Uhrig, Reinhard Mathias; (2000) First-Person Narration in the Early Modern Novel With Special Reference to SorePs Francion, Grimmelshausen’s Courasche and Defoe’s Moll Flanders. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text First-person narration in the early modern novel with special reference to Sorel's Francion, Grimmelshausen's Courasche and Defoe's Moll Flanders..pdf Download (20MB)

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to reread the 'Rise of the Novel' so as to attach proper importance to the seventeenth century, with special emphasis on first-person narration (a defining feature of picaresque novels), and on the German reception and production of narrative prose texts. Three novels, Charles Sorel's Histoire Comique de Francion, Grimmelshausen's Courasche and Defoe's Moll Flanders, are used as examples of changes in novelistic narration in the period, and are related to the two early modern models of first-person narration, Apuleius's Golden Ass and Augustine's Confessions. Changes in first-person narration, methods of characterisation, and the role of metatext are explored in relation to changes in the understanding of literature, the individual and the purpose of narration. It will be shown how these conceptual changes are reflected in changes in narrative technique, but also how the novels and other narrative texts contribute to a shift in perception. Narratological analysis is thus contextualised with reference to other contemporary discourses: the novels are placed in the wider perspective of early modern culture, and attention is paid to how the novel 'agglutinated' into being, rather than appearing out of nowhere at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

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