
Narratives Unsettled
Digression in Robert Walser, Thomas Bernhard, and Adalbert Stifter
Samuel Frederick(Author)
Northwestern University Press
Published on 30. August 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-8101-2818-7 (ISBN)
Description
In Narratives Unsettled, Samuel Frederick proposes a new conception of narrativity that can accommodate unwieldy, recalcitrant forms of digression. By way of close readings of three distinct German-language writers, Frederick demonstrates that digression, far from being a non- or anti-narrative interruption, contributes to what makes these writers' works fundamentally narrative. The author thus counters several basic assumptions of classical narratology, including the belief-rooted in Aristotle-that a narrative without a plot is a logical impossibility, and that anything deviating from a narrative's purposeful whole is either destructive or insignificant. Frederick's readings of the narrative experiments, utopian moments, and obsessions with the trivial in the works of Walser, Bernhard, and Stifter point to new ways of approaching the ostensibly anti-narrative as a productive element of narrativity. As a work that explores the often neglected crossroads of German studies and postclassical narratology, Narratives Unsettled will be of great interest to scholars in both of these fields, as well as to those working on literature and theory in general.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Evanston
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
2 b/w
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
341 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8101-2818-7 (9780810128187)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
SAMUEL FREDERICK is an associate professor of German at the Pennsylvania State University.