I-II Eighteenth Century Literary/Intelectual Background.

I-II EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LITERARY/INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND

Trying to place Sterne and his Tristram Shandy in context, the Shandean instructor traced the Western realistic and unrealistic tradition back to their origins in both Greek and Christian Culture. As usual, the Shandean instructor was misunderstood to be digressive rather than progressive, and later the point of juncture was figured out. The following notes on the Greek mind, Homer’s Odyssey, Biblical stories, and the heritage of realism in general represent the efforts of the Shandean students to help establish this point of juncture between eighteenth century realistic norms and unrealistic deviations on one hand and their genealogy in Western thought on the other hand.