Introduction

First published in 1990, this work offers an analysis of the phenomenon of encyclopaedism in literature. Hilary Clark develops the theory of an encyclopaedic form in the interests of making clear distinctions between the realist narrative form and that of the encyclopaedic-parodic or fictional encyclopaedia. She makes clear the special links that non-realist, parodic fictions have with the forms of essay, Menippean satire and epic, and indeed with the encyclopaedia itself. The study pays particular attention to the way in which literary encyclopaedism has flourished in the twentieth century, with special reference to the works of James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Philippe Sollers.