The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume One

What is the structure of Nin's book, The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume One?

The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume One

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The only real structure to the diary is the inevitable one—chronology. Perhaps because she is a newcomer to America, one might compare her work structurally with the diaries of Lewis and Clark on their westward expedition of discovery. The sense of life unfolding in a rich but seemingly disorganized series of daily events is common to both. The texture of Anais Nin's diary may proceed from the incidental, to the philosophical, to the absurd and to the comical in a single entry. In that sense, the structure reflects the movement of her mind rather than adherence to any preconceived strictures of dramatic tension or plot resolution. The structure resembles "headlines" employed by John Dos Passos in his novel, "1919," in which the narrative follows a jagged course in synchronicity with the times, and "headlines" seemingly ripped from the morning newspaper continually interrupt the flow of events so that the reader experiences a sense of urgency, where a true dramatic tension is impossible because of the nature of a diary.

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The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume One