The historical novel reveals contradictions of content becoming contradictions of form

Evidence

In the purely literary realm, this is nowhere so strikingly evident as in precisely that literary form which takes history for its object, namely in the historical novel itself. Here if anywhere the primacy of the logic of the raw material over the form is absolute, and the process through which the contradictions of the historical object are transformed into the contradictions of the form can be observed openly, as in a laboratory experiment. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 695

Categorization

• XREF: This ‘laboratory experiment’ framing of the historical novel is the dialectical-critical move that ties Jameson back to Lukács’s theory of the genre in The Historical Novel. — connects to: Lukács’s Theory of the Novel harbors a form-content contradiction that undermines its conclusions — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 368; Historical novelty is generated from the contradictions of a specific situation, not from freedom. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 57; Literature formally resolves, in the imaginary, social contradictions that cannot be resolved in reality — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 740 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Lukács’s Theory of the Novel harbors a form-content contradiction that undermines its conclusions #corroborates (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 368
• Historical novelty is generated from the contradictions of a specific situation, not from freedom. #corroborates (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 57
• Literature formally resolves, in the imaginary, social contradictions that cannot be resolved in reality #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 740
• Literary style flaws reflect their authors’ historical moment, not merely personal failure. #corroborates (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 98
• A novel’s symbolic claims can exceed the terms that render its characters coherent #complicates (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 250