Tristram Shandy as an Anti-Lockean Novel (original) (raw)

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a novel first published in 1759 and written by Laurence Stern (1713-1768). From reading the novel, it's plausible to discern that its main objective is a man doing his best to decipher the experiences around him, but what Tristram doesn't do is present a "closure," which can be interpreted as anti-Lockean intention considering Locke's epistemology highlighted in his Essay on Human Understanding: "'tis the Knowledge of Things that is only to be priz'd; 'tis this alone gives a Value to our Reasonings, and Preference to one Man's Knowledge over another's, that it is of Things as they really are, and not of Dreams and Fancies." (Essay, iv, iv, 282)