“A Novel Against the Novel”: David Markson’s Antinovelistic Tetralogy

Abstract

The antinovel is a niche genre which positions itself radically and emphatically against what might be called the conventional novel. It chooses to dispense with such novelistic devices as linear plot, cause-and-effect relation of events, richly delineated setting, verisimilitude and characte-risation. Instead, the antinovel favours anti-mimetic strategies, fragmentation, digression and repetition. This article examines the generic status of David Markson’s tetralogy composed of Reader’s Block (1996), This Is Not a Novel (2001), Vanishing Point (2004) and The Last Novel (2007). Although each book contains the word “novel” either in its title or subtitle, a case is made for classifying them all as antinovels as theorized by Jean-Paul Sartre, J. A. Cuddon, M. H. Abrams and others. A critical and historical introduction to the genre is followed by a commentary on the thematic and formal structure of the tetralogy and a detailed consideration of its antinovelistic elements – the renunciation of plot and character, the prominence of metafiction, and fragmentary construction.

Keywords

• novel
• antinovel
• experimental literature
• fragmentary writing
• metafiction