Full Description
This book provides a concise introduction to lists in literature from the early modern period to the twenty-first century. Tracing the changing functions of the literary list across time, it offers a broad range of case studies which situate selected enumerations in their respective contexts and demonstrate the versatility and creative potential of the list form. Starting with a review of previous research on the literary list, the book discusses four main constellations of enumeration: series and the great chain of being; itemization and enumerative realism; 'letteracettera' and experimental list-making; 'white noise' and creative exploits of enumeration between formal playfulness and existential exploration. The epilogue offers an analytical toolkit for the study of literary lists based on rhetorical theory.
Contents
1 Introduction: Listory: Writing the Literary History of the List.- 2 Series: The Great Chain of Being in the Literary Catalogue.- 3 Itemization: Enumerative Realism and the Problem of Infinity.- 4 Letteracettera: List-Making in Response to the Crises of Modernity.- 5 White Noise: Enumeration for Enumeration's Sake?.- 6 Listology: A Formal Typology of Literary Enumeration.
