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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.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1986. / Bibliography: leaves 58-60.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 96-99.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 197-218.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1992. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 299-330). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Zugleich: Diss. Münster (Westfalen), 2007. / Register. Literaturverz.

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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