What is it about?
This paper examines the way in which the narrative style in the beginning of a narrative may (or may not) imply a generic frame. Specific attention is given to cues of realism in the openings of nineteenth-century European novels.
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Why is it important?
This article argues that certain influential narrative theories have over-emphasized the generic implications of the novel's beginning, but that kinds of openings can be typical of a particular literary genre in a given time period. Thus, the article proposes a research plan for a historical study of narrative beginnings. Paul Valéry’s famous mock-novelistic beginning “The marquise went out at 5 o'clock” is used as a point of reference in the discussion, and the article offers an interpretation of the many implications of this parody.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great pleasure since it allowed me to look at the beginnings of my favorite nineteenth-century novels from a new angle and, moreover, to focus on the relationship between a text's formal and rhetorical qualities and the reader's expectations.
Kai Mikkonen
Helsingin Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “The marquise went out at 5 o’clock”: Novel beginnings and realistic expectations, Frontiers of Narrative Studies, July 2020, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/fns-2020-0002.
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