The Social Dimensions of Fiction

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

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2. Introduction

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages 1-4

3. The Theoretical Foundations of the Study of Prefaces and the Corpus of the Nineteenth-Century Canadian Novel Prefaces

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages 5-35

4. A Typology of Nineteenth-Century Canadian Novel Prefaces

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages 37-88

5. Systemic Data in the Canadian Novel Prefaces

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages 89-103

6. Analysis of the Systemic Dimensions of the Preface Typologies and of the Systemic Data of the Prefaces

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages 105-140

7. Conclusion

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages 141-142

8. Correction to: The Social Dimensions of Fiction

   • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

   Pages C1-C1

9. Back Matter

   Pages 143-191

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This work is a comparative study of nineteenth-century English-Canadian and French­ Canadian novel prefaces, a previously unexplored literary topic. As a study in Comparative Literature - with the application of a specific literary framework and methodology - the study conforms to theoretical and methodological postulates formulated in and prescribed by this framework when applied. This a priori postulate necessitates that the research on and the presentation of the Canadian novel preface be carried out in a specific manner, as follows. First, the study will establish the hypothesis that the preface to nineteenth-century English-Canadian and French-Canadian novels is a genre in its own right. This hypothesis will rest on the following: 1) a taxonomical survey of related terms meaning "preface"; 2) a survey of secondary Iiterature of works dealing with the preface; 3) a discussion of the theoretical framework and methodology of the Empirical Theory of Literature and its appropriateness for the study of the preface; and 4) a discussion of the process of the compilation of the corpus of nineteenth-century Canadian novel prefaces (Chapter one). In a second step, the theoretical postulate outlined in the hypothesis will be put into practice by the development and production of a preface typology (Chapter two). In a third step, further tenets of the Empirical Theory of Literature will be tested on the corpus of the prefaces (Chapter three). In a fourth step, the prefaces will be analysed following the tenets formulated in and prescribed by the systemic framework applied (Chapter four).

• English
• English literature
• comparative
• corpus
• foundation
• genre
• literature
• methodology
• typology
• will
• literary diction

• Research Institute for Comparative Literature, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

  Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek

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