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Old 02-10-2015, 09:57 AM   #19
RHWright
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Posts: 219
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Join Date: Oct 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasper Hviid View Post
Is a novel written i 2015 in any way different from a novel written in, say, 1965? I have noticed that modern novels has mobile phones in them, but are there other changes?
It's old news that whodunnits aims for social realism. Cyberpunk is rather vintage too. So what's new, if any?
This is an interesting question with lots of angles to unpack and examine.

First, I don't know if "evolve" can be one-for-one conflated with simple change. The analogy of biological speciation and evolution is hard to lay over the aspects of literature.

Also, are we examining literature as a whole, or just the novel? Even if we are just talking the novel, what role does genre play in the discussion? Is it a primary or secondary characteristic?

I think there is no doubt that the popular novel has changed, for many of the reasons already cited. Still, I think what we consider the novel today would be largely recognizable to early practitioners of the form.

What Cervantes, Defoe, or Fielding might think of the merits of the modern popular novel is another discussion entirely.
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