I've been applying all I've learn, particularly the kind of grammatical schemes detailed here and here, about poetics to extant literature. I picked up Crime and Punishment the other day. The book's now crammed with notes in the margins. It's a slow process, but developing a literary eye and ear seems indispensable to writing. There are loads of things to analyse, like suspense, tension, his lexicon to analyse--but Dostoyevsky's grammatical constructs first struck me.
One technique he uses is to place one short sentence after, on average, two longer, complex sentences. You can see this style below, from the first paragraph of Crime and Punishment.
It surprised me how Dostoyevsky's use of language, and not simply action or description, effected the atmosphere of Crime and Punishment's world. Later on his uses "polysyndeton" effectively to show an oppressive atmosphere: '...and complaints, and have to make excuses and subterfuges...'. The use of grammar, eh. No just knowing what verbs and nouns are...
One technique he uses is to place one short sentence after, on average, two longer, complex sentences. You can see this style below, from the first paragraph of Crime and Punishment.
- (1) She occupied the floor beneath him, and her kitchen, with its usually-open door, was entered from the stairase. (2) Thus, whenever the young man went out, he found himself obliged to pass under the enemy's fire, which always produced a morbid terror, humiliating him and making him knit his brows. (3) He owed her some money and felt afraid of enountering her.
- (1) She occupied the floor beneath him, and her kitchen, with its usually-open door, was entered from the stairase. (2) Thus, whenever the young man went out, he found himself obliged to pass under the enemy's fire, which always produced a morbid terror, humiliating him and making him knit his brows. (3) He owed her some money, from being unable to pay rent since his retreat into solitude, and felt afraid of enountering her.
It surprised me how Dostoyevsky's use of language, and not simply action or description, effected the atmosphere of Crime and Punishment's world. Later on his uses "polysyndeton" effectively to show an oppressive atmosphere: '...and complaints, and have to make excuses and subterfuges...'. The use of grammar, eh. No just knowing what verbs and nouns are...