Laurence Sterne

Sterne, Laurence 

Born Nov. 24, 1713, in Clonmel, Ireland; died Mar. 18, 1768, in London. British writer; most prominent representative of sentimentalism.

Sterne graduated from the school of divinity at Cambridge University in 1738 and became a clergyman. In his parodie novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (vols. 1–9, 1760–67; Russian translation, vols. 1–6, 1804–07), Sterne polemically exaggerated and reduced to absurdity Enlightenment pretensions of having reached a rational understanding of life. Following D. Hume, he also expressed doubt as to the infallibility of the “heart,” the chief category of sentimentalist ethics. The novel’s chaotic composition, eccentricity of narrative manner, and violation of moral taboos called forth a fierce polemic against it. Sterne’s reconsideration of literary canons and traditional concepts of man was continued in his unfinished A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768; Russian translation, 1793). The mechanism of sharp changes in mental states, the capricious play of emotions, and the narrator-hero’s ironical self-analysis all serve to expose the incompleteness and one-sidedness of concepts coming both from the Enlightenment and sentimentalism. Another experiment in psychological studies was the Sermons of Mr. Yorick (vols. 1–2, 1760–69).

Sterne’s influence was particularly strong in France (on Diderot) and Germany (Jean Paul). In Russia, he influenced A. N. Radishchev, N. M. Karamzin, and V. F. Odoevskii; A. S. Pushkin and L. N. Tolstoy expressed their high opinion of him. In the early 20th century, the formal-experimental features of Sterne’s poetics had a revival in “stream-of-consciousness” literature.

WORKS

Works and Life, vols. 1–12. New York, 1904.
Letters. Oxford, 1935.
Zhizn’ i mneniia Tristrama Shendi, dzhentl’mena. Sentimental’noe putesheslvie po Frantsii i Italii. Moscow. 1968.

REFERENCES

Tronskaia, M. L. Nemetskii sentimental’no-iumoristicheskii roman epokhi Prosveshcheniia. Leningrad, 1965.
Elistratova, A. A. Angliiskii roman epokhi Prosveshcheniia. Moscow, 1966.
Cross, W. Life and Times of Laurence Sterne. New Haven, 1929.
The Winged Skull London [1971].
Thomson, D. Wild Excursions: The Life and Fiction of Laurence Sterne. London [1972].
Hartley, L. Laurence Sterne in the Twentieth Century. Chapel Hill [1966].

V. A. KHARITONOV