Re: RARA-AVIS: JDM's "All These Condemned" and literary devices

From: Jeff Vorzimmer (jvorzimmer@austin.rr.com)
Date: 20 Aug 2010

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    There was an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in which the story of an accident is told by multiple witnesses entitled "I Saw the Whole Thing".

    The David Markson book, Miss Doll Go Home, tells the story of a murder in Mexico among ex-pat Americans from the perspective of multiple narrators.

    Jeff

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Joseph Lerner" <harry.joseph.lerner@mail.mcgill.ca> To: <rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 8:52 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS: JDM's "All These Condemned" and literary devices

    > Hello All,
    >
    > The other day it occurred to me that it might be interesting to write an article about JDM's use of multiple narrators to convey the same series of events from multiple perspectives in "All These Condemned" in terms of its effectiveness as a literary device. Is it indeed effective or simply confusing? Actually, this is something that has been simmering at the back of my mind for a while, but I recently picked up a copy of JDM's "The Beach Girls", which, unlike most of his books, has a table of contents with all but the last three chapters labelled with the names of characters. I haven't read this book yet, but my first impression (and I could be way off here) is that it may make for an interesting comparison with "All These Condemned."
    >
    > What I would like to ask of all of you is for any recommendations of other examples of multiple narrators/perspectives a la "All These Condemned", that would be useful reading for my proposed article.
    >
    > Thanks in advance!
    >
    > Best,
    > Harry



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