Novel Characters: A Genealogy

(Wiley-Blackwell) This study aims to reinstate character to its proper and central place in the art of fiction. The author argues that the novel is the literary form best suited to create characters of real, often troubling distinction, and that it has a generic disposition, amounting to an obligation, to do so. DiBattista is a professor of English and comparative literature at Princeton.

Paw in print

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PAW’s December 2025 cover, with a photo of Michael Park ’98.
The Latest Issue

December 2025

Judge Michael Park ’98; shifts in DEI initiatives; a night at the new art museum.