Singular Narrative Techniques In Tristram Shandy

This thesis is an exploration of some modern narrative features inTristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. It elaborates on four major narrativetypes: digression; reflexive narrative; plot of conspiracy; intertexual narrative.It is these four features that construct the singularity of its narrative technique.The purpose of this thesis is to show the modern nature of the narrative inTristram Shandy, a novel written more than two hundred years ago, which hasraised endless controversies in critical field and which has undergone a lot ofcensure as well as praise for its oddity and originality.Mark Loveridge once comments in his Laurence Sterne and theArgument about Design (Design), " Every accurate criticism of Sterne is aformalist criticism.", which emphasizes the analysis of the form on TristramShandy. However, instead of merely describing the novel, we must also payattention to the interpretation of it, taking into account of the background ofthe text, for though "form is meaning", a novel is always structured to reflectcertain intrinsic aspects worthy of a close attention.To extend the description and explanation in this thesis, the authormainly draws on the theories and ideas by William Bowman Piper, MarkLoveridge, Jonathan Lamb, Jeffery J. Williams and Peter M. Briggs.In Piper's view, the digression in Tristram Shandy makes the work progress rather than impede it. Sterne is, in fact, deliberate in constructing aunique world of his novel, in which hidden many powers not easy to bediscerned, with reflexive narration as one of them. According to Williams'theory on narrative of reflexive plot, the apparently irregular structure of thenovel is actually in good order, for the plot in Tristram Shandy, if taken as awhole, is nothing but Tristram's narrative, called narrative of narrative.Hidden in an intrigue way in the novel, with a loose construction on thesurface, the plot as it appears in the novel contains some stronger powerbeneath, as Loveridge holds. The effect is achieved by the use of persistentanalogies and metaphors. Likewise, imitation is also exploited in this thesis touncover some grander senses in the novel.