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The Art of Subtext

Beyond Plot

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The Art of Subtext

By: Charles Baxter
Narrated by: Mike Lenz
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About this listen

The Art Of series, edited by Charles Baxter, is a new series of brief books by contemporary writers on an important craft issue. Each book investigates an aspect of the craft of fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry by discussing works by authors past and present. The books in The Art Of series are not strictly manuals, but serve listeners and writers by illuminating aspects of the craft of writing that people think they already know but don't really know.

The first book in The Art Of series of books on the craft of writing, fiction writer and essayist Charles Baxter's The Art of Subtext discusses and illustrates the hidden subtextual overtones and undertones in fictional works haunted by the unspoken, the suppressed, and the secreted. As Baxter notes in one essay, "A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unseen." Using an array of examples from Melville and Dostoyevsky to contemporary writers Paula Fox, Edward P. Jones, and Lorrie Moore, Baxter explains how fiction writers create those visible and invisible details, how what is displayed evokes what is not displayed.

©2013 Charles Baxter (P)2022 Scribd Audio Literary History & Criticism Words, Language & Grammar Writing & Publishing Fiction Nonfiction
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Baxter is a very insightful literary critic and I found his remarks about characterization and dialogue particularly interesting. It is an excellent book of literary criticism and I'm not sure why so many readers have given negative feedback because they thought it would be a "manual for writers" and were understandably disappointed. I have both the kindle book and the audiobook and I was shocked when I heard the narrator mispronounce Proust’s name, rhyming it with "oust" (this happened only the first time he mentioned it, later he pronounced the name correctly). I’m not blaming the narrator in particular, but whoever directed the performance and above all Audible’s quality control for their poor job.

excellent book of literary criticism

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