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Sterne's Manicules: Hands, Handwriting and Authorial Property in Tristram Shandy
Author(s) -
WILLIAMS HELEN
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00512.x
Subject(s) - handwriting , lament , property (philosophy) , order (exchange) , literature , art , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology , finance , economics
This article argues that in Tristram Shandy Sterne expresses his desire to be the sole owner of his literary work through images of the hand and handwriting. It explores his experimentation with the typographic manicule and his innovation in representing script in print. I suggest that Sterne represents the hand and handwriting as ambiguous markers of authenticity in order to illustrate and lament the complexities of assigning literary property in this period.