The Fragmentation of Style in Ann Beattie's Picturing Will

Abstract

The following article examines the application of the notions of fragmentation to the novel Picturing Will written by Ann Beattie. Fragmentation of style in this novel serves as strategy to support Beattie's thematic development. Its employment seems to suggest that totalitarian and hegemonic views to important social institutions such as marriage, parenthood, and family ought to be broken to open different possibilities of new forms of relating within them. At the same time, its employment also serves to disrupt the traditional literary conventions of crafting stories.