The novel’s innovation

The most significant innovation made by the novel tradition is that it has provided a voice to everyone in literature. As one of the latest contemporary novels, Generation X has also employed and developed this innovation by letting those from the middle class to express their ideas through their own voice. Although there are three main characters in Generation X, the novel is mostly narrated through Andy’s perspective. He is a middle-class man, but the novel makes it possible for him to reflect upon many things in his own deviant view. “You see, when you‘re middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you”.[1]  From the mainstream society to their own parents the three characters of Generation X complain about everything caused them confusion. “We live small lives on the periphery; we are marginalized”[2]. This is the underdog’s voice and the novel has made it possible that an ordinary and middle-class man achieve such a voice. Therefore, in novel tradition, the representation of individual in literature becomes autonomous, while the other forms such as poetry and essays are rather conservative. Traditionally, poetry considered as the possession of nobility while essays appeared to be more male-dominated form.  

The voice in novel tradition is developed throughout the time in the various manifestation of the novel. The novel becomes a popular form of literature because of its capacity to depict characters within their own voices. The voice is examined at different times in relation to different types of characters. According to MacKay at the time when the novel was not welcomed yet, it was the money that motivated Defoe to write not glory[3].  Defoe was not aware of the fact that his work was going to establish a new genre. The novel “Robinson Crusoe” demonstrates a voice by which the narrator tells the story from a very personal point of view and reflects upon his extraordinary adventures, and expresses his spiritual observations. “I believe for one man, but I was not satisfied still”[4]. Although Crusoe’s voice mostly follows a similar continuity and signifies his own self-awareness, in the contemporary novel such as Orlando different voices through a polyphonic module, are used to make a diverse narration. “I am the guardian of the sleeping fawn; the snow is dear to me; and the moon rising; and the silver sea […] we have no choice left but confess-he was a woman”[5]. This significant innovation within the novel tradition provides a character to reflect upon various experiences including opposite genders and different state of social life, though it still let the novel to keep verisimilitude.

Bibliography

Coupland, Douglas. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. London: Abacus, 1996.

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Victoria 3008, Australia. Penguin Group (Australia), 2010.

MacKay, Marina. “Origins of the Novel.” In The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel 21-33. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011.

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Vintage Classics. 2004.

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[1] Coupland, Generation X, 171.

[2] Ibid, 14.

[3] MacKay, Origins of the Novel, 54.

[4] Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 58.

[5] Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, 85-87