Theory of Prose"Viktor Shklovsky's 1925 book Theory of Prose might have become the most important work of literary criticism in the twentieth century had not two obstacles barred its way: the crackdown by the Soviet dictatorship on Shklovsky and other Russian Formalists in the 1930s, and the unavailability of an English translation. Now translated in its entirety for the first time, Theory of Prose not only anticipates structuralism and post-structuralism, but poses questions about the nature of fiction that are as provocative today as they were in the 1920s. Arguing that writers structure their material according to artistic principles rather than from attempts to imitate "reality," Shklovsky uses Cervantes, Tolstoi, Sterne, Dickens, Bely, and Rozanov to give us a new way of thinking about fiction and, in his most impassioned moments, about the world. Benjamin Sher's lucid translation will allow Shklovsky's Theory of Prose to fulfill its destiny as a major theoretical work of the twentieth century." from back cover. |
Contents
Art as Device | 1 |
The Relationship between Devices of Plot | 15 |
The Structure of Fiction | 52 |
The Making of Don Quixote | 72 |
Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery Story | 101 |
Dickens and the Mystery Novel | 117 |
Common terms and phrases
action adventure novel Affery already Andrei Bely anecdote anthroposophy artistic Bely's Blok bylina called canon Cardenio Cervantes chap chapter character Chekhov Clennam Conan concerning death denouement device Dickens digressions Don Quixote dream enstrangement episode example excerpt fact false resolution father fire Flintwinch framing story genre hand hero inset introduced Ivan Ivan Tsarevich Kholstomer Kotik Letaev language legend leitmotivs Leo Tolstoi literary literature Little Dorrit look material means mother motif motivation mystery novel never night object Pancks parallel peripeteia play plot lines plot structure poetic poetry protagonists Pushkin Quixote's relationship represents riddle Rigaud role Rozanov Russian Sancho Sancho Panza secret Shandy Sherlock Holmes Shklovsky Shklovsky's song speaking speech Sterne Sterne's story line swarm tale tell theme thing tion Tolstoi Tristram Shandy turn uncle Toby Veselovsky VIKTOR SHKLOVSKY wife woman words writer young