Not Enough Too Much: On the Significance of Excess in Fiction

Abstract

This critical essay positions “excess”—borrowing from the filmic concept defined by critic Kristin Thompson—as a powerful tool for authors of literary fiction to manipulate their readers’ experience of a text. Literary excess is defined in its stylistic and structural form with examples from prominent mid-century authors, then analyzed for its perceptive effect. The core argument of this essay is for a greater appreciation of aesthetics and impulsivity. It posits that a work of fiction’s bewildering qualities (bizarre sentence structure, pointless digressions, distracting characters) force the reader to reject analysis and be transported. Key novels used to support this argument include: Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus, Don DeLilo’s White Noise and Joy Williams’s The Changeling.