Doctoral thesis : Arts : Duisburg, Gerhard-Mercator Universität : 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 161-175. Index.

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The usefulness of a detailed examination of the fictional world of a novel is demonstrated in a study of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.Analysis of the fictional world of Tristram Shandy, reveals a binary world which is created by the novel's narrative technique. Distinct outlines of the two fictional worlds of Tristram (TW) and the Shandy Brothers (SBW) can be established, and-the examination of these worlds provides new insights for explicating the structure, coherence, unity, and completeness of Sterne's novel.The duality of fictional worlds in the novel is not merely the reflection of movement between the two time frames of Tristram's present and his past. There are distinguishing differences not only of time, characters, and events, but also of place and quality of experience. As one views these worlds alternately but consistently throughout the novel, the bifocal perspective which emerges creates the depth perception necessary not only to see Tristram as he is, but also to comprehend a composite universe in which the attitudes, conflicts, and complications of the present world of Tristramn both mirror and complement those of the world of the Shandy family.Just as the juxtaposition of two fictional worlds augments the reader's perception of Tristram's character, life, and opinions, so also does it alter significantly the perception of the book he is writing. For it is by means of Tristram's narrative stance, his self-conscious role as author busily attempting to chronicle the events occurring in both worlds, and the perspective created by his dual narration of these events, that the reader comes to see and appreciate his book as an artifact watched in the process of its creation. As the artifact which Tristram is struggling to create, the book itself assumes a fictional role as an object in Tristram's world.In the process of his virtuoso performance in entertaining the reader while failing in the attempt to complete his autobiography, Tristram unwittingly succeeds in disclosing in his present world as much of his spirit and character as a reader requires in order to know him well. The ultimate success, of course, is that of Sterne, who has created a remarkably involuted, complex, and transparent structure of fiction by means of (1) Tristram's intrusive and digressive narration, in which the two fictional worlds emerge simultaneously; (2) the plot of Tristram attempting to write his Life; and (3) the unfolding character of Tristram. Taken together these elements interact and combine to produce a novel which is artful, ingenious, and a structure of paradox and irony.

Basically, a study of the structure of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy involves an analysis of the point of view of both the author and the narrator, and hence of variations on the first-person narration that are found in this novel. Tristram Shandy is related wholly in the authorial and historical present, and the reader as well as the fictional characters is included in the narrator's discourses of Tristram's own world. Hence, one must apply a considerable degree of critical objectivity when examining the narrator's role in the novel. A second problem is the importance of the fictional world that Tristram is ostensibly concerned with – that is, his birth and upbringing within the social environment of Shandy Hall, because the process of Tristram's narration proceeds to usurp most of the novel, shouldering out events at Shandy Hall, which are left half-introduced, or unfinished, or barely hinted at, and we are left with a fairly complete portrait of Tristram Shandy, but not of his life at Shandy Hall. A third problem is that of the inherent structure of the novel, which necessarily is centered around the dominant, controlling voice of the narrator. Although this structures has been dismissed as chaotic or irregular or formless, it does possess definite patterns which allow for the addition of further units. As Tristram Shandy is basically an open-ended novel allowing for infinite expansion, its chronology and subject matter are designed to cohere only in terms of Tristram's entire life; thus we find the events and characters are remembered in the authorial present. The novel moves back and forth on different levels of the historical present, and besides setting out an accumulative amount of remembered biographical detail, presents a projected picture of the mind of an individual in the process of remembering and narrating. A close study of the associational links between chapters clearly reveals the above points, for significantly, these links are all easy to follow and accumulative in effect. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how the structure of the novel proceeds from the dominant single point of view that Tristram represents, how the ostensible autobiographical subject matter is eventually subjugated to this personality in operation, and how the structure of the novel functions efficiently towards this end. Chapter I examines the Tristram persona and Chapter II the Yorick persona, in order to determine how they function in this first-persom narration, and to what combined effect. Chapter III on Shandy Hall examines the characters of the novel, exclusive of Tristram, with a view to motivational factors that may proceed from them and that impinge on his story. And Chapter IV examines the associational and chronological structure of the novel in terms of the actual patterns and linkages Sterne provided his segmentalized novel with, and draws a general conclusion from this study. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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This thesis considers Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy in light of Friedrich Schlegel's concept of irony. Departing from previous criticism, which focuses on Sterne's playful narrative techniques, the discussion here elucidates other ways in which Tristram Shandy exemplifies the kind of irony Schlegel theorizes. These ways include: Sterne's "Mischgedicht" method, which amalgamates in a single work many types of style, or diverse permutations of form and content; the depiction of Parson Yorick, who epitomizes Socratic irony as Schlegel defines it in the 108th Lyceum fragment; Sterne's gentle satirizing of systematic thinkers, including his own narrator, Tristram; and Sterne's attitude toward words, knowledge, and reading. At the end of chapter 5, Sterne's irony is unraveled and reconstructed. This disentangling leads to a proposed refutation of recent interpretation of both Sterne and Schlegel. These studies see Sterne and Schlegel's irony as implying lack or flux of meaning. It is the strong contention of the following thesis that an essential aspect of Sterne and Schlegel's shared ironic world view is the continual, optimistic attempt to understand life, which necessarily presupposes a sincere and profound belief in both meaning and the reliable conveyance of it. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Inaug.-Diss.--Philos--Köln, 1979. / Résumé en allemand. Bibliogr. des œuvres de L. Sterne p. 227-228. Bibliogr. p. 228-232.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literatura, 2017. / Submitted by Raquel Almeida (raquel.df13@gmail.com) on 2018-03-05T16:13:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_VítorCastelõesGama.pdf: 1983901 bytes, checksum: 8543235d8096a137fd0576ef7f3bb90e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2018-03-09T18:40:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_VítorCastelõesGama.pdf: 1983901 bytes, checksum: 8543235d8096a137fd0576ef7f3bb90e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-09T18:40:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_VítorCastelõesGama.pdf: 1983901 bytes, checksum: 8543235d8096a137fd0576ef7f3bb90e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-09 / Considerando o apreço que Luiz Ruffato demonstrou por Laurence Sterne, objetiva-se entender as convergências entre as obras dos autores. Para tanto, procede-se à análise bibliográfica dos romances “A vida e as opiniões do cavalheiro Tristram Shandy” e “Eles eram muitos cavalos” em relação ao gênero da sátira menipeia e às outras artes como o cinema, a poesia, a música e o teatro. Observa-se o percurso da menipeia nas obras dos autores com o aporte de teóricos como Mikhail Bakhtin, Northrop Frye, José Guilherme Merquior e Enylton José de Sá Rego para apontar as similaridades e dessemelhanças em suas construções. É necessário ressaltar que este gênero agrega um questionamento social aos autores por discutir também a relação entre literatura e realidade. Questão aprofundada pelos autores também pelo amplo uso de técnicas provenientes de outras artes, por esse motivo as obras são consideradas como híbridas. Para trabalhar esse conceito seguimos com base no antropólogo Néstor Garcia Canclíni. É de importância na análise o conceito de performance, pois na tessitura das obras há um trabalho de mediação com os leitores realizado pela materialidade do livro e por um estilo tipográfico. Este conceito é balizado pelo entendimento de Paul Zumthor, e outros pensadores como Renato Cohen e Regina Melim. Por fim, conclui-se que apesar do distanciamento de séculos entre os autores há um intenso diálogo entre as obras que se iluminam mutuamente e demonstram a utilidade da tradição na vanguarda da literatura contemporânea brasileira. / Considering the appreciation Luiz Ruffato showed for Laurence Sterne. We intend to understand the similitaries between the authors works. Therefore, we proceed to a bibliographical analysis of the novels “The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman” and “They were many horses” in comparison to the menippean satire and the cinema, poetry, music and drama. With the theoretical groundwork of Mikhail Bakhtin, Northrop Frye, José Guilherme Merquior and Enylton José de Sá Rego we take notice of the mennipean satire influence in the analysed novels to discover correlations and dissimilarities between them. It is necessary to point out that this literary gender brings a taste for social criticism by discussing also the relation between literature and reality. Which is further questioned by the intense use of techniques derived from other arts. Because of this usage “Tristram Shandy” and “They were many horse” are considered hybrid novels. To work with hybridization we approach the thought of Néstor Garcia Canclini. It is also important the concept of performance, because in the making of the novels there are a personalized form of mediation with the reader and a typographical style. This concept is based in Paul Zumthor’s theory and other authors like Renato Cohen and Regina Melim. In the end, we conclude that in spite of the centuries apart there is an intense dialogue between the authors and their works that demonstrate the usefulness of tradition in contemporary brazilian literature vanguard.

The similarities between Swift's Grub Street Hack and Sterne's Tristram are persistent and remarkable, even though the Hack is a satiric pose of Swift and Tristram a comic projection of Sterne. Perhaps the most striking similarity lies in the constant tension between the reader's expectations of a wise narrator and a sequential style and the Hack's and Tristram's perverse frustration of the reader's desire for order. The foolish narrators, in an obstructive style, develop systematic theories based on absurd hypotheses. This perversity is not only witty and amusing, but also a reflection of Swift's and Sterne's eighteenth century “rage for order." To Swift, order is a necessity, to be defended by attacking all that threatens order. Swift imitates the chaos he saw in seventeenth-century style and thought by assuming the mask of a fool who speaks in the accents of hundreds of modern pretenders to learning. But the seeming chaos of the Hack's discourse is ordered by Swift's satiric intent and his views on Gnosticism. In the end, comic order predominates as the quintessence of disorder, the Hack is laughed off the stage. Wit triumphs over dulness. However, the comedy is undermined by tragic associations of evil, madness, and anarchy. To Sterne, conventional order of time and formal logic are illusions. He imitates the disorder in men's minds by assuming a mask and playing many parts. The seeming chaos of Tristram's narration is ordered by the association of ideas, a central group of characters, and the values of humour, common sense, feeling and benevolence. In the end, in spite of suggestions of the world's ill nature, hypocrisy, and corruption, comic order predominates. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate