The Anagonist

This issue of Novel proposes a new type of novelistic hero: the “anagonist.” Unlike the protagonist, the anagonist does not act; or if she does, her action is inconsequential to the work. The concept itself, however, is problematic, for the figure of the anagonist is averse to typology, such that its decisive identification in any particular work is almost impossible. More than a contribution to narrative categories therefore, the appearance of the anagonist as a critical term is a reconceptualization and rethinking of the nature and role of action in the novel form.