Plots and Counterplots: The Structure of <i>Light in August</i>
TL;DRAbstract
FROM the first reviews to some of the most recent articles, critics of Light in August have been anxious about the novel's structure. Praise of its characterization, themes, language, mythic strength, and so on, has been characteristically given despite an acknowledged formal instability. Disturbing the numerous accolades the novel has received is an audible undercurrent of critical doubt: Where is its structural coherence? What of its unity? Is there wholeness? Comprehensive design? The question of the novel's narrative structure has invaded, tacitly or openly, almost every discussion of the text, avowedly formalist or not.
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FROM the first reviews to some of the most recent articles, critics of Light in August have been anxious about the novel's structure. Praise of its characterization, themes, language, mythic strength, and so on, has been characteristically given despite an acknowledged formal instability. Disturbing the numerous accolades the novel has received is an audible undercurrent of critical doubt: Where is its structural coherence? What of its unity? Is there wholeness? Comprehensive design? The question of the novel's narrative structure has invaded, tacitly or openly, almost every discussion of the text, avowedly formalist or not.
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