AtD, re those predictive maps (and other foretellings)...while learnin' me some Dante

[David Payne]

On Wed, 28 May 2008 (18:21:15 -0700), Mark (markekohut at yahoo.com) wrote:

> The Comedy iteself:
>
>Written by Dante Alighieri in 1306 - 21. The time setting when the book begins is in 1300, so he uses his knowledge of the present to "predict" events.

In "Encyclopedic Narrative: From Dante to Pynchon," Mendelson (1976) identified this "trick" as a common feature of what he calls the "encyclopedic narrative," a genre that he attempts to define/describe after stating that he only knows of seven examples: 

* Dante’s "Commedia"
* Rabelais’ five books of Gargantua and Pantagruel
* Cervantes’ "Don Quixote"
* Goethe’s "Faust"
* Melville’s "Moby Dick"
* Joyce’s "Ulysses"
* Pynchon’s "Gravity’s Rainbow" 

He also suggests, "No doubt there are others (Camoes’ _Os Lusiadas_, for example), occupying comparable positions in national literature of which I know far too little to say anything."

Anyhow, it's an interesting essay; one of the key points of it is, I think, the argument that "Gravity's Rainbow" belongs in this "class." If you have JSTOR access (perhaps through your public library's website), see: http://www.jstor.org/pss/2907136
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