Word: novelness
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Though Eugenides is half-Greek and “Middlesex” is centered on the ancient traditions of tragedies, epics, and myth, he confessed that the novel is less autobiographical than might be expected—drawing from his personal background more for literary authenticity than plot...
...novel he is working on now, Eugenides has used this same technique. The story takes place at a college in 1982—and Eugenides himself graduated from Brown University in 1983. But he also discussed the difficulty in treading the line between credibility from autobiographical aspects and the creativity and distance needed for a successful narrative...
...professor’s unusual approach to lecturing immediately immerses his students in the milieu of the novel through short, funny excerpts, but more importantly it gives students permission to enjoy reading a book. Many students, who often feel afraid to laugh while reading, find his method liberating. Yet, initially I was more annoyed than charmed by these recitations. I felt these comic details contributed very little to the analytical understanding of a novel; the excerpts gave a sense of a writer’s prose style, but ultimately they were nothing more than amusing diversions to give the class...
...ability to appreciate the comedic aspects of any great novel can expose new dimensions of a book’s complexities. An author can often reveal invaluable insights into a character’s personality through humorous details about his comic foibles or silly idiosyncrasies. Humor can be used equally well to humanize or ironize a character. But while the specific literary effects of humor vary from book to book, comedy serves as a surprisingly perceptive avenue to examine many novels...
William Faulkner’s modernist classic “The Sound and the Fury” has the reputation as one of the most formidable and tragic novels in the American canon. Surprisingly, appreciating Faulkner’s comedy has drastically changed my perception of the book. “The Sound and the Fury” concerns the disintegration of the Compson family, a declining aristocratic Southern clan living on a once-prosperous plantation. The first three sections are written from the point of view of the three Compson brothers: the mentally retarded Benjy, the suicidal Harvard student...