Paul's Case | The Measure of the Music-Prose Rhythm in Willa Cather's Paul's Case
In the following essay, Salemi investigates Cather's use of specific prose rhythms in "Paul's Case," which he maintains are intentional and an outgrowth of the author's classical education.
The elements of an individual prose style are elusive of definition. Although we can sometimes describe a writer's characteristic diction, imagery, and idiomatic preferences, most of our comments will be impressionistic and tentative rather than statistically precise. No writer is perpetually true to type, and fine prose, like every other creative manifestation, is often unpredictable in both its methods and effects. Nevertheless, in a well-established literature the rhetorical mannerisms of certain authors are usually distinguishable after long acquaintance. Habits of syntax and...
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