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Rhythm in Prose: The Rolling Waves of Storytelling

August 31, 2020

guest post, Igor Livramento, narrative, pace, sounds

Today’s post on the concept of rhythm in prose is authored by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English.

So you’ve heard of rhythm. It exists most explicitly in music, especially music with drums and beats and looping patterns. It also exists in poetry, with its rhyming and metrical patterns.

Indeed, rhythm is a remarkable feature of our very life and its processes. Think of sleeping, walking, breathing, or having a heartbeat.

No wonder, then, that rhythm in prose is so important. In this post we’ll see how it manifests and why it matters.

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Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”: an Example of Post-Autonomous Fiction

July 12, 2020

Criticism, Writing

guest post, Igor Livramento, Kristen Roupenian, literature, narrative, post-autonomous, writing

Today’s post offers an example of post-autonomous fiction, focusing on Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”. The article is authored by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English.

Having explained what on earth is post-autonomous fiction, this time we’ll see an example of it, focusing on some of its literary specifics. Our example will be a most fascinating story. It appeared on The New Yorker, on December 4th, 2017.

I’m referring to Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”.

What’s so interesting is that the story got more views on a single week than any other one published on the magazine that year. That alone is impressive, but the reaction it got is also worthy of mention.

This reaction was due to a narration technique we’ll explore, and such a technique as applied there increased its post-autonomous status.

Roupenian's "Cat Person" — Whether Roupenian’s “Cat Person” is good in a literary sense is irrelevant. Rather, its importance lies in that it’s indistinguishable from reality.

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Post-Autonomous Fiction: Connecting Realities and Fictions

June 23, 2020

Criticism

academia, criticism, fiction, guest post, Igor Livramento, post-autonomous

Today’s article on post-autonomous fiction is a guest post by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English.

Fiction isn’t the way it used to be, claims Argentinian literary critic Josefina Ludmer on Post-autonomous fiction. But what does this doctor honoris causa mean? What is this autonomy we’ve arrived after?

Understanding autonomy is, unsurprisingly, crucial in understanding post-autonomy and post-autonomous fiction. Which, as we will see, is revealing in terms of understanding the connection between reality and fiction.

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