The Poetics of Prose by Tzvetan Todorov
Published 1971 · 68,000 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is The Poetics of Prose to read?
The Poetics of Prose scores 63 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
- Structuralist terminology such as fabula, sjuzhet, and diegesis requires familiarity with narratology.
- Sentence structure: 62 out of 100
- Abstraction: 80 out of 100
- Operates primarily at the level of abstract narrative categories and formal relations.
- Information density: 78 out of 100
- Compact theoretical arguments with dense taxonomic content.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Analytical in intent with some indirection in moving between theory and example.
- Symbolic density: 14 out of 100
- Discusses symbolic structures in primary texts without high symbolic register itself.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Largely earnest structuralist analysis throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Theoretical claims are stated conclusively.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Essay collection with interlocking theoretical concerns across chapters.
How The Poetics of Prose is regarded
The Poetics of Prose holds a literary regard score of 86 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.