Literary Precedents for Deadeye Dick

This Study Guide consists of approximately 7 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Deadeye Dick.

Literary Precedents for Deadeye Dick

This Study Guide consists of approximately 7 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Deadeye Dick.
This section contains 103 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy the Deadeye Dick Short Guide

Vonnegut's most obvious literary precedents are his own works, but critics have compared his approach to writing to that of an improvising jazzman for whom plot and character are not as interesting as the sentence he is writing, just as the jazz musician cares about the song only as a means to the end of self-expression.

Vonnegut is often compared to Jack Kerouac, but the two free-form writers improvise in different ways. Another literary ancestor is Laurence Sterne, who in Tristram Shandy (1760-1767) wrote a novel that is more important for how it is written than what is said.

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This section contains 103 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy the Deadeye Dick Short Guide
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Deadeye Dick from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.