Narrative Form and Chaos Theory in Sterne, Proust, Woolf, and Faulkner

## Ac knowledgment s Many people have helped me bring this book to fruition. My initial interest in narrative form was sparked by a long-ago course taught by Alexander Gelley, whose insights helped me begin working toward my own theory of narrative. Owen Gilman encouraged me to return to earlier work on Absalom, Absalom!, and the result was some of my first work in chaos theory. Michael Wutz and Joseph Tabbi provided me with my first opportunity to publish such work. Theodore E. D. Braun's panel on "eighteenth-century chaos" at the meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies prompted me to tackle Tristram Shandy, and he and John McCarthy spurred me to examine the novel further for the collection Disrupted Patterns. Alexander Argyros, Maria Assad, J. T. Fraser, and Paul Harris helped enlarge my thinking on narrative form and chaos theory. Early versions of the book chapters profited from the comments of Saint Joseph's University English faculty who participated in the summer writing group, including Drawing On Insights Offered By Contemporary Chaos Theory, Narrative Form And Chaos Theory Explores How Models Of Turbulent Dynamical Systems In The Physical World Parallel Structures In Certain Kinds Of Narratives. By Closely Looking At Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Marcel Proust's In Search Of Lost Time, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, And William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, Parker Demonstrates How These Insights Can Be Applied To The Analysis Of Narrative Structure And Meaning. This Interdisciplinary Work Will Appeal To Scholars Interested In Narratology And In The Connection Between Chaos Theory And Literature.--book Jacket. Chaos Theory And The Dynamics Of Narrative -- Narrating Against The Clockwork Hegemony : Tristram Shandy's Games With Temporality -- Narrating The Workings Of Memory : Iteration And Attraction In In Search Of Lost Time -- Narrating The Unbounded : Mrs. Dalloway's Life, Septimus's Death, Sally's Kiss -- Narrating The Indeterminate : Shreve Mccannon In Absalom, Absalom! Jo Alyson Parker. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [169]-181) And Index. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 Preface......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 16 1 Chaos Theory and the Dynamics of Narrative......Page 18 2 Narrating against the Clockwork Hegemony: Tristram Shandy's Games with Temporality......Page 48 3 Narrating the Workings of Memory: Iteration and Attraction in In Search of Lost Time......Page 78 4 Narrating the Unbounded: Mrs. Dalloway's Life, Septimus's Death, and Sally's Kiss......Page 104 5 Narrating the Indeterminate: Shreve McCannon in Absalom, Absalom!......Page 128 Postscript......Page 148 Notes......Page 152 Bibliography......Page 186 C......Page 200 I......Page 201 P......Page 202 V......Page 203 Z......Page 204 Drawing on the insights offered by contemporary chaos theory, Narrative Form and Chaos Theory explores how models of turbulent dynamical systems in the physical world parallel structures in certain kinds of narratives. By closely looking at Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy , Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time , Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway , and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! , Parker demonstrates how these insights can be applied to the analysis of narrative structure and meaning. This innovative interdisciplinary work will appeal to scholars interested in narratology and in the connection between chaos theory and literature. This study demonstrates how the insights afforded us by chaos theory can be applied to the analysis of narrative structure and meaning