Satire, comedy and tragedy : Sterne's "Handles" to Tristram Shandy / Richard C. Raymond.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Raymond, Richard C., 1947- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768--Criticism and interpretation.

Sterne, Laurence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 167 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

London, England : Anthem Press, 2024.

Summary:

The first four chapters of the book provide a close reading of the satiric, comic, and tragic action of Laurence Sterne's novel in the context of criticism from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Chapter 5 provides a summary of Chapters 1-4, focusing on Sterne's purpose in revising satiric plot structures and in blurring the lines between fiction and autobiography. Chapters 6-8 then examine Sterne's themes from Tristram Shandy that inform his letters, sermons, and other fiction; Chapter 9 discusses the international reception of Tristram Shandy and argues for using writing-to-learn strategies to teach Sterne's greatest novel to undergraduate and graduate students.

Contents:

Cover

Halftitle Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

1. Walter, Toby, Tristram, and the Reader: Sterne's Revision of "Dullness"

Sterne's Expansion of the Plot of Satire

The Critical Background

Critical Views of Sterne and Their Influence on Readings of Tristram Shandy

A Plan for Analysis of Sterne's Revision of Dullness in Tristram Shandy

2. The Yorick Standard, Walter's Benevolent Dullness, and Tristram's Friends: The Plot of Satire in Tristram Shandy

Dullness and Distortion of Reality

Normative Yorick and His Conflict with Dullness

Beyond the Black Page: Walter's Benevolent Dullness

The Sometimes-Self-Conscious Narrator and His Reader: Sterne's Purpose in Revising Dullness

3. "True Shandeism": The Unhappy Comic Action in Tristram Shandy

Laughing and Giving: Yorick and the Comic Spirit

The Resurrection of Yorick: Tristram's Contrast of Dullness and Benevolent Dullness

Tristram's Comic Conflict with Dullness in and beyond the Family

The Unhappy Ending of Toby's Comic "Siege"

4. Isolation and Death: The Tragic Undertones of Shandean Benevolent Dullness

Eugenius' Tragic Friend

Domestic Tragedy: The Isolation of Walter and Toby

"The Work Itself": Tristram's Dance with Death

5. Benevolent Dullness, Ambiguity, and the Reader: Modal Complexity and the Plots of Tristram Shandy

Dullness versus Benevolence: Public and Private Conflicts

Ambiguity and Sterne's Purpose in Revising Traditional Modes of Dullness

Laughter and "Self-Creation": The Reader and the Surrogate Reader

"So What?" Why This Study of Generic Plots in Tristram Shandy Matters

6. Laurence Sterne's Letters

Sterne's Epistolary Rebukes of Moralistic Dullness

Resisting Death, Fostering Friendship

Marital Tension and Separation.

Sterne's Love Letters: The Rake, the Father, and the Pastor

Letters and Fiction on Finding Joy in the Pain

7. The Shandean Sermons of Parson Sterne

Sermons on "Kindred Virtues" and the Folly of Dullness

"True Shandeism": Parson Sterne's Challenge to Moralists

Religion as Joy and Mouring

8. Parson Yorick in A Sentimental Journey and in A Continuation of Bramine's Journal

A Sentimental Journey

Yorick's Sentimentality

Yorick's Deeper Sentiment

Yorick's Reflections on Overcoming Dullness

Continuation of Brahmine's Journal

Letters to a New Mrs. Sterne?

Confessional Letters from the Bawdy Prelate

Letters on Spiritual Healing

9. The International Perspective on Tristram Shandy and the Argument for Using Writing- to-Learn Strategies to Teach Sterne's Globally Significant Novel

The International Influence of Tristram Shandy and Sterne's International Influencers

Pedagogical Scholarship on Tristram Shandy

Samples of Post-Modern Approaches to Teaching Tristram Shandy

Samples of Contextual and Structural Approaches to Teaching Tristram Shandy

Final Reflections on Sterne's Dull Novel

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Mar 2024).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781839988653

1839988657

9781839988646

1839988649

OCLC:

1396699141