Ashley Carroll

Mark Mzyk

ENG 563

Dr. Morillo

November 20, 2006

Tristram Shandy

Blackwell, Bonnie. “Tristram Shandy and the Theater of the Mechanical Mother.” ELH 68 (2001): 81-133.

Obstetrics plays a large role in Tristram Shandy and Blackwell argues that by using the history of obstetrics one can frame their reading of the novel. Blackwell gives a history of obstetrics in the eighteenth century, chronicling the way in which men took over the position of the midwife. Blackwell feels that Sterne was against the rise of men in obstetrics and makes it clear through events in the novel. Blackwell highlights Stern’s position by examining Walter Shandy’s feelings on childbirth, Dr. Slop’s use of forceps, Elizabeth Shandy’s role, and Toby’s arguments in Tristram Shandy. Blackwell also concludes that the overall structure of the novel is appropriate, for it proceeds as a natural birth, with many digressions and isn’t hastened to its end (126).

Fanning, Christopher. “Small Particles of Eloquence: Sterne and the Scriblerian Text.” Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to Research in Medieval and Modern Literature 100 (2003): 360-92.

Fanning views Sterne in relation to the authors of the Scriblerian tradition, specifically Pope and Swift. Fanning states that the main point the Scriblerians wished to establish was that words are physical objects (365). He demonstrates the techniques used by the Scriblerians with multiple examples from The Dunciad and A Tale of the Tub. Fanning highlights various points from Tristram Shandy in which Sterne follows in the Scriblerian tradition, including Sterne’s use of asterisks during Dr. Slop’s and Toby’s argument (387). Sterne also provides a new addition to the Scriblerian tradition with his use of the marble page, which made each copy of the novel unique, as it was impossible at the time for marble pages to be reproduced so that each was identical (392). Fanning shows how Sterne uses Tristram Shandy to engage notions of originality and how problems of communication affect such notions.

Freeman, John. “Delight in the (Dis)Order of Things: Tristram Shandy and the Dynamics of Genre.” Studies in the Novel 34 (2002): 141-61.

Freeman argues that Tristram Shandy disrupts the Newtonian paradigm that was dominant during the eighteenth century. The Newtonian view was one of regularity and order, while Tristram goes against this and embraces chaos as a dynamic, creative force (142). Tristram is exasperated by his inability to write his life, yet he exalts in writing his life, for the more information he feeds into the account of his life, the more information that can potentially be generated. Chaos becomes a source of information, not just a void (145-6). Opposing Tristram is Toby, who attempts to show how to order the reading process while Tristram continually disorders it (152). Tristram’s view allows for the nonlinearity of living. Tristram’s methods can be seen as the same process by which fractals work (154). Freeman shows how Tristram and Toby create organization from chaos by swinging between the extremes of birth and death and finding order in the middle (160).

Hardin, Michael. “Is There A Straight Line in This Text? The Homoerotics of Tristram Shandy.” Orbis Litterman: International Review of Literary Studies 54.3 (1999): 185-202.

Sexuality is perhaps the most pervasive theme in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, but, as Michael Hardin points out in this article, when sexuality is discussed in Shandean criticism, it is most always heterosexuality. Hardin rejects this “straight” reading of the novel in favor of a reading that looks for sexual plurality and, more specifically, same-sex sexuality. Although he contends that there are numerous examples of homoeroticism within the novel, he focuses this article primarily on the relationship between Tristram and his “Gentleman Reader.” With his many admonitions and criticisms of “Madame Reader,” Tristram appears to prefer his “Gentleman Reader,” who is better able to “penetrate the text” (189). Tristram seduces his reader in sexually charged situations by using asterisks and blank spaces, “encouraging the reader to…fantasize” and “read the worst into the spaces” (193). By allowing the reader joint authorship in these situations, Hardin argues that Tristram is able to escape his own sexual shortcomings and impotence by gaining control of the Gentleman reader’s penis.

Lawlor, Clark. “Consuming Time: Narrative and Disease in Tristram Shandy.” Yearbook of English Studies 30 (2000): 46-59.

As Sterne was writing Tristram Shandy, he was wasting away from consumption, a fact that, although mentioned in some criticisms, is rarely viewed as important to understanding the novel. Clark Lawlor, however, uses Sterne’s experiences with consumption to explain the novel’s lack of narrative structure and sometimes hectic pace. Consumption was an “irregular, disorderly” disease that granted its victim no control (55). Coughing fits and hemorrhages could occur at any moment and interrupt normal life. Lawlor finds that the structure (or lack thereof) of Tristram Shandy mirrors this condition. Just as Sterne has no control over his health, the novel also seems to lack control and is prone to frequent interruption. The pace of the novel is similarly impacted by Sterne’s health. Sterne understood that his diagnosis of consumption was a death sentence from which escape was impossible. As death seemed more and more imminent for Sterne in the latter volumes, there is a noticeable increase in the pace of the narrative, as if he is attempting to outrun (or out write) death. His fate, and that of his novel, has already been determined, though, as both will inevitably be forced to end.

Lupton, Christina. “Naming the Baby: Sterne, Goethe, and the Power of the Word.” MLN 118 (2003): 1213-36.

During the eighteenth century names were thought to reflect reality until Locke presented his argument that names do not reflect reality, but instead arise voluntarily from humans. Lupton argues that in Tristram Shandy Sterne accepts Locke’s view (1214-15). Lupton advances her argument by showing how Sterne uses Walter Shandy to represent the view that names control reality and then undercutting Walter throughout the novel (1222). Lupton contends that Sterne, while accepting Locke’s view on names, does not agree with Locke’s statement that confusion surrounding names is detrimental. Sterne uses Tristram to show that the disarray surrounding his naming has not lead to him being a failure, but instead he has succeeded in writing a novel (1223). According to Lupton, Sterne does find one exception to Locke’s view and that exception is fiction. In fiction, names do have direct control over reality, because names are given by the author (1224-5). Sterne shows that names, based on the context in which they are used, either may or may not have control over reality.

Lynch, Jack. “The Relicks of Learning: Sterne among the Renaissance Encyclopedists.” Eighteenth Century Fiction 13.1 (2000): 1-17.

Sterne’s numerous digressions and attention to “arcane learning” in Tristram Shandy have caused many critics to assert that the novel “has much of the previous century about it” (1-2). Jack Lynch attributes this quality to Sterne’s Renaissance and seventeenth-century influences. Foremost among these influences is the Copia tradition, which can be traced back to the work of Erasmus. Copia encourages “comprehensiveness” and “abundance” in writing and learning, both of which are undeniably present in Tristram Shandy (3). Lynch also argues that the dictionaries and encyclopedias that began to emerge in the seventeenth century were also highly influential. Lynch focuses specifically on Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique, which contained multi-page digressions on often “quirky” subjects (12). Ultimately, Lynch argues that Sterne wanted his writing to be “motley,” “marbled,” and near to impossible to unravel. If this was indeed Sterne’s goal, it would seem that he succeeded.

Mazella, David. “‘Be wary, Sir, when you imitate him’: The Perils of Didacticism in Tristram Shandy.” Studies in the Novel 31.2 (1999): 152-177.

When Tristram Shandy was published, many readers were horrified that Sterne’s characters were morally “mixed” (153). This was a stark contrast to most of the other novels of the century that featured a “prescriptive moral model” for readers (153). In this article, David Mazella uses Johnson’s Rambler No. 4 as a means of illustrating the didactic message that novels were expected to convey in the eighteenth century. According to Johnson, novels were supposed to provide readers with a virtuous, model character who could be imitated. Readers were not to be trusted with interpretation. Thus, virtue and vice should be clearly and unambiguously presented to them, leaving the reader no room to doubt what actions were correct. Sterne did not follow this standard with his characters, as he believed that morality was not simple or straightforward. When characters in the novel do attempt to reduce morality to a simple right or wrong dichotomy, as Walter does with his Tristra-paedia, they do not find success. Sterne instead presents morally ambiguous characters, encouraging the reader to dissect each character’s actions and decide for themselves what is or is not moral. Mazella does not think this makes Tristram Shandy any less didactic than the more directly didactic novels of the period, but he does contend that it makes the novel more literary, as literature is, according to Mazella, inherently “uncoupled from moral norms” (155).

Regan, Shaun. “Print Culture in Transition: Tristram Shandy, the Reviewers, and the Consumable Text.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 14 (2002) 289-309.

Regan examines Tristram Shandy to determine how Sterne felt about issues involving reviewers and textual ownership and originality that were present at the time of the novel’s publication. Reviewers were just coming into prominence in the eighteenth century and they were looked down upon as hacks (290-91). Regan uses examples from Tristram Shandy to show that while Sterne looked down upon the reviews, he also showed sympathy for them and shifted scorn to their proprietors. Regain particularly focuses on volume seven and Sterne’s use of jack asses as a metaphor for reviewers.

Regan also displays how Tristram Shandy shows Sterne’s view on textual ownership by using various scenes from the novel, including Tristram losing his remarks in volume seven, the missing chapter from the novel, and Sterne’s use of the marble page. Regan concludes that Sterne demonstrates how the novel can be massed produced and still retain authorial ownership and originality, although in an altered form than it had originally existed.

Weber, Samuel. “Reading—‘To the Very End of the World.’” MLN 111 (1996): 819-834.

In this article, Samuel Weber discusses the endless ambiguity that is present in Tristram Shandy. He begins by questioning whether it is even appropriate to classify Tristram Shandy as a novel. Although he concedes that the text is certainly about novels, he also argues that it is just as much about storytelling. The ambiguous and complex nature of the text prevents any “simple” classification and leads Weber to ultimately decide that the text should be viewed as “the resurgence of storytelling within the novel form” (824). Weber then turns to the problem of Tristram’s conception, which is itself quite indefinite. Does Sterne refer to the conception of the text or the character? If we take it to mean the actual conception of the character, then new ambiguities arise. Who is Tristram’s father? Weber argues that, should Walter not be Tristram’s biological father, than Yorick is the “most likely candidate” (829). Weber’s justifications for this pronouncement are appropriately opaque, reinforcing his central idea that attempting to unravel the ambiguities of the novel could indeed result in reading “to the very end of the world.”