Laurence Sterne

Tristram Shandy – 9th class

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) • born in Ireland, graduated from Cambridge University, became a vicar• while married to his first wife, began a number of relationships with other

women and frequently attended the meetings of an all male society called the Demoniacs

• 1750, a collection of sermons, which he incorporated into his main work, Tristram Shandy. Starts writing The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,

• publishes the first two books in 1759, York• assumes the role of the sentimental and witty parson (Parson Yorick), and

names his house Shandy Hall• continues writing the book until the end of his life• humorous characters, sentimental attitude, obscenity, shallowness of

philosophy, but praised for his ‘knowledge of the human heart’. • 1762-64 visits France, and produces A Sentimental Journey (1768): Parson

Yorick’s sentimental tour through France

Critical opinion

• Dr Johnson: ‘Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last.’

• Romantic writers appreciated Sterne’s original and independent spirit that revolted against Neoclassical restrictions in literature (p. 8).

• 20 century Modernists (Joyce and Woolf) saw his associative narrative technique as a forerunner of their own style of writing.

• Postmodernist and Post-structuralist writers: prefer the ludic, playful side and the experimental nature of his fiction

Plot

• The narrative focuses on the consciousness of Tristram and his relationship with the other members of his eccentric family. Tristram endeavours to write his own autobiography from the moment of his conception.

• Tistram’s life• Tristram’s efforts to write his autobiography

Characters

• Tristram Shandy: the main character, an anti-hero

• Walter Shandy: of Shandy Hall, Tristram’s father• Mrs Shandy: Tristram’s mother• Uncle Toby: Walter’s brother, Tristram’s uncle• Yorick: the local parson, a self-portrait of Sterne• Dr Slop: a medical doctor

Sub-genre• a novel of sentiment in which the main character is sympathised

with• a comic novel in which the main character is satirised as well as

sympathised with: Cervantes, Don Quixote• the autobiography of Tristram / Sterne • a medical comedy (Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, p. 54)• a philosophical novel on sense perception and the nature of

understanding (John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy)

• other genres involved: sermon (86), satire, Bildungsroman (novel of education) and its parody

• First draft of a novel?

Narrator

• First person singular

• Limited perspective

• Naive

• Fusion of viewpoints

Style

• easy, conversational style, addressing th reader (350 times): 5, 7, 9, 15, 19, 20, 27, 31, 32, 37-38, 40, 41

• Addressing a female readership: 9, 36, 41• Asides: 41• but the reader is constantly reminded that writing

is not the same as conversation: 8, 15, 22, 25• and that there is a difference between life and

art and that he is reading a book: 41

Style (cont)

• Anecdotes, jokes, parody and self-parody.

• But also: pedantry, footnotes (41), documentation (42), references, providing evidence.

• To ‘impose literary form on insignificant experience’

Style (cont)

• But: how can you ‘read’ the typographical devices?– the black page (25), the empty page (157) the marble page

(158), the typographical eccentricities (28-29, 74, 426, 332)

• The reader is invited to fill in the gaps in the narrative or in the description of the various characters.

• Communicative style: the reader is often involved in the creation of the text.

• Aim: – to achieve communication with the reader– To determine an unknown readership

Organisation• loose chronology: from conception 7, ab ovo (7)• Progress is digressive rather than linear, often going backwards• All ingredients of the novel are there but the order is mixed up• Frequent digression from chronology (Cervantes):

– chapters 7-12 (mother-midwife-Yorick-midwife-mother)– Chapter 14 p. 27– Chapter 15: the marriage settlement– 42: doctors of the Sorbonne– Chapter 22 p. 50– Preface: III. 21– Diagrams: 332-33– Missing chapters: 438-39

Organisation (cont)

• Everything is connected with everything else

• Every idea leads to another idea, and the narrator has to explain all those other ideas too to make his narrative clear and to make the context of his story complete.

Organisation (cont)

• Aim: to be exact, and particular, and to be objective and credible. All that serves better communication and better understanding between the writer and the reader.

• Search for completeness and accuracy: Tristram starts his autobiography with the story of his conception. He goes back in time because the past exists in the present consciousness (Locke), the present consciousness is made up of the impressions received by the mind in the past. (p. 7)

• the exploration of the nature of truth, search for completeness. • When the more accurate you want to be, the more vague and

incomprehensible your style will become• Leisure (‘in short’)

Subject matters

• Originality: 8• Difference between art and life: Yorick• The book as an object: 8, 15, 22, 25, 40, 41, 329• Combination of ideas (Locke): 8• Misfortunes / sympathy: 9, 10, Yorick (ch. 10-

11), 30, 40, 198-99• Hobby-horses/eccentric opinions: 12, 38, 65-66• Character studies: Yorick (ch 10-12), father (ch

16), Uncle Toby (47, ch 25)

Sentimentalism

• hobbyhorses: fixed perspectives through which the characters interpret the world

• Uncle Toby is interested in warfare and he interprets everything around him according to this perspective. He is interested in the theory and practice of fortification and siege warfare.

• Walter Shandy: theory of names.

Sentimentalism (cont)

• sympathy between the characters, and also between the writer and the reader.

• sympathy leads to their cooperation in the creation of the novel. The reader is asked to make his own contribution to the novel.

• Tristram needs communication because he wants to escape the prison of his private self and he wants to make contact with other people (including the reader).

Sentimentalism (cont)

• Sterne’s aim: ‘to teach readers to love the world and our fellow creatures better than we do’ (A Sentimental Journey).

Self-referentiality (cont)

• Problems: – where to begin the story? – How far do you have to go back in the past? – Where should we start a story to make it complete?

• The narrator (Tristram) wants to know everything about the circumstances of his conception, birth, and education but he is unable to know every detail.

• The omniscience of the narrator (and the writer) is questioned.

• Other question: is there a true story at all? (The main concern of 20th century fiction.)