Novel Horizons: The Genre Making of Restoration Fiction

Bayer G (2016)


Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Authored book, Monography

Publication year: 2016

Publisher: Manchester University Press

City/Town: Manchester

ISBN: 9781784991234

Abstract

Novel horizons analyses how narrative prose fiction developed during the English Restoration. It argues that after 1660, generic changes within dramatic texts occasioned an intense debate within prologues and introductions. This discussion about the poetics of a genre was echoed in the paratextual material of prose fictions. In the absence of an official poetics that defined prose fiction, paratexts ful­filled this function and informed readers about the budding genre. This study traces the piecemeal development of these boundaries and describes the generic competence of readers through the analysis of paratexts and prose fictions.

Novel horizons covers the surviving textual material widely, focusing on narrative prose fictions published between 1660 and 1710. In addition to tracing the paratextual poetics of Restoration fiction, this book also covers the state of the art of fiction-writing during the period, discussing character development, narrative point of view and questions of fictionality and realism.

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How to cite

APA:

Bayer, G. (2016). Novel Horizons: The Genre Making of Restoration Fiction. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

MLA:

Bayer, Gerd. Novel Horizons: The Genre Making of Restoration Fiction. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.

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