General Notes on Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel Lecture Notes Dr. Nora Malki 2015

Critical works on the development of the novel in the Western tradition

could not yet answer many questions which relate to its origin and history. Some

of the many questions that researchers could not satisfactorily answer are: Is the

novel a new literary form? Is it a product of the Western literary tradition? And if

it is not, what earlier forms of the novel there were? It is assumed, as we know, that

18th C. novelists were the ones responsible for the emergence of the novel as we

know it today, and that it was begun in English literature by such figures as Defoe,

Richardson and Fielding.

Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel looks at novels around the period of time that

it began to emerge as a literary form. He discusses several exemplary works by

some of the original novel writers, and uses those to make various arguments about

the qualities of the new medium. He believes that the most unusual

characteristic of the novel in comparison to other literary forms was a quality

of realism, in the sense of social realism, as well as in the depth of description

that novels contain.

Watt opens the book with a peculiar question: Is the novel a new literary

form? Then he proceeds to point out that the novel differs from previous literary

genres in that it is characterized by realism. This realism stems from French

realists (like Flaubert). It is not to be defined as the opposite of idealism. Realism

is the attempt at portrayal of all aspects of human experience. Realism lies in the

manner in which life is represented. “The novel’s realism does not reside in the kind

of life it presents, but in the way it presents it.” Correspondence of work with world

it imitates is an epistemological problem (p. 11). The novel rejects universals, and

focuses on the particular. The novel is marked by the attempt to view life

scientifically.

In the middle ages it was universal ideas which were thought to be true

reality. Descartes however hypothesized that reality is perceived by the individual

and is not attached to previous ideas on reality. The development of the novel

reflects this change in philosophy. This notion allowed for novels to detach

themselves of history and of the conventions of a literary genre and create

something "novel".

In the early days of the novel, there was a growing tendency for

General Notes on Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel Lecture Notes Dr. Nora Malki 2015 individual experience to undermine collective tradition (p. 14). Identity exists

through time and contains past thought and actions. Past experience cages present

action (p. 22). Time is seen in novels as a variable, flexible, and interruptible unit

(p. 26). These thematic changes stem from a great deal of social and philosophical

changes, and the rise of the novel could be seen as merely a reflection of a

progressive world.

The changing base of readers changed the desires of general readership. In

the Western tradition, reading started as very much related to religious activity. It

was later in the 17th and early 18th Cs that reading became a pastime reflecting

secular interests (p. 50). There was some looking down on novels and their writers

as having no talent (or genius) that the writers were only out to get money. New

novels grew while unaware of literary tradition (p. 58).

Watt discusses Robinson Crusoe, and how it relates to individualism and

capitalism, which were contemporary ideologies. This thematic concern manifests

in the novel’s setting, which renders a world with the value system of the new order

(p. 65). Defoe’s world is set back chronologically, but deals with contemporary

theory (p. 72).

Defoe’s Moll Flanders is different but preserves the same thematic concerns.

The subject of this novel is the presentation of anti-heroes, lower class citizens, as

ordinary people. This novel is an adventure story, focuses little on action, but more

on the protagonist’s character.

In Richardson’s Pamela, there is a complex interplay between individualism,

capitalism and marriage. Social conditions deny women individualism and

economic power. Marriage becomes expensive as it turns women into trade goods.

Marriage was seen as a ‘market’ and its expensive nature led to many extra-marital

relationships. (p. 143) Emphasis in narrative changes to domestic setting, variation

in extended roles and relationships between social classes. (p. 154) Pamela

concludes with a traditional marriage and middle class sexual ethics. The puritan

ritual bridges the ideal and real, since the relationship is idealized within a realistic

setting. Pamela does not wholly embrace the real, but presents a confused struggle

between the ideal and real. (p. 167)

Sentimentalism arises in novel form: Novels do make people cry. This is not

because of realness of character, but because of private experience (p. 175) Around

General Notes on Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel Lecture Notes Dr. Nora Malki 2015 the rise of the novel, private space became more commonplace (whereas life used to

be much less private in previous eras). Spaces and means of interaction changed.

Privacy afforded by suburbia (in terms of areas outside of the city) and letter

writing. Privacy, especially a room of one’s own (Woolf) was requirement for

women’s emancipation. (p. 188) The novel enables the representation of private

affairs that were impossible to discuss openly. Provides an intimate account with

characters, and brings the reader into the deepest private concerns. (p. 199) The

paradox of private life and the novel: the process of urbanization lead to a way of

life more secluded and less social than before, but enables a literary form that was

more concerned with private life than ever possible. What are paradoxes of other

media and social experience? (p. 206)

According to Watt, Clarissa reflects the maturity of the medium of the Novel.

Why? Complication of simple matter and expansion of characters. The implausible

and didactic aspects of plot are brought into larger dramatic pattern and form of

complexity. “It is this capacity for a continuous enrichment and complication of a

simple situation which makes Richardson the great novelist that he is; and it shows,

too, that the novel had at last attained literary maturity, with formal resources

capable not only of supporting the tremendous imaginative expansion which

Richardson gave his theme, but also leading him away from the flat didacticism of

his critical preconceptions into so profound a penetration of his characters that

their experience partakes of the terrifying ambiguity of human life itself.” (p. 238)

Fielding borrows from epic form. References, but does not actually employ it. Does

not use form, but evokes it, alludes to high standards. Part of evoking nostalgia

from other great works. (Maybe ref Jane Austen Book Club?) (p. 259)

In later tradition of novels, psychological distance and authenticity were

observed by the authors. Jane Austen is a clear example for such a tendency. Austen

can be said to be the successful solution to Richardson and Fielding. “Jane Austen’s

novels, in short, must be seen as the most successful solutions of the two general

narrative problems for which Richardson and Fielding had provided only partial

answers. She was able to combine into a harmonious unity the advantages of both

realism of presentation and realism of assessment, of the internal and the external

approaches to character; her novels have authenticity without diffuseness or

trickery, wisdom of social comment without a garrulous essayist, and a sense of the

social order which is not achieved at the expense of the individuality and autonomy

General Notes on Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel Lecture Notes Dr. Nora Malki 2015 of the characters.” (p. 297)