Books Quote by Jose Saramago
“The novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: Literary Theory, 1995
Literature is a fluid space shaped by many narratives, like rivers feeding a sea.
In simple terms: Stories combine to form a vast literary landscape.
Key Takeaway
Explore diverse works to understand the whole.
Themes
literature
fluidity
interconnectedness
metaphor
Mood
analytical
contemplative
Type
academic
theoretical
When to use this quote
- reading
- teaching
- writing
- research
- discussion
Key Concepts
narrative theory
intertextuality
genre theory
Questions to Reflect On
- How does viewing literature as a space change your reading?
- What are the limits of this metaphor?
A Different Perspective
Overemphasis on metaphor may obscure practical analysis.
![“[Michael] Chabon, who is himself a brash and playful and ebullient genre-bender, writes about how our idea of what constitutes literary fiction is a very narrow idea that, world-historically, evolved over the last sixty or seventy years or so - that until the rise of that kind of…” quote by Emily Barton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f18/emily-barton-18422_all-kinds_michael-chabon-who-is-himself-a-brash-an_1676238.jpg)
