Openings - Narrative Beginnings From the Epic to the Novel

Zusatztext Nuttall makes useful incidental points about each text he discusses. Klappentext What is the difference between a natural beginning and the beginning of a story? Some deny that there are any beginnings in nature, except perhaps for the origin of the universe itself, suggesting that elsewhere we have only a continuum of events, into which beginnings are variously 'read' by different societies. This book argues that history is full of real beginnings but that poets and novelists are indeed free to begin their stories wherever they like. The ancient poet Homer laid down a rule for his successors when he began his epic by plunging in medias res, 'into the midst of things'. The inspiring Muse of epic gives way to the poet's ego, dies, revives and dies again. Later writers, however, persistently play off the 'interventionist', in medias res opening against some sense of a 'deep', natural beginning: Genesis or the birth of a child. Ranging from Greek and Roman epic to the modern novel via Dante, Milton, Wordsworth, Sterne, and Dickens, A. D. Nuttall has written an ambitious and original book which will be of interest to a wide variety of readers. Zusammenfassung A study of the way poets and novelists begin their stories, ranging from Greek and Roman epic to the modern novel via Dante, Milton, Wordsworth, Sterne and Dickens - from Homer's plunging "in medias res" to the sense of a "deep", natural beginning of later writers.

Product details

• Authors: A D Nuttall, A. D. Nuttall, A. D. (Professor of English Literature Nuttall, Late A. D. Nuttall, The late A. D. Nuttall, Nuttall A. D.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 02.04.1992
• EAN: 9780198117414
• ISBN: 978-0-19-811741-4
• No. of pages: 266
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; LITERARY CRITICISM / General, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Semantics, Literary studies: general, Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics, Semantics, discourse analysis, etc