The Idea of Spatial Form

by Joseph Frank

The Idea of Spatial Form contains the classic essay that introduced the concept of "spatial form" into literary discussion in 1945, and has since been accepted as one of the foundations for a theory of modern literature. It is here reprinted along with two later reconsiderations, one of which answers its major critics, while the second places the theory in relation to Russian Formalism and French Structuralism. Originally conceived to clarify the formal experiments of avant-garde literature, the idea of spatial form, when placed in this wider context, also contributes importantly to the foundations of a general poetics of the literary text. Also included are related discussions of André Malraux, Heinrich Wölfflin, Herbert Read, and E. H. Gombrich.
New material has been added to the essays in the form of footnotes and postscripts to two of them. These either illustrate the continuing relevance of the questions raised, or offer Frank's more recent opinions on the topic.

Genres: Writing, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, Theory, Criticism

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Joseph Frank was professor emeritus of Slavic and comparative literature at Stanford and Princeton. The five volumes of his Dostoevsky biography won a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, two James Russell Lowell Prizes, and two Christian Gauss Awards, and have been translated into numerous languages.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central essay on simultaneity in Modernist form, the spatialization of temporal sequence, is illuminating. You can find it on Jstor

[Alasdair Ekpenyong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compares modern literary history to modern art history and suggests that the two modernisms followed a similar trajectory, abandoning naturalistic representation to pursue the abstract.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult lecuture, but at the end interesting and worth it.

[Sissel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edgar (my indoor bunny) chewed on the book and I thought it made it better.

[Steen Ledet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important study of spatiality in modernist literature but the defense responses are too polemical.

[Dang]

good