Performance and world literature in Laurence Sterne's “Tristram Shandy”

Abstract

This essay seeks to highlight some contemporary readings of the novel The Life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, written by Laurence Sterne. From this general purpose, two complementary goals are established: articulate the passage of "mimesis" to "performance" on the novel by Sterne and check its productivity to a reinterpretation of the concept of Weltliteratur (world literature) starting from Erich Auerbach.