Theory and the Novel: Narrative Reflexivity in the British Tradition (Literature, Culture, Theory)

In Theory and the Novel: Narrative Reflexivity in the British Tradition, Jeffrey Williams exposes these elements as more than simple disruptions, analyzing them as registers of narrative reflexivity, that is, moments that represent and advertise the functioning of narrative itself. Williams argues that these moments rhetorically proffer models of literary desire, consumption, and taste. He examines a range of novels from the English canon – Tristram Shandy, Joseph Andrews, Wuthering Heights, The Turn ofthe Screw, Lord Jim, and Heart ofDarkness – and poses a series of theoretical questions bearing on reflexivity, imitation, fictionality, and ideology to offer a striking and original contribution to readings of the English novel, as well as to current discussions of theory and the profession of literature.