Experimental literature
Encyclopedia : E : EX : EXP : Experimental literature
| History of Literature
|
|---|
| Early Literature |
| Early Indian literature |
| Indian literature * Sanskrit literature |
| Chinese literature |
| Greek literature |
| Latin literature |
| Persian literature |
| Pahlavi literature * Persian literature |
| The Medieval Period |
| Matter of Rome * Matter of France * Matter of Britain * Medieval literature * Arabic literature * 13th century in literature * 14th century in literature |
| European Renaissance Literature |
| European Renaissance Literature * 15th century in literature |
| The early modern period |
| 16th century in literature * 17th century in literature |
| European literature in the 18th century |
| 1700s * 1710s * 1720s * 1730s * 1740s * 1750s * 1760s * 1770s * 1780s * 1790s * 1900s |
| Modern Literature, 19th century |
| 1800s * 1810s * 1820s * 1830s * 1840s * 1850s * 1860s * 1870s * 1880s * 1890s * 1900s |
| Modern Literature, 20th century |
| Modernism |
| Structuralism * Deconstruction * Poststructuralism * Postmodernism * Post-Colonialism * Hypertext fiction |
| 1900s * 1910s * 1920s * 1930s * 1940s * 1950s * 1960s * 1970s * 1980s * 1990s * 2000s |
| Modern Literature in Europe |
| Modern Literature in the Americas |
| Argentine literature * * Canadian literature * * * * Mexican literature * * Literature of the United States |
| Australasian Literature |
| Australian literature * New Zealand literature |
| Modern Asian Literature |
| Pakistani literature * Tamil literature * Hindi literature * Urdu literature * Indian writing in English * Bengali literature * Marathi literature * Malayalam literature * Japanese literature * Vietnamese literature |
| African Literature |
| South African literature |
| Other topics |
| History of theater * History of science fiction * History of ideas * Intellectual history * |
An experimental novel is a novel that places great emphasis on innovations regarding style and technique.
Early History
The first text generally cited in this category is Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. This extraordinary text "pre-breaks" most of the "rules" that would be subsequently advanced for the writing of fiction.As a "life story" Tristram Shandy is utterly impractical, spending the first half on trying to have the titular hero be born, and on utterly irrelevant digressions about the narrator's father, his Uncle Toby, and anybody else within range of the narrative. Suddenly the narrative leaps forward by decades, and the narrator is seen near the end of his life, riding a coach at breakneck speed across France, trying to escape Death.
In its postmodern approach to narrative, and its willingness to use such graphic elements as an all-black page (for mourning) and a page of marbled end-paper within the text, Sterne's novel is a foundational text for many post-World War II authors. But alongside the experimental novel, critical attacks on the experimental novel are also to be found at this early period. Samuel Johnson, for instance, is quoted in Boswell as saying "The merely odd does not last. Sterne did not last."
Almost as early is Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist and His Master.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.