Sterne’s style challenges the syntax of the narrative: multiple subordination to the same clause  seems to be a triumphant spider web hiding endless and unusual details that require sustained efforts from the part of the reader not to lose the meaning along the unusually long sentences. Precisely this provocative spider web materialised in the present study in the detailed analysis of the syntactic structure of some sentences from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is, in our opinion, the essence of the Sternian digressive style.

Cristina-Elena Brudea

Author

Cristina-Elena Brudea holds a BA in English Language and Literature (2022) from Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania. She currently teaches French and Romanian.