The Narrative Shape of Truth

The Narrative Shape of Truth, Volume 1, is a scholarly work of literary criticism and philosophy. Ilya Kliger challenges the common perception of the novel as a genre of truthlessness, arguing instead that the form creates historically specific configurations of truth. This study focuses on the intersection of epistemology and narrative, specifically how the nineteenth-century novel aligns truth with the concept of time.

The text examines European literature through the works of Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. By analyzing these authors alongside leading intellectuals, Kliger explores the evolution of the realist novel from the late eighteenth century. This analysis of French and Russian and Soviet literature suggests that truth is immanent in temporal shapes rather than transcendent principles. The book provides a nonreductive approach to understanding the history of philosophy and modern literary development.