Alex Woloch, from “Narrative Asymmetry in Pride and Prejudice” [from The One vs. the Many]

In The One vs. the Many, Alex Woloch uses the concept of “character-space” to understand narrative focus in realist novels, examining the roles of both central (“The One”) and subordinated (“The Many”) characters in nineteenth-century fiction. In this chapter, he examines Pride and Prejudice as an example of novels with “the potential to shift the focus away from the established center, toward minor characters” and argues that the “structure of asymmetry” in Austen’s novel is both a “consequence and manifestation of social reality.”

Alex Woloch, from “Narrative Asymmetry in Pride and Prejudice” [from The One vs. the Many]