Exploring Novelistic Experiments

The speaker discusses two novelistic experiments. Firstly, Laurence Sterne's 'Tristram Shandy' is highlighted as an example of pre-modernism, focusing on the impossibility of beginning and the idea of ensembling the concept of beginning. This contrasts with the modernist approach which emphasizes a different way of thinking about ending as operative in sense-making for the world. Secondly, the last line of Nella Larson's 'Passing' is mentioned as a notable and intriguing line, reflecting on the quality of the novel.