Barton Roman Alexander, Contzen E.V., Rüggemeier A. Literary Lists: A Short History of Form and Function

Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. — 143 p. — ISBN 978-3-031-28371-0.This book provides a concise introduction to lists in literature from the early modern period to the twenty-first century. Tracing the changing functions of the literary list across time, it offers a broad range of case studies which situate selected enumerations in their respective contexts and demonstrate the versatility and creative potential of the list form. Starting with a review of previous research on the literary list, the book discusses four main constellations of enumeration: series and the great chain of being; itemization and enumerative realism; ‘letteracettera’ and experimental list-making; ‘white noise’ and creative exploits of enumeration between formal playfulness and existential exploration. The epilogue offers an analytical toolkit for the study of literary lists based on rhetorical theory.Introduction: Writing the Literary History of Lists
Series: Superabundance and the Scale of Nature in Literary Lists of the Early Modern Period
Itemisation: Enumerative Realism in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Letteracettera: Experimental List-Making in the Age of Modernism
White Noise: Postmodern Enumeration and Fragmented Selves
Epilogue: Towards a Literary-Historical “Listology”