Bargains! PROMOTIONS

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel by Matthew Clark at Abbey's Bookshop,
From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel
— —
Matthew Clark

From Paragraphs to Plots

Architecture of the Novel

Matthew Clark

$52.95   $44.61

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?
English
Louisiana State University Press
25 September 2024
Creative writing & creative writing guides; Literary theory; Semiotics & semiology
The novel has often been characterized as the art form without a form. Although there may not be any rules for how to write a novel, as Matthew Clark shows in his new work of practical analysis, a good novel is as carefully formed as a good poem.

From Paragraphs to Plots uncovers large compositional features of narrative construction, thereby excavating elements that constitute the architecture of the novel. Clark begins by discussing the segmentation of narratives, from the paragraph level up to the whole novel, with case studies of the composition of Jane Austen's Emma and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. The next chapter explores an important, though often neglected, feature of narrative architecture called ring composition: a particular kind of repetition where the beginning and the end of a text are the same or similar. From there, Clark analyzes in detail two novels, Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier and Joseph Heller's Catch-22, identifying the repetitions, inversions, links, and fragmented narrations that comprise each narrative.

The book's second half focuses on simple and complex plot forms. Examining iterations of simple forms plots that begin with a specific initiating event and proceed in an essentially regular chronological progression from beginning to middle to end Clark outlines several common beginnings (Arrival, Departure, Meeting, Need, Birth, Death) and endings (Departures, Returns, Marriages, Need Satisfied, Death), along with a short account of less common ways to begin a novel. Subsequent discussions examine devices used in complex plot forms, such as Beginning with the Ending, Second Chapter Retrospects, Ghosts from the Past, Multiple Retrospects, One-Day Novels, One-Year Novels, Mirror Plots, Simultaneous Narration, Unnatural Chronology, and Non-Narrative Elements. The final chapter draws together the preceding discussions with a detailed case study of a recent novel, Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize winning The Sympathizer.

By analyzing common practices of narrative construction, From Paragraphs to Plots identifies sources of beauty and meaning in literature, approaching the aesthetic and the thematic as simultaneous and inextricable.
By:  
Imprint:   Louisiana State University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 13mm
Weight:   349g
ISBN:   9780807183328
ISBN 10:   0807183326
Pages:   232
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Matthew Clark is professor emeritus and senior scholar at York University in Toronto. His previous books include How to Reread a Novel, Narrative Structures and the Language of the Self, and A Matter of Style: On Writing and Technique.

Reviews for From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

""Clark's book is intended to discuss the methods writers have of taking their stories off course. They are fairly conventional methods, and Clark offers lots of good examples. . . . Clark's intelligent book is not primarily for creative writing students but for readers and, particularly, for critics. Recommended.""--CHOICE


See Inside

See Also

From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

On Close Reading

Professor John Guillory

Hardback

$190.95 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

Restaurant

Dr. or Prof. Brian Duff (University...

Paperback

$19.99 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

Inquiring into Being

Essays on Parmenides

Colin C. Smith (Ohio State University)...

Hardback

$291.95  $233.54

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

The Historical Poem

On the Lives and Afterlives of Romantic...

Joel Childers

Hardback

$173 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

Vicious Circles

Disclosing a History of Critique...

Arvi Särkelä

Hardback

$323 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
From Paragraphs to Plots: Architecture of the Novel

A Multimodal Language Faculty

A Cognitive Framework for Human...

Dr Neil Cohn (Tilburg University,...

Hardback

$200 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +