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摘

要

1962

年出版的《金色笔记》是英 国当代女作家多丽丝·莱辛最著名的长篇小说。该小说

气势宏大，结构独特。小说把人物 心理分析、社会政治批评、小说形式实验三者融为一炉，

具有深刻的思想内涵和丰富的审 美价值。本文主要分析该小说形式方面的创新意义。

多丽丝· 莱辛在该小说中对当代小说形式与现实表征之间的关系作了深入地思考与大胆

地探索。她 模拟现代西方立体主义画派在现实表征中所采用的时空共存、多元角度和反身观

察的构成 原则和艺术手段构建了一种全新的小说形式。本文运用跨学科的研究视角解读《金

色笔记 》

，

分析小说形式与立体主义画派在表现现实方面的共通之处，

旨在说明二者在现实表

征方面所遵循的构成原则和采取的艺术手 段是相同的，对文学艺术表征现实的局限性的认识

也是一致的。

本文从三个方面来阐述相关论点。论文的第一章追溯西方小说形式的变迁以及莱辛小说< /p>

的形式在现实表征过程中所体现的独创性。第二章阐述小说与绘画的关系，进而确立立体主

义画派与小说《金色笔记》之间的关系。第三章通过深入分析小说形式中呈现出来的立体 主

义画派构成原则和艺术手段来论证二者之间的相通之处。

< /p>

本文运用跨学科的研究方法解读《金色笔记》的小说形式是一种创造性的、有意义的尝

试，以期为充实莱辛小说研究提供一个新的视角和研究思路。

关键词：

立体主义

< br>;

小说形式

;

现实表征

;

构成原则

;

时空共存

;

多元角度

;

反身观察

i

Abstract

The Golden Notebook

is the

most

famous

work by

Doris

Lessing. It

is remarkable

for

its rich

characterization, sharp political and social criticism, and original experiment on the novel form. The

thesis mainly focuses on the significance of Lessing

’

s experimentation on the novel form.

Doris

Lessing

reflects

upon

and

explores

the

relation

between

representation

of

reality

and

novel

forms

in the book.

Based on the shaping principles by Cubism,

the

most

influential Western

art

movement

in

modern

times,

she

constructs

the

novel

form

of

The

Golden

Notebook

.

The

principles

include

the

union

of

time

and

space,

multiplicity

of

perspectives

in

representing

reality

and reflexivity in literary and art creation and observation.

The

paper

expounds

the

argument

from

three

aspects.

Chapter

One

traces

the

historical

evolution of

novel

forms and

highlights the originality of the

novel

form

in

The Golden Notebook

.

Chapter

Two

illustrates

the

close

relation

between

novel

and

painting

and

specifies

the

parallel

relation

between

the

novel

form

in

The

Golden

Notebook

and

Cubism.

Chapter

Three

analyses

in

detail

the novel

form of

The Golden Notebook

and its parallel relationship with Cubism

in

terms of

shaping principles and dynamics.

The

interdisciplinary perspective employed

in the

thesis

intends to provide a different reading

and research orientation in evaluating the novel form.

Key

words:

Cubism;

novel

form;

representation

of

reality;

shaping

principle;

simultaneity;

multiplicity; reflexivity

ii

Contents

Abstract

(Chinese & English)

Introduction

.

.......................................... .................................................. ...................

1

Chapter One: Forms in Novel

.

........................... .................................................. .....

7

1.1 What Is Form?... .................................................. ...............................................

7

1.2 The Evolution of Novel Forms ............................................ ..............................

8

1.3 What Is New in the Form of

The Golden Notebook

........................................ 11

Chapter Two: Novel and Painting

.............................. ............................................

15

2.1 Novel and Painting... .................................................. ......................................

15

2.2 What Is Cubism?

................................ .................................................. ...........

18

Chapter Three: Cubism in the Form of

The Golden Notebook

.

...........................

20

3.1 Simultaneity: The Union of Time and Space

.

... ...............................................

20

3.1.1 Temporal Form in

The Golden Notebook

< br>.

................................... .............

22

3.1.2 Spatial Form in

The Golden Notebook

.

....... .............................................

24

3.2 Multiplicity: Fragments and Unity............................... ....................................

26

3.2.1 Breaking into Fragments: Divided Selves in the Four Notebooks...........

28

3.2.2 Parts into Whole: the Golden Notebook ..................................................

31

3.2.3 An Irony:

Free Women

.................. .................................................. .........

31

3.3 Reflexivity: From Reality to Observation.......... ..............................................

34

Conclusion

... .................................................. .................................................. .........

39

Bibliography... .................................................. .................................................. ........

44

Acknowledgements

学位论文独创性声明

学位论文知识产权权属声明

iii

Introduction

Literary Review of Doris Lessing and

The Golden Notebook

After

many

years

of

toiling

in

writing,

Doris

Lessing

has

now

safely

established

herself

as

being

“the

most

extraordinary

woman

writer”

(Greene,

1994:

1)

and

“very

much

a

representative

writer

for our

time”

(Bloom, 1986: 7). Her

major

work

The Golden Notebook

has been ranked by

many

critics

as

“one

of

the

most

powerful

of

post

-

war

British

novels”

and

“the

most

remarkable

work by a woman to appear in Britain since Virginia Woolf’s”

(Bradbury

, 2004: 381).

Doris Lessing’s critical reputation is

remarkable from the very beginning of her literary career.

Her

success

as

a

professional

writer

began

with

the

publication

of

her

first

novel

The

Grass

Is

Singing

.

It was accepted by Michael Joseph

in London

in 1950 and was an

instant success, being

immediately

recognized

as

an

exceptional

novel

on

colonialism.

“I

had

very

good

reviews,

and

I

had

enough

money

to

keep

me

going

for

a

bit”

(Bookshelf,

1992),

as

Doris

Lessing

recalled

her

early success in an interview by BBC Radio. Her fame has gained steadily ever since.

It took

Lessing

nearly

two decades

following

her

first

novel to write her

next

important

work,

the

series

of

Children

of

Violence

,

between

1952,

when

Martha

Quest

was

published,

and

1969,

when

The Four-Gated

City

appeared. In the context of postwar retreat to the conventional and

the

conservative,

The Children of Violence

was “something

new”

(Greene, 1994: 15)

indeed. It

focuses

on Martha

Quest’

s difficult, painful process of educating

herself

in

search of true

identity

.

Despite

its

conventional

form,

the

vivid

depiction

of

Martha’

s

growth

in

consciousness

evokes

the

warm

sympathy

from

many

readers,

especially

young

women

who

seemed

to

have

undergone

similar

frustration.

True

to what Jenny

Taylor observes,

“Martha’s quest became

the epic, archetypal story

of our

times”

(Taylor, 1982: 5).

With

the publication of

The Golden Notebook

, Lessing seems to

have reached the peak of

her

literary

fame.

The

impact

it

brought

to

readers

as

well

as

critics

is

tremendous.

Gayle

Greene

frankly evaluates

it as “a transformative work and touchstone for a generation”

(Greene, 1994: 17).

Despite

her

intention

of

minimizing

feminism

both

as

a

historical

and

a

contemporary

influence on

her

writing, Lessing

is regarded as one of

the early

voices of

the

feminist

movement,

and

The Golden Notebook

one of

its key

texts. Margaret Drabble

hails

The Golden Notebook

as “a

document

in

the

history

of

(women’s)

liberation”(

Showalter,

2004:

311).

“It

was

the

first

book

I’ve read, apart

from Simone de

Beauvoir’s

Second Sex

, which seemed

to be

really addressing

the

problems of women

in the contemporary world,” says Margaret Drabble

,

“Nobody seemed to

have

written about them

in

the way

that

we were experiencing them”

(Bookshelf, 1992). Showalter uses

the word

“monumental” to

highlight

it among the

works of twentieth-century women

writers. She

interprets

the

novel

as

“the

work

of

essential

feminist

implications”

(Showalter,

2004:

311).

Elizabeth

Wilson

describes

it

as

“a

manual

of

woman

experience”

(Wilson,

1982:

71).

Susan

Lardner calls it “a feminist gospel, a representative of Modern Woman”

(Lardner, 1983: 144). Susan

Lyndon

describes

it

as

“almost

a

Little

Red

Book

of

women’s

liberationists,”

“probably

the

most

widely

read

and

deeply

appreciated

book

on

the

women’s

liberation

reading

list,

Simone

de

4

Beauvoir’s

The Second Sex

and Betty Friedan’s

The Feminine Mystique

notwithstanding”

(Lyndon,

1970:

48).

Ellen

Brooks

describes

Lessing’s

depiction

of

women

as

“the

most

thorough

and

accurate of any in literature”

(Brooks, 1973: 101).

However, Doris Lessing

herself

is somewhat

indignant with such critical categorization. In the

1971

introduction

to

The

Golden

Notebook

,

she

clarifies

that

“the

novel

was

not

a

trumpet

for

Women’s

Liberation”

(Lessing,

1975:

25).

She

declares

that

rather

than

the

sex

war,

the

theme

of

“breakdown”

was the point she aimed at in her novel. She questions the validity of grouping her and

her work into

feminism and the Women’s Liberation Movement by pointing out that the novel came

out ten years earlier than the launching of the Movement (Lessing, 1975: 24).

While

women are thrilled

to

find themselves truly depicted and

named

in the book, the

novel

receives

very

different

readings

from

men.

To

be

sure,

some

men

recognize

its

importance.

For

example, Louis Kampt describes

Lessing’s

ma

ssive

novel as a

“significant and exemplary attempt

to deal

with,

”

“the central questions of

modernism”

and

“a

very true, and

very

great work of art”

(Kampt,

1967:

322,326).

Robert

Taubman

believes

it

is

“unique

in

it

s

truthfulness

and

range”

(Taubman,

1964:

402).

And

Irving

Howe

calls

it

“the

most

absorbing

and

exciting

piece

of

new

fiction I

have read

in a decade”

(Howe, 1986: 181).

But

most other

male critics and reviewers

find

some

ways

to

discount

it.

Anthony

Burgess

laments

and

dismisses

The

Golden

Notebook

as

“a

crusader’s

novel,”

“unacceptable as a work of art”

(Burgess, 1967: 19). P.W. Frederick

McDowell

similarly criticizes

the

novel, saying

that

it

is

“disorganized

,

”

“subjective” and

“a cross between a

standard

novel

and

a

confession”

(McDowell,

1965:

330).

Other

critics

concede

that

The

Golden

Notebook

has

interest

for

what

is revealed about

women’s

lives but deny

that

it

is art. Walter

Ellen

concludes

that

the

novel

“fails

as

a

work

of

art”

and

“the

structure

is

clumsy

,

complicated

rather

than co

mplex”

(Ellen, 1964: 277).

Frederick Karl calls

it

“the

most considerable single work by an

English

author

in

the

1960s,”

but

he

too

dismisses

it

on

purely

literary

grounds

as

“a

carefully

organized but

verbose, almost

clumsily

written

novel”

(Karl, 1971: 291). James Gindin, one of

the

first critics on Doris Lessing, criticizes

Lessing’s tendency to condition

her characters

historically

,

which

suggests

an

aesthetic

shortcoming

in

creating

unforgettable

characters

that

may

transcend

time and place (Gindin, 1986: 24).

Even

Harold

Bloom, the chief editor of

Modern Critical Views

,

suggests

in

his

introduction

to

the

book

that

Doris

Lessing

lacks

the

style

that

a

piece

of

art

may

need when he remarks “Lessing has the spirit, if not the style, of the age”

(Bloom, 1986: 7).

More recent criticism shares

Doris Lessing’s denial of

The Golden Notebook

as a feminist text.

And

many

critics

are

aware

of

its

scope

which

goes

beyond

feminist

concerns.

Ruth

Whittaker

remarks that reading

The Golden Notebook

is that of absorbing several different

novels (Whittaker,

1988:

75).

This

observation

is

true

because

pe

ople’s

responses

vary

according

to

their

process

of

growth

and

changing

perceptions.

And

The

Golden

Notebook

is

credited

with

the

title

of

an

“encyclopedia of

ideas”

(Greene, 1994: 1). Viewed

in this

light, the title

is appropriate because

The

Golden Notebook

takes on a

lot of big

issues at present,

including sex, race, class,

imperialism, the

hope and failure of communism, mental illness and psychosis, even the art and p

roblems of writing.

All of these big things are

included

in one 600-page, epic-

like

novel. Joanne Frye’

s argument also

5

supports the

view

that the

novel

“does

not argue

a

feminist position or even center exclusively

in

female experiences;

instead

it examines broadly the crises of

the twentieth century society and

the

problems

of

characterizing

those

crises

in

novelistic

form”

(Frye,

1986:

172).

The

criticism

listed

above

seems

to

prove

that

t

he

novel

accomplishes

quite

well

Lessing’s

ambition

“to

describe

an

d

present the intellectual and moral climate of the time”

(Lessing, 1975: 28).

While

some critics explore the

themes of

The Golden Notebook

, others

notice

the

innovation

Doris

Lessing

does

on

the

form.

Because

of

its

structure

of

a

novel

inside

a

novel,

some

critics

classify

The

Golden

Notebook

into

metafiction.

Malcolm

Bradbury

is

sure

of

its

metafictional

category

as

he

says

,

“

The

Golden

Notebook

is

no

doubt

a

work

of

metafiction”

(Bradbury

,

2004:

380). For other people,

the

form of

The Golden Notebook

c

arries

the

theme of

“fragmentation” or

“breakdown”

in

a

way

that

the

novel

itself

has

been

fragmented

into

different

sections.

In

his

introduction to the Chinese version of

The Golden Notebook

, Chen Caiyu maintains that the form of

the novel explains the content included in the novel (Chen Caiyu, 1999: 72). And Jiang Hong shares

his view as to the form of the novel ( Jiang Hong, 2003: 95).

With

The Golden Notebook

, Doris

Lessing

has secured her place

in

the

literary world. Honors

from all

levels and

many countries

heap on her ever since. In June 1995, she received an Honorary

Degree from Harvard University

. She was on the list of nominees for the Nobel Prize for Literature

and

Britain’s

Writer’s

Guild

Award

for

Fiction

in

1996.

And

the

honors

keep

on

coming

:

her

autobiography

was

nominated

for

the

1997

National

Book

Critics

Circle

Award

in

the

autobiography/biography

category

.

In

May

1999,

she

was

presented

with

XI

Annual

International

Catalunya

Award,

an

award

by

the

government

of

Catalunya.

On

December

31,1999,

in

the

last

Honors List before

the

new Millennium,

Doris

Lessing

was appointed a

Companion of Honor

, an

exclusive

honor

for those who

have done conspicuous

national

service.

It

was officially bestowed

by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2001, she

was awarded

the Prince of Asturias Prize

in

Literature, one of

Spain’s most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third

World

causes.

She

has

also

received

the

David

Cohen

British

Literature

Prize

().

Doris Lessing

is

a

very prolific writer.

Besides

The Golden Notebook

, she published

nineteen

novels, eleven volumes of short stories, six works of nonfiction, five plays, and a volume of poetry

,

and

two

volumes

of

autobiography

.

Her

works

are

widely

translated,

and

she

is

recognized

internationally

as

a

committed

novelist

dealing

with

serious

issues.

Her

most

recent

novel

The

Sweetest Dream

was published in 2001.

The Significance of the Thesis

Many critics

have discussed the themes

in

The Golden Notebook

. In

fact, widely

included

in

the novel are familiar themes, which have been explored by different generations of writers. What is

different

and

new

about

The

Golden

Notebook

is

its

form,

with

itself

echoing

the

content

in

its

fragmentation

so

that

theme

and

form

reflect

each

other.

As

Ruth

Whittaker

said,

“

The

Golden

6

Notebook

was a radical examination of the novel form”

(Whittaker, 1988: 76).

However,

many

critics

tend

to

downplay

the

significance

and

the

function

of

the

novel

form

Doris

Lessing

took

pains

to

elaborate.

In

one

of

her

letters

to

the

publisher,

Doris

Lessing

claims

that

The Golden Notebook

i

s an attempt to “

go beyond what has been possible

”

and

“

provides a new

way of look at life

”

(Lessing, 1974: 20). She once again asserts in an interview

that “It (

The Golden

Notebook

) was a very

highly

structured book, carefully planned and the point of that book was

the

relation of its parts to each other”

(Lessing, 1975: 51). She also accuses people of their indifference

to or

misunderstanding with the

significance of the shape of

the book as

she says

,

“they

were

not

interested

in the shape of the

novel, and the point of that shape, and

what

it

meant”

(Lessing, 1975:

51).

Then,

what

is the shape of the

novel? And what

is

the point of that shape?

And what

does

it

mean? We

may as well

ask ourselves

these questions Doris

Lessing

once asked

us.

To

her regret,

there appears

no such article or treatise so

far on a thorough exploration of the

form of

The Golden

Notebook

to

do

justice

to

Lessing’s

admirable

effort

in

enriching

the

novel

forms

and

narrative

techniques. Most reviews and criticism bend on the discussion about the themes

in the

novel

while

remarking

on

the

novel

form

in

no

more

than

several

lines.

What

Doris

Lessing

suggests

to

us

is

that the key to understanding the book lies in its form. And the writer

’

s own words cannot afford to

be discounted.

Form

usually

serves as the carrier of the content and the

instrument to convey the content

to

readers. In

fact,

literature transmits

ideology significantly

from

forms. As Terry

Eagleton suggests,

“the

true

bearers

of

ideology

are

the

very

forms,”

and

“in

selecting

a

form,

the

writer

finds

his

choice

already

ideologically

circumscribed”

(Eagleton,

1976:

45).

In

Fredric

Jameson’

s

view,

“formal

processes”

“carry

ideological

messages

of

their

own,

distinct

from

the

ostensible

or

manifest

content

of

the

works”

(Jameson,

1982:

98-99).

Raymond

Williams

describes

forms

as

“involving

social

assumptions

of

causation

and

consequence”

(Williams,

1977:

176).

In

fact,

Jameson extends the

ideology of

form

to the aesthetic act

itself.

He elaborates

that

“the production

of aesthetic or

narrative

form

is an

ideological act

in

its own

right,

with the

function of

inventing

imaginary or formal solutions to irresolvable social contra

dictions”

(Jameson, 1982: 79).

As

is shown

from

what are quoted above,

it

’

s a shared

view

that

the

form an artist or a writer

chooses reflects

his or her perceptions and outlooks about the outside world.

To sum

up, the

formal

study of a

work

is

not only

necessary but also

important

to the

understanding of the work and

its

writer. If,

as

Lessing claims, she tries

something

new

in the

form of

The Golden Notebook

, which

she thinks as being overlooked by

most critics of

her time and

not

given a justified consideration, I

think

it’

s necessary to analyze, in my thesis, the form of

The Golden Notebook

so as to find a key to

better understand her and her marvelous work.

Format of the Thesis

The thesis

is an attempt to

find the plausible explanations to

the problems

the previous critics

have

overlooked,

or

could

not

foresee,

or

have

not

solved,

on

the

study

of

the

novel

form

in

The

7

Golden Notebook

.

The thesis falls into three chapters. Chapter One is a survey of novel forms in literature history

.

Chapter

Two

provides

an

introduction

to

the

relation

between

novel

and

painting,

the

theoretical

background

from

which

my thesis

has been developed. Chapter

Three presents a detailed study of

the form in

The Golden Notebook

and its parallel relation with Cubism.

The Golden Notebook

is to be abbreviated as

GN

when the quotations from it are involved.

8

Chapter One

Forms in Novel

If

there

is

something

new

in

the

form

of

The

Golden

Notebook

,

it

is

necessary

for

us

to

be

informed of what is old based on the survey of the evolutionary history of novel forms. In doing so,

we may understand and appreciate better the innovation in the very form of

The Golden Notebook

.

Before our brief survey of the

historical change

in

the novel

form,

it

is necessary to explain

the

word “form” and in what sense of i

t that I build on my thesis.

1.1 What Is Form?

“Form”

is one of

the

most

frequent

ly

used

terms

in

literary criticism, but also one of the

most

diverse

in terms of

its

meanings. It

is often

used

merely

to

designate a

genre or

literary

type (“the

lyric

form”

,

“the

short

story

form”),

or

for

patterns

of

meter,

lines

and

rhymes

(“the

verse

form”,

“the stanza form”). It is also, however, the term for a central critical conception. In this application,

the

form of a

work

is the principle that determines

how a work

is ordered and organized (Abrams,

2004: 101).

The

concept

of

form

varies

according

to

critics’

specific

assumptions

and

theoretical

orientation.

Many

neoclassic critics,

for example,

think of the

form of a work as a

combination of

component parts,

matched to each other

according to

the principle of

decorum

(a term designating

the

propriety

,

or

fitness

in

unity

of

subject

matter,

characters,

actions

and

the

style).

In

the

early

nineteenth century

, Samuel

Taylor Coleridge distinguished between the

mechanic

form, which

is a

fixed, preexistent shape, and the organic form, which is like a growing plant achieving its final form,

in

which

the

parts

are

integral

to

and

interdependent

with

the

whole

(Burke,

1973:

27-91).

Many

New

Critics

use

the

word

“structure”

interchangeably

with

“form”

,

and

regard

it

primarily

as

an

interaction

or

ironic

and

paradoxical

tension

in

an

organized

totality

of

“meanings”

.

V

arious

exponents of Archetypal

Theory regard the

form of a

literary work as a recurrent pattern of

human

experience

which

shares

with

myths,

rituals,

religions

and

dreams.

And

structuralists

conceive

a

literary

structure

based

on

the

model

of

linguistic

theory

(Wellek,

1963:

59-88).

Narratologists

concern the general theory and practice of narratives in all literary forms. They deal especially with

academic

explorations such as

types of

narrators, the

identification of structural elements and their

diverse

modes of combination, recurrent

narrating devices. Narratologists, accordingly, do not treat

a

narrative

in

the

traditional

way

,

as

a

fictional

representation

of

life,

but

as

a

systematic

formal

construction. In other words, they

focus on the

formal patterns and technical devices of narrative to

the exclusion of

its subject

matter and social

values.

R. S. Crane, a leader of the Chicago School of

criticism,

however,

made a distinction between

“form”

and

“structure”. The form of a

literary

work

is

the

“dynamics”,

the

particular

working

or

emotional

power

that

the

com

position

is

designed

to

effect, which

functions as

its shaping principle. This

formal principle controls and synthesizes

the

9

“structure”

of

a

work

(Crane,

1953:

69).

In

so

doing,

he

bridges

the

formal

study

,

or

more

specifically,

the

narratological

way

of

formal

study

of

a

literary

work,

with

social,

historical

and

cultural

study

,

placing

the

formal

study

into

a

larger

social,

historical

and

cultural

context.

The

formal study

, thus, acquires a greater depth than before. In this thesis, I base my survey of the novel

form

in

The

Golden

Notebook

mainly

on

the

sense

of

“

form

”

as

proposed

by

Crane

by

analyzing

first the mechanical structure in form, and then exploring the shaping principle behind it.

1.2 The Evolution of Novel Forms

As

far

as

novel

forms

are

concerned,

the

classification

is

quite

different

based

on

different

standards and criteria. Novels can be classified

into dozens of

forms, and

may belong

to several of

these

categories

at

the

same

time.

Distinctions

among

forms

can

be

drawn

in

many

ways.

Suc

h

distinctions

include the

form

in

which

the works are

written, such as epistolary

novels,

which

take

the form of letters written between or among characters; the settings, such as regional novels, which

focus on

life

in

a certain area; and

the purpose, such as propaganda

novels,

which

try

to convince

the

reader

to

adopt

a

certain

point

of

view.

Other

examples

of

distinct

forms

include

picaresque

novels,

which

describe

the

adventures

of

rogues;

Gothic

novels,

which

describe

ghosts

and

other

elements of the

supernatural; science

fiction,

which portrays other

worlds or other possibilities

for

our

world; and detective stories, which

focus on

mysteries. A

few broad

genres of the

novel reflect

some general tendencies. Social novels tend to focus on the outward behavior of characters and how

other

characters

react.

Psychological

novels

explore

the

inner

workings

of

an

individual’s

mind.

Education

novels recount a person’s development as an

individual. Philosophical

novels provide a

platform

for

authors

to

explore

intellectual

or

philosophical

questions.

Popular

novels

usually

involve adventure,

intrigue, romance or

mystery to appeal to a wide range of people. Experimental

novels are works

in

which

writers

make

major

innovations

in

form and style.

My thesis

intends

to

focus

more

on

the

history

of

narrative

experiments

done

to

the

novel

form

itself

rather

than

discussing it in the light of literary genres.

A

review

of

the

history

of

experimentation

on

the

form

of

novel

is

of

vital

importance

for

a

better

understanding

of

the

significance

of

Doris

Lessing

’

s

uniqueness

and

contribution

as

far

as

The Golden Notebook

is concerned.

As the

most

flexible

form of all

narrations, the

novel

form

has

never been

monolithic. Writers

in

each

generation

make

effort

in

creating

something

new

to

the

novel

forms.

One

of

the

earliest

examples

of

the

novel

of

experimentation

is

Tristram

Shandy

(1759-1767)

by

English

writer

Laurence Sterne.

The book

is the

autobiography of

Tristram Shandy but

Tristram

himself does

not

appear

until

the

middle

part

of

the

novel.

And

the

book

does

not

narrate

Tristr

am’

s

life

events

accordingly. Instead,

it dwells

much on small details about the book

itself.

The

novel

is

filled with

asides,

wild

scholarly

digressions,

comic

scenes,

blank

pages

(to

be

filled

in

by

the

reader),

and

other experimental features, including a black page to express grief for a departed character (Sterne,

1978)

. Sterne’s

Tristram Shandy

opens up a new front

for the

novel:

experimentation

with structure

and language.

10

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