English philology faculty

4. The main themes and characters in the novels of Laurence Sterne.
A primary barrier to communication is what Sterne calls a hobbyhorse; a character is so focused on a topic or behavior that he is dominated and nearly defined by it. Walter Shandy's obsession is theorizing, with little, if any awareness of reality, of the consequences of his theory, or of its effect on others. My uncle Toby's hobbyhorse is obvious–military strategy, battles, and his bowling-green battlefield. Corporal Trim's hobbyhorse is the pleasure of hearing himself talk, and Dr.Slop's hobbyhorse is Catholicism.Another barrier to communication is the association of ideas which often carries the speaker, including the narrator, off on his hobbyhorse. As Dr. Slop is praising the forceps in making deliveries safer, Toby interrupts with the wish that Dr. Slop "had seen what prodigious armies we had in Flanders" (II, xviii, 115, III, i, 125, 126; III, vi, 129). When Trim reads the sermon, the reference to the Inquisiton makes him think of his brother, imprisoned by the Inquisition in Portugal; his belief that the sermon is describing the torments of his brother distresses him profoundly.Full communication does occur, though not with language. Undeniably, the Shandy brothers have different views and often do not understand one another in conversation; Walter loses his temper at Toby's hobbyhorse, and Toby covers his disagreement and occasional disapproval of Walter's theories by smoking his pipe vigorously and, as a last recourse, whistling Lillabullero.Nevertheless, they do communicate, and they communicate through emotion. They share feelings; each loves the other and perceives that he is loved in return. Their closeness is reflected in their companionableness; note how they smoke their pipes together and doze together. They are secure in their relationship with each other, as the following exchange shows; Toby notes, with satisfaction, "the best friends in the world may differ sometimes.–True,–brother Toby, quoth my father, shaking hands with him,–we'll fill our pipes, brother, and then Trim shall go on" (II, xvii, 106). They are able to communicate and to maintain their relationship through their consideration and love for each other. After Walter insults Toby's hobby horse, Toby ust killing everyone at the end of the last battle. Well, almost everyone. British director Michael Winterbottom took up the challenge of bringing Tristram Shandy to the big screen. His Cock and Bull Story starred Steve Coogan in the multiple roles of Tristram and Walter Shandy and as himself. Winterbottom stays true to the anarchic spirit of the novel by making a film about the very impossibility of making a film of a supposedly un-filmable book. Illustrator Martin Rowson has also released a well-reviewed graphic novel version of the book (Overlook Press, 1997), adding further meta-textual complexity by inserting himself into the narrative, as well as rewriting various passages in the style of other famous authors. great deal of critical literature has looked at how Sterne derives pleasure from playing games with the reader's anticipation of a climactic moment that does not find resolution into harmony. In that respect, tactus interruptus proves an efficient strategy. Most recently, W. G. Day, has shown how incomplete syntactic units and an overall rhetoric of fragments that are recurrently interrupted create an overarching system. From a formal viewpoint, Tristram Shandy, in particular, appears to be Sterne's novel in which tactus interruptus is so prominent that it even comprises the serialised publication format (Day 95). In A Sentimental Journey, the “dramatisation of the trope” (Day 98) affects less typography and the layout, except for one striking example commented on by Day, and only really valid for a text in its original edition. After “The Temptation,” which ends in an aposiopetic .