INNOVATIONS PA

The critic F. R. Leavis once called what we think of realism as the"great tradition," meaning the tradition which most distinguishes andcharacterizes the fiction of the Western world from the Romans to thepresent. But the fiction of the Western world is, in fact, bestcharacterized by inventiveness, experimentation, and parody. While thecritical establishment frowns on anything that is either too daring orthat suggests that fiction is a field of play rather than a grimywindow onto the real world, fiction is and always has been an art formthat allows writers the most freedom within which to play. Innovations includes an introduction by the editor and concludes with an extensive list of novels that belong to the real "great tradition" for further reading.