American Literature / Unit 12 AML 1118 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Dreiser's Prose and Its Defenders
Captions available
The idea
Dreiser's sentences are heavy and often clumsy, and critics have complained about them for a century while conceding that the novels work anyway. The argument for him is that the accumulation of detail produces a weight no more elegant writer achieves.
In practice
Graceless sentences, cumulative force.
Where people slip
The stylistic complaint is standard and old.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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