ABSTRACT
Systematic narratological classification helps identify ‘trans-historical’ phenomena which share defining characteristics, but can still change over time in terms of form or function. In the eighteenth century, seminal, long-term social and political shifts (even before the French Revolution) became widely tangible. With society undergoing massive structural changes, literature formed no exception: writers began taking stock and started rigorously to probe and investigate the semantic potential of emergent genres such as the novel, but also the narrative medium itself.
