Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach
McKeon's dissections are often breathtaking... [his] anthology is solid, commandingly centered,... superbly energetic and uniquely powerful.(Marshall BrownEighteenth-Century Fiction)As comprehensive an account of the genre as you could wish. What a marvelous collection and what a skillful editor McKeon is, marshalling the essays into an argument for the novel as a distinct 'literary historical genre' rather than as one element in a bland, all-embracing narrative theory... The outstanding feature of this fine collection is its firm commitment to the art of the novelist. Throughout, there is a profound recognition of the novel's ability to criticise the existing order, to create new and compelling worlds, to extend our grammar and enlarge our vocabulary for coping with the great dramas of life, love, death and the shoelace snapping when you are late for work.(Gary DayTimes Higher Education Supplement)The anthology provides not only a splendid guide to thinking about the novel, but also a useful warning against assuming that fiction is merely the instrument of those who wish to dampen revolution, forge national identities, and build empires.(Jonathan LambStudies in English Literature)This breathtaking comprehensive collection of essays... is an amazingly ambitious project... McKeon has provided us with an invaluable map of the theoretical and literary-historical landscape surrounding the origins, theories, and developments of the novel.(Ansgar Nünning GießenLWU)This is a richly stimulating volume, an invaluable resource and challenging intervention for all serious researchers into the novel.(This Year's Work in English Studies)As a teaching text this anthology can hardly be bettered.(David WalkerBritish Journal for 18th-Century Studies)This collection of essays will betheanthology for all introductory courses on the novel. The approach through genre theory and history is refreshing, welcome, and long overdue.(Ronald Paulson, The Johns Hopkins University)By juxtaposing the classic theoretical texts with recent work ranging from film and cultural studies to postcoloniality and postmodernism, this rich collection places the 'theory of the novel' squarely back on the agenda of contemporary literary and cultural research.(Fredric Jameson, Duke University)Michael McKeon may be the only person in the world capable of bringing together sensibly so many positions on so complicated a topic. The selections are judicious and raise most of the issues—theoretical, historical, global—that a twenty-first century book on this topic requires, and McKeon's own commentary is erudite, cogent, and accessible.(J. Paul Hunter, University of Chicago)The Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approachorganizes the study of the novel into a coherent intellectual field. What sets this volume apart from its competitors are McKeon's introductory materials, which develop an original and sophisticated historical argument about the genre. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the novel, in genre theory, or in historical analysis. The collection does for the novel in general whatThe Origins of the English Noveldid for its early history. It also reinforces McKeon's position as our premier historian of the genre.(Mary Poovey, New York University)