Elizabeth Beck and Michael Crisci

Dr. Morillo

English 563

15 April 2010

Annotated Bibliography: Criticism on Tristram Shandy

Blackwell, Bonnie. “‘Tristram Shandy’ and the Theater of the Mechanical Mother.” ELH

68.1 (2001): 81-133. JSTOR. Web. 2 Apr. 2010.

Though at first appearing to solely concern itself with the discussing of the ascension of the male midwife in the time of Tristram Shandy’s publication, Blackwell’s article satirizes the then-prevailing opinion that man-midwives were safer and therefore better than their female counterparts; and considering the Stuart Sherman (a American literary critic active during the early 20^th century) quote prior to the article about the narrative not working “as well as a clock,” argues that Sterne’s novel, does not function up to par to the aforesaid clock (81). This jab directly comes from the odd way in which Tristram Shandy was written: being expressly slow-paced and digressive in its cyclicality, its calculated inability to conform to the conventions of the typical narrative, which are expediency and an unwavering plotline, mirror the natural birthing process. Via Sterne’s masterwork, Blackwell paints the obstetric profession as a “narratively unimaginative” one (83).

Blackwell’s article reaches all over Tristram Shandy to find instances of Sterne’s learned, comedic criticisms of obstetrics at the time, framing the apparently pointless, exorbitant, Latin curse of Ernulphus and the seemingly mere act of Obadiah’s forgetting Dr. Slop’s bag in the context of Sterne’s atypical yet purposeful narrative/the faults of the obstetricians of the mid-1700s so that latter examples—whether they be gleaned from Tristram Shandy or outside sources—are rendered more believably congruent with Blackwell’s claims. Her research is extensive, and perhaps in spite of that, Blackwell often takes her time to get to the point (she does not list her thesis until the third page) and deviates from Tristram Shandy enough (citing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie Junior at one point) that although it is done in order to gather evidence and further strengthen the points she is trying to make, it causes the reader to momentarily forget that the article is supposed to be centered around Tristram Shandy.

Darby, Robert. “’An Oblique and Slovenly Initiation’: The Circumcision Episode in Tristram

Shandy.” Eighteenth Century Life 27.1 (2003): 72-84. ProjectMUSE. Web. 10 Apr. 2010.

Darby opens his article with a brief examination of the previous research on the subject of Tristram’s circumcision, noting that former scholars such as Melvin, New and Ehlers were perhaps incorrect or not as thorough in their understanding of the scene. He then moves into a New Historicist’s investigation of circumcision in Eighteenth-Century England in order to properly situate his argument into the conceptual framework of the time period, noting that circumcision was most certainly not a common practice. Subsequently, Darby questions why Sterne would have made this scene into such a momentous one and looks to the politics of the time for his answer. He finds that in 1750s, Parliament passed the Jewish Naturalization Act, which threw many of the English up in arms and resulted in a great deal of commentary against the Jew, including much propaganda suggesting that circumcision would soon be forced upon the English.

After locating the audience within the cultural context of Eighteenth-Century ideas on circumcision, Darby moves on to an examination of the scene in question by investigating the source texts Walter Shandy claims to consult about his son’s possible circumcision. Darby quotes Maimonides and Philo (from the Spencer text that Walter reads) and Herodotus to explain why Walter does not become overly-agitated at his son’s misfortune, since the first two condone the practice, and even though Herodotus does not approve of the practice, he notes the many other people of the world who do. Lastly, Darby examines what Dr. Slop calls “phimosis,” noting that the doctor’s explanation fully answers the question of how extensive the damage to Tristram’s penis actually was. He ends with the answer: Dr. Slop was making every effort to save the boy’s foreskin. However, Darby does pose a quite fascinating question at the conclusion of his article: whether Walter Shandy was not trying to have the boy circumcised based on the information that he gleaned from the aforementioned texts, and whether or not this represents some seriously forward-thinking on Sterne’s behalf.

In short, Darby’s article is a delightful read in that it is incredibly thorough but also quite concise. He provides a clear understanding of one of the most important scenes in Tristram Shandy through both New Historicist and New Criticism lenses that leaves the reader with no confusion and a much more thorough understanding of the text.

Freeman, John. “Delight in the (Dis)order of Things: Tristram Shandy and the Dynamics of

the Genre.” Studies in the Novel 34.2 (2002): 141-162. EBSCOhost. Web. 2 Apr. 2010.

As references abound in Tristram Shandy of the humanist philosopher John Locke and his “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” it is only natural that Freeman incorporated the aforementioned man in his article which sets out to justify the chaotic nature of the Tristram’s life and thus the narrative; Freeman also introduces Isaac Newton and his orderly theories on the mysteries of the world as a counterweight to Locke’s theory of mind. Newton and his theories are then aligned with the grandfather clock incident at the beginning of Tristram Shandy, as Freeman purports, through its interrupting Shandy’s supposed moment of conception, the clock, which represents orderliness, casts a shadow of chaos over Shandy’s life and the narrative. As such, Freeman also focuses on all that is related to conception and birthing, which, when taking into account Toby’s obsession with fortification, or to be read here as order, strengthens Freeman’s view on Tristram Shandy’s preference for chaos.

Despite being a verbose and challenging read, Freeman’s article is pithy in a highly erudite manner and possesses a flow aided by the interlocking and overlapping of ideas; for example, in the middle of the article, Freeman transitions from the ridiculous idea of the scalded-down human, or the homunculus, to Tristram’s self being derived by “various hierarchies of scales” to, then, those scales being pertinent to orderliness of the supposedly chaotic chaos, etc., to Uncle Toby’s hobbyhorse (147). All of this occurs within the space of a few paragraphs, and comparisons are draw between Toby and Tristram until the end of the article.

Lawlor, Clark. “Consuming Time: Narrative and Disease in Tristram Shandy.” The Yearbook of

English Studies 30 (2000): 46-59. ProjectMUSE. Web. 10 Apr. 2010.

Clark opens with an acknowledgment of the previous work done on the topic of Sterne’s life and disease (consumption) and moves forward to claim that he will be reexamining the topic from a less sentimental and more historical perspective. Thus he begins with the exploration of consumption and the history of the word itself (a blanket term for all wasting diseases) and notes that Sterne suffered from chronic (or “slow”) consumption of the lungs. Lawlor examines the way in which this slow disease permeated and affected Sterne’s writing style, noting that “the irregularity of this disease-time traumatizes the narrative” (50). Through several readings of medicinal manuals from the Eighteenth Century, Lawlor is able to elaborate on Sterne’s understanding of time, since those works often stressed the terminal nature of consumption and states, “When Sterne is truly threatened by death, the effect of this trauma is a change of tempo, albeit a panicked one” and the pace of Tristram Shandy picks up dramatically at the beginning of volume seven (51). In the section entitled “Accidental Narratives,” Lawlor links Death as the “mistaken caller” in Volume Seven to the rest of the accidents in the novel (the deformed nose, the window-sash scene), noting that the reason for such frequent accidents is the fact that time, for the consumptive, was incredibly disjointed since death was eventual but could come at any time, rather that moment be sooner or later. In short, Lawlor believes that the reason the novel is so jumpy and difficult to follow is because of Sterne’s (and Tristram’s) illness which causes the “fits and starts” of coughing as well as the incoherent sense of time; subsequently, Yorick represents Sterne’s wish for a peaceful and short death from consumption, rather than a life ruled by it.

While Lawlor presents some radical and fascinating ideas in this article, it is a bit difficult to wade through. His organization is questionable, and his topic seems rather broad. One could easily take a small portion of his evidence and tease it out into a much larger argument. However, the main point is simple and clear and most certainly one that deserves serious consideration within the canon of critical works on Sterne since it provides such a comprehensive view of consumption in the Eighteenth Century.

Mazella, David. “‘Be wary, sir, when you imitate him’: The Perils of Didacticism in

Tristram Shandy.” Studies in the Novel 31.2 (1999): 152-178. EBSCOhost. Web. 2 Apr. 2010.

Mazella examines Sterne’s views on morality as displayed in Tristram Shandy. Mazella’s article starts by summing up Sterne’s beliefs: the best character to show the reader moral rightness is a three-dimensional one, and it is impossible for the author to be the exemplar of good morals through the narrative. Going on to discuss Sterne and morality further, Mazella differentiates between the two ways to go about learning about morality; those being dissection and preaching, which are evident in Walter and Uncle Toby, respectively. Thus, and through comparing Sterne’s view on characters as morality dispensatories with Johnson’s, etc., Mazella criticizes Sterne’s take on morality as told via the narrative by using examples he collected from the text: the book, the Tristra-paedia, which was meant to impart unto Tristram and other impressionable readers the knowledge with which one can live a good and decent life; however, the finishing of the encyclopedia of life-living was stymied by all sorts of intellectual diversions that are due to Walter’s faltering. Mazella gives other such examples of proof of the lack of moral culpability.

Mottolese, William C. “Tristram Cyborg and Toby Toolmaker: Body, Tools, and Hobbyhorse in

Tristram Shandy.” SEL 47.3 (2007): 679-701. ProjectMUSE. Web. 10 Apr. 2010.

Mottolese opens by discussing the ways in which there is a drastic disconnect between the body and mind in Tristram Shandy, even quoting Sterne (or Shandy) himself in his praise of the Pythagoreans who are capable of separating the body from the mind. His main argument is that the hobbyhorse serves as a mechanical tool to help connect the minds with the broken bodies (nose injuries, impotence, etc.) in Tristram Shandy. Mottolese notes that while, for a child, a hobbyhorse is a plaything or diversion, for an adult it can become cathartic and links the body with the soul (just as it helps Toby to regain his sexual prowess). He explores the notion that in the Eigtheenth-Century, life was frequently put into the metaphorical terms of mathematics and technology (he even goes so far as to say that life could be hypothesized as obstetrical) and subsequently notes that a “cyborg” view of man as body, soul and machine (hobbyhorse) would have been an “attractive, even necessary, image” (684). Mottolese notes that “tools preceded language as a way for the body to express or to communicate the mind” which would make the hobbyhorse not only an effective tool for communicating to others, but also for the mind the communicate to the body and relieve the impotence that plagues the novel (684). In his first section, Mottolese goes through an extensive examination of Eighteenth-Century concepts of tools, including exercise rooms (which he links to Toby’s physical hobbyhorse behavior of constant building). In the second section, he goes on to discuss how Tristram himself links his writing to various tools, like Momus’ glass, with his physical tool being that of the pen, which lets the body communicate the ideas of the mind. Finally, Mottolese’s third section examines Toby, noting that his hobbyhorse is a much more useful tool than Tristram’s, since his mapping and building help him to overcome the physical and mental disconnect by the end of the novel. Mottolese concludes by noting that perhaps Sterne’s novel is indicative of the Eighteenth-Century mindset and the shift toward an appreciation and dependence on technology.

Mottolese’s article is most certainly a fascinating one that not only presents the new idea of the “cyborg” in Tristram Shandy, but also does an excellent job of incorporating previous criticism on the subject of the hobbyhorse that not only supports his argument well but also provides a helpful history on the subject as a whole.

Book Review:

New, Melvyn. “’Read, read, read, read, my unlearned reader!’: Five Twenty-First-Cen-

tury Studies of Laurence Sterne and His Works.” Eighteenth Century Studies 43.1: 122-135. ProjectMUSE. Web. 10 Apr. 2010.

While it is not common to include book reviews in an annotated bibliography, we felt that

this would be an important piece to point to for those writing on Sterne. New gives not only excellent summaries but also honest critiques of these five works and points to specific chapters that are of relevance to Sterne scholars. Anyone searching for new critical works on Sterne might find this to be a helpful resource before digging through the stacks.