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The Narratology of Observation
Studies in a Technique of European Literary Realism
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Martin Wagner
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2019
About this book
How does literature evoke reality? This book takes cues from the history of scientific observation to provide a new approach to this longstanding question of literary studies. It reconstructs a narrative technique of ‘literary’ observation in which reality appears by mimicking processes of visual perception, and it traces the functioning of this technique through a wide range of European fiction from the early 18th to the late 19th centuries.
Author / Editor information
How can literature show us a world that appears 'real'?
The basic premise of this book is that literature, in order to achieve this goal, has to emulate the way we experience the world visually, bringing curious objects to our attention and showing us how these objects develop over time. In terms of narratology, this means that literature must find ways to combine a vivid description of new images with a narrative in which these images are set in motion. This book thus moves beyond established approaches that associate realism’s visuality with description alone to argue that the imitation of visual perception is the product precisely of the combination of description with narration – a technique introduced here as literary observation. Through readings of European fiction from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries, this book explores how this technique is supported – and complicated – by a range of cultural and literary expectations.
Combining recent work in the history of knowledge with traditional questions of literary theory, The Narratology of Observation expands the conceptual vocabulary for analyzing fiction and offers new insights into the study of European realism.
The basic premise of this book is that literature, in order to achieve this goal, has to emulate the way we experience the world visually, bringing curious objects to our attention and showing us how these objects develop over time. In terms of narratology, this means that literature must find ways to combine a vivid description of new images with a narrative in which these images are set in motion. This book thus moves beyond established approaches that associate realism’s visuality with description alone to argue that the imitation of visual perception is the product precisely of the combination of description with narration – a technique introduced here as literary observation. Through readings of European fiction from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries, this book explores how this technique is supported – and complicated – by a range of cultural and literary expectations.
Combining recent work in the history of knowledge with traditional questions of literary theory, The Narratology of Observation expands the conceptual vocabulary for analyzing fiction and offers new insights into the study of European realism.
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Frontmatter
I -
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Acknowledgments
V -
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Contents
VII -
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Table of Figures
IX -
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Introduction
1 -
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Chapter 1: Description and Narration
32 -
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Chapter 2: Before Observation (Le Diable boiteux)
57 -
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Chapter 3: Observation (Les Nuits de Paris)
81 -
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Chapter 4: Failing Observations
101 -
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Chapter 5: Another Form of Observation? (Sherlock Holmes)
143 -
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Conclusion: Literary Observation after 1900
165 -
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Bibliography
173 -
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Index
182
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 5, 2018
eBook ISBN:
9783110594348
Hardcover published on:
November 5, 2018
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110595185
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
9
Main content:
183
Illustrations:
13
Keywords for this book
Observation; description and narration; literary realism; literature and knowledge
Audience(s) for this book
Scholars of Literary studies, comparative literature, German, French and English studies.
Safety & product resources
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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
