Comparing J. D. Salinger’s colloquial “skaz” and Vladimir Nabokov’s “fancy prose,” analyze how the respective styles shape their narratives. If the plots remained the same, could the styles have been swapped?

Explore the concept of “productive ambiguity” by analyzing Lodge’s treatments of the unreliable narrator in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, unresolved mystery in Rudyard Kipling’s “Mrs. Bathurst,” and aporia in Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable.

Lodge frames his book with the chapters “Beginning” and “Ending,” ultimately arguing that a novel is a Gestalt where all parts are interdependent. Analyze how Lodge uses this framing structure in his own book. How do his thematically arranged, non-sequential chapters work together to support his final thesis?

The guide notes that Lodge’s literary examples are drawn almost exclusively from the British and American canon. How does this selection shape his definition of “the art of fiction”?

Lodge introduces the Russian Formalist concept of “defamiliarization” as a key to literary originality, using allegory and juxtaposition as tools to defamiliarize the familiar. Apart from the specific examples mentioned in the text, list three ways in which defamiliarization may work in books you have read.

What is the function of intertextuality in Lodge’s account of the modern novel? Do you agree with Lodge’s view about the centrality of intertextuality in the novel? Use examples from the text to support your argument.

According to Lodge, how does “suspense” differ from “mystery”? Illustrate the difference using narrative excerpts, apart from those quoted by Lodge.

Lodge notes that women writers like Angela Carter embrace magical realism. Why do you think women favor the genre? Use online and textual research to strengthen your answer.