter 4 Intertextuality Of The Novelistic Opening: A Practice Of Openings

Paul Valery's Opening and the Disappearance of the Marquise

Valery, Breton, and the Arbitrarity of the Novel

The Illusory Origin of the Story

The Opening and the Renewal of the Novel

The Anti-Naturalist Opening from Huysmans to Queneau

EPILOGUE: BEGINNING WITHOUT END?

Openings as Relations to Conventions

French vs. American criticism

Criticism and the Opening as "Epitaph"

A Final Word about Conventions and Cooperative Literature

APPENDIX: APPROACHING THE TEXT: A CRITICISM OF OPENINGS

Greek Reason and Natural Beginnings

Pre-Modern Creation and the Incipit

1850

1920: Modern Provocation and the Potential of Beginnings

1960s: The Beginnings of the Criticism of Openings

1970s: French Structuralism and the Open Poetics

1970s: Structuralism a l'americaine

1970s: American Endings

1980s: The Breakthrough of Narratology

1990s: Genetic Studies and the Fragile Opening

1990s: Openings and the Insight into History

1990s: Diversion with Openings: Pedagogy and Memorization

2000s: Openings and the Metaphor of the Millennium

2010s: Openings in the Era of Computers

Structuring Critical Approaches to Openings

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9788763543866

8763543869

OCLC:

967843338

Publisher Number:

99980263836