Ian Watt
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Literary critic and literary historian Ian Watt (1917–1999) was a professor of English at Stanford University. His The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (1957) is an important work in the history of the genre.
Although written in 1957, The Rise of the Novel is still considered by many contemporary literary scholars as the seminal work on the origins of the novel, and the social and cultural climate of the time that brought this about. The book's basic premise is that the novel is a product of the cultural and intellectual waves begun in the Renaissance and carried through the Enlightenment. For example, the novel's greater focus on individual psychology can be seen as a reflection of the same currents that caused Descartes to begin his epistemology with the individual, while the relative formlessness of the novel can be seen as part of the move away form imitation and towards creativity characteristic of the time.
[edit] References
The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding; University of California Press (June 4, 2001); ISBN 0-520-23069-8
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Watt, Ian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Literary historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1999 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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