City of God | Literary Precedents

City of God Literary Precedents

The classic example of the jumbled-plot novel, with miscellaneous extraneous elements thrown in among the fragments of elusive plot, is Lawrence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1760-1767). A more recent example of multiple-narrative discontinuity (more nearly approximating City of God) with popular culture and (auto)biographical miscellany, is John Dos Passes' trilogy U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936).

The subject of motion pictures or TV exerting so powerful an effect on viewers that their lives are merged with the screen characters' lives has been treated a number of times before, although seldom as convincingly as in City of God. The following novels, short stories, and motion picture are examples of the screen (movie or TV) taking over, to a greater or lesser extent, the lives or the imaginations of their watchers, fans, victims. "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" (short story by...
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