Untheories of Fiction : Literary Essays From Diderot to Markson

This book takes a closer look at the diversity of fiction writing from Diderot to Markson and by so doing call into question the notion of a singular “theory of fiction,” especially in relation to the novel. Unlike Forster’s approach to “Aspects of the Novel,” which implied there is only one kind of novel to which there may be an aspect, this book deconstructs how one approach to studying something as protean as the novel cannot be accomplished. To that end, the text uses Diderot’s This Is Not A Story (1772) and David Markson’s This Is Not A Novel (2016) as a frame and imbedded within are essays on De Maistre’s Voyage Around My Room (1829), Machado de Assis’s Posthumous Memoirs Of Braz Cubas (1881), André Breton’s Nadja (1928) and Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept (1945). 'As a fiction writer himself and a scholar who has thought about modernism and postmodernism from a theoretical perspective, Mark Axelrod is in a unique position to formulate a nuanced un-theory of the novel tackling this literary tradition since the inception of the genre in the 17th century up to our present, discombobulated days.' - Pablo Baler, Professor of Latin American Literature, California State University, Los Angeles, USA This book takes a closer look at the diversity of fiction writing from Diderot to Markson and by so doing call into question the notion of a singular "theory of fiction," especially in relation to the novel. Unlike Forster's approach to "Aspects of the Novel," which implied there is only one kind of novel to which there may be an aspect, this book deconstructs how one approach to studying something as protean as the novel cannot be accomplished. To that end, the text uses Diderot's This Is Not A Story (1772) and David Markson's This Is Not A Novel (2016) as a frame and imbedded within are essays on De Maistre's Voyage Around My Room (1829), Machado de Assis's Posthumous Memoirs Of Braz Cubas (1881), André Breton's Nadja (1928) and Elizabeth Smart's By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept (1945) Contents Chapter 1: So, Whose Theory of the Novel Is It, and Is It Important Anyway? Prologue I Works Consulted Chapter 2: Kindle, Kindle Burning Bright; or, Twenty-First Century Fiction and the Poetics of Such: Prologue II Works Consulted Chapter 3: Making No Bones About It: Prologue III Chapter 4: Diderot: This Is Not a Story Works Consulted Chapter 5: Xavier de Maistre: A Voyage Around My Room Works Consulted Chapter 6: Machado de Assis: Epitaph of a Small Winner (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas) Works Consulted Chapter 7: André Breton: Nadja (1928) Breton’s Preface, Sort of Part the First, or Name Dropping, Breton Style Part the Second, or, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in This Novel? Part the Third, or, a Novel Compilation Works Consulted Chapter 8: Elizabeth Smart: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945) Works Consulted Chapter 9: David Markson: This Is Not a Novel (2016) Works Consulted Name Index Subject Index