The most striking formal and technical characteristics of
Tristram Shandy
are its unconventional time scheme and its self-declared
digressive-progressive style. Sterne, through his fictional
author-character Tristram, defiantly refuses to present events in their
proper chronological order. Again and again in the course of the novel
Tristram defends his authorial right to move backward and forward in
time as he chooses. He also relies so heavily on digressions that plot
elements recede into the background; the novel is full of long
essayistic passages remarking on what has transpired or, often, on
something else altogether. Tristram claims that his narrative is both
digressive
and progressive,
calling our attention to the way in which his authorial project is
being advanced at the very moments when he seems to have wandered
farthest afield.
By fracturing the sequence of the stories he
tells and interjecting them with chains of associated ideas, memories,
and anecdotes, Tristram allows thematic significance to emerge out of
surprising juxtapositions between seemingly unrelated events. The
association of ideas is a major theme of the work, however, and not
just a structural principle. Part of the novel's self-critique stems
from the way the author often mocks the perverseness by which
individuals associate and interpret events based on their own private
mental preoccupations. The author's own ideas and interpretations are
presumably just as singular, and so the novel remains above all a
catalogue of the "opinions" of Tristram Shandy.
Much of the
subtlety of the novel comes from the layering of authorial voice that
Sterne achieves by making his protagonist the author of his own life
story, and then presenting that story as the novel itself. The
fictional author's consciousness is the filter through which everything
in the book passes. Yet Sterne sometimes invites the reader to question
the opinions and assumptions that Tristram expresses, reminding us that
Shandy is not a simple substitute for Sterne. One of the effects of
this technique is to draw the reader into an unusually active and
participatory role. Tristram counts on his audience to indulge his
idiosyncrasies and verify his opinions; Sterne asks the reader to
approach the unfolding narrative with a more discriminating and
critical judgment.
© "Section10"
Santos, Matilda.
SparkNote on Tristram Shandy. 1 Nov. 2008
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tristram/section10.rhtml