On the Theory of Prose
Published on 14. November 2023
220 pages
978-1-62897-436-2 (ISBN)
Description
As time has proven, Theory of Prose still remains one of the twentieth century's most significant works of literary theory.
It not only anticipates structuralism and poststructuralism, but poses questions about the nature of fiction that are as provocative today as they were in the 1920s. Founded on the concept of "making strange," it lays bare the inner workings of fiction-especially the works of Cervantes, Tolstoy, Sterne, Dickens, Bely and Rozanov-and imparts a new way of seeing, of reading, and of interacting with the world.
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Persons
Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) was a leading figure in the Russian Formalist movement of the 1920s and had a profound effect on twentieth-century Russian literature. Several of his books have been translated into English and are available from Dalkey Archive Press, including Zoo, or Letters Not about Love, Third Factory, A Sentimental Journey, Energy of Delusion, Literature and Cinematography, and Bowstring.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Table of Contents
- Translator's Note
- Acknowledgments
- On the Theory of Prose
- Foreword
- Art as Device
- The Connection Between Devices of Plot Construction and General Devices of Style
- On the Ethnographic School
- On Motifs
- Stepped Structure and Deferment
- Motivations for Deferment
- Framing as a Device of Deferment
- The Structure of the Story and the Novel
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- How Don Quixote Is Made
- Don Quixote's Speeches
- Inset Stories in Don Quixote
- The Mystery Story
- The Mystery Novel
- Story Built on a Mistake
- Story Built on a Parallelism
- The Mystery Novel
- Little Dorrit
- 1. The Mystery of the Watch
- 2. The Mystery of the Dreams
- 3. The Mystery of the Inheritance
- 4. The Mystery of Mr. Merdle
- 5. The Mystery of the Noises in the House
- 6. Denouements
- Connection Between Parallels as a Mystery
- The Parody Novel
- Sterne's Tristram Shandy
- Ornamental Prose
- Andrei Bely
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- Literature Without Plot
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- Sketch and Anecdote
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Appendix III
- Afterword: Destinations, by Lyn Hejinian
- Back Cover
