The True Story of the Novel

Description

"One of the most successful literary lies," declares Margaret Anne Doody, "is the English claim to have invented the novel.... One of the best-kept literary secrets is the existence of novels in antiquity." In fact, as Doody goes on to demonstrate, the Novel of the Roman Empire is a joint product of Africa, Western Asia, and Europe. It is with this argument that The True Story of the Novel devastates and reconfigures the history of the novel as we know it. Twentieth-century historians and critics defending the novel have emphasized its role as superseding something else, as a sort of legitimate usurper that deposed the Epic, a replacement of myth, or religious narrative. To say that the Age of Early Christianity was really also the Age of the Novel rumples such historical tidiness - but so it was. From the outset of her discussion, Doody rejects the conventional Anglo-Saxon distinction between Romance and Novel. This eighteenth-century distinction, she maintains, served both to keep the foreign - dark-skinned peoples, strange speakers, Muslims, and others - largely out of literature and to obscure the diverse nature of the novel itself. This deeply informed and truly comparative work is staggering in its breadth. Doody treats not only recognized classics, but also works of usually unacknowledged subgenres - new readings of novels like The Pickwick Papers, Pudd'nhead Wilson, L'Assommoir, Death in Venice, and Beloved are accompanied by insights into Death on the Nile or The Wind in the Willows. Non-Western writers like Chinua Achebe and Witi Ihimaera are also included. In her last section, Doody goes on to show that Chinese and Japanese novels, early and late, bear a strong and not incidental affinity to their Western counterparts. Collectively, these readings offer the basis for a serious reassessment of the history and the nature of the novel. The True Story of the Novel CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ANCIENT NOVELS: CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING PREFACE INTRODUCTION— IN SEARCH OF THE ANCIENT NOVEL PART ONE— THE ANCIENT NOVEL Chapter I— The Ancient Novel Chapter II— Love and Suffering: The Stories of the Ancient Novels Chariton: Chaireas and Kallirrhoé Longus: Daphnis and Chloé Achilles Tatius: Kleitophon and Leukippé Law and the Individual Chapter III— Goddesses and Virgins: The Freedoms of Chastity Alternative Cultures and Cults Law, Marriage, and Family Female Chastity: Paul and Thekla The Standard of Male Chastity: Ephesiaka, Joseph and Aseneth Chapter IV— Apollonius of Tyre and Heliodorus' Aithiopika: Fathers and Daughters, and Unriddling Mo... The Cost of Resistance: Apollonius of Tyre Heliodorus' Aithiopika: Race, Identity, and Prophetic Riddles Chapter V— Parody, Masculinity, and Metamorphosis: The Roman Novels of Petronius and Apuleius The Case of the Tired Penis: Satyricon Golden Asininity Chapter VI— The Novelistic Nature of Ancient Prose Fiction: Character, Dialogue, Setting, Images Character and Characterization in the Ancient Novel Dialogue and Setting Mythology and the Images of Art: Ekphrasis Chapter VII— Literary Self-Consciousness and Ancient Prose Fiction: Allusion, Narrative, Texts, and... Literary Allusion Narrative Modes and Points of View Epistles in Ancient Novel Narration The Self-Conscious Novel of Antiquity Chapter VIII— The Ancient Novel Religion, and Allegory PART TWO— THE INFLUENCE OF THE ANCIENT NOVEL Chapter IX— Ancient Novels and the Fiction of the Middle Ages Change: The Movement of Peoples Byzantine Fiction Manuscripts of Novels Subject Matter and Fiction: Camelot, Rome, and Troy Boccaccio: Filocolo Boccaccio: Fiammetta Boccaccio: Decameron The Novel in Spain Chapter X— The Ancient Novel in the Age of Print: Versions and Commentaries of the Renaissance The Golden Ass in Print The Sense of the Civic Education and Moral Writing Heliodorus in Print Achilles Tatius in Print Chapter XI— Novels in the Seventeenth Century: Histories of Fiction and Cultural Conflicts Producing and Imitating the Ancient Novels "New" Ancient Novels: Petronius, Chariton, Xenophon Constructing A History of Prose Fiction Rejecting the Novel: Nasty Feudal Monarchical Romance Rejecting the Novel: Nasty Bourgeois Stuff The Puritan Attack The Idea of Character Chapter XII— The Eighteenth Century—And Beyond: The Rise of Realism, and Escape from It Gendering the Reader The Probable and the Verisimilar The Rise of Realism Realism and the Foreign Escape from Prescriptive Realism: The Invention of New Forms The Survival of the Novel PART THREE— TROPES OF THE NOVEL Chapter XIII— Breaking and Entering Tropes The Cut, the Break The First Sentence of Death Mending Chapter XIV— Marshes, Shores, and Muddy Margins Limen and Limne Frontier and Wild Space River and Pond and Reedy Marsh The Sea, the Sea Venice Dirt Chapter XV— Tomb, Cave, and Labyrinth Living Death The Labyrinth Chapter XVI— Eros Eros of the Garden Cupid and Psyche Eros and Autobiography Representations of Eros The Child Dramatic and Rhetorical Artifice Rhetorical Figure and Pictorial Image Damaged Eros Eros Projected: The Death in Venice Problem Redemptive Projection: Eros as Beloved Negative and Sterile Eros Bringing Eros Back Into the Picture Chapter XVII— Ekphrasis: Looking at the Picture The Inset Painting Ignorance and Alienation Class and Art Conscious Alienation Portrayal Characters as Artists Characters as Art Chapter XVIII— Ekphrasis: Dreams and Food A Wonderful Dream Characters' Dreams The Eating Game The Uses of Eating Chapter XIX— The Goddess Demeter-Ceres Aphrodite-Venus Artemis-Diana Juno-Cybele-Magna Mater Isis Mary The World's Mother Chapter XX— Conclusion NOTES Introduction Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Chapter XVII Chapter XVIII Chapter XIX Chapter XX BIBLIOGRAPHY I— The Ancient Novel and the Ancient World I A. Ancient Novels: Original-Language Versions (Including Dual-Language) Sources of Original-Langua... I B. Other Printings and Translations of Ancient Novels Cited in Text, Fifteenth-Twentieth Centuries... Achilles Tatius Alexander Apuleius Chariton "Dictys Cretensis" Heliodorus Historia Apollonii Iamblichus Longus Lucian Petronius Xenophon of Ephesus I C. Modern Studies of the Ancient Novel. I D. Literary Works of Antiquity Excluding Novels. I E. Early Christian Works. I F. Modern Studies of the Ancient World. II— The Middle Ages Through the Present II A. Novels, Poetry, and Dramatic Fiction and Nonfiction of the Middle Ages II B. Works of the Renaissance, 1500-1600 II B I. Novels, Poetry, and Dramatic Fiction II B 2. Nonfictional Works II C. Novels, Poetry and Dramatic Fiction, and Folk Tales of the Seventeenth Century II E. Novels, Poetry, Dramatic Fiction, and Folk Tales of the Nineteenth Century II F. The Twentieth Century II F 1. Novels, Poetry, and Dramatic Fiction II F 2. Nonfiction, Excluding Literary History and Criticism III— Literary Criticism, Literary and Cultural History, and Commentary III A. 1500-1995 IV— Manuscripts Consulted Achilles Tatius (see also under Heliodorus) Alexander (History of) Apuleius Boccaccio Chariron Homer Heliodorus Lucian Petronius Richardson, Samuel INDEX A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z About the Author