Earlier this year, I had a conversation with an American literature professor about the earliest examples of science fiction. Then, I helped answer a question on Quora about what the first example of spy stories. And then a week or so ago, I saw this story (“A Multiplicity of Voices: On the Polyphonic Novel“) over on The Millions. It all got me to thinking about this urge to find the very first example of something. It’s hard to spot when trends begin and end, especially in literature. Every time I think I know when something began, I find an even older example.
For instance, the American literature professor pointed out that you can consider Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” an example of early science fiction. And I think that The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s big work, could be considered a work of stream of consciousness in a lot of places–predating the modernist movement by a good fifty plus years. And with the article from The Millions, about novels told by a multitude of narrators, well, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has tons of them. You don’t even have to stretch the definition of genre or style or literary device here.
It is a lot of fun–and dead useful in pub quizzes–to be able to name the first novel or first detective story. But I know that I would probably start an argument (for fun!) about an earlier example. And I know that would evolve in turn into a discussion about what makes a genre a specific genre. Is it a matter of the essence of the story? Or is it a matter of marking off enough checkboxes on a list?
Something to think about.