ABSTRACT
We have seen how an encyclopaedic mode operates, to varying degrees, in several genres, and determines our perception of their “encyclopaedic” nature. These genres are the essay, the Menippean satire, and the epic. However, the texts we have termed “fictional encyclopaedias” transcend the boundaries of these genres-or include them all. Such texts have characteristics of the more limited genres, and yet seem to form a group on their own. The term “fictional encyclopaedia” emphasizes the notion of an encyclopaedia. Our task now will be to establish the traits of the encyclopaedia as it provides a model for the fictional version. In doing so, we must realize that the encyclopaedia provides a model or metaphor for its fictional counterpart. Fictions such as Moby Dick and Finnegans Wake do not directly imitate the non-fictional encyclopaedia; rather, they translate or transpose the model according to different conventions and intent.
