• also called 'parekbasis'(in greek) or 'egressio', 'digressio', 'excursio'(in latin)

Digression is a section of a composition or speech that is an intentional change of subject. In Classical rhetoric since Corax of Syracuse, especially in Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, the digression was a regular part of any oration or composition. (An oratorical discourse shoud have five sections : prelude, narration, argumentation, digression and conclusion. The place of digression is not fixed, So it can come before or after argumentaion). After setting out the topic of a work and establishing the need for attention to be given, the speaker or author would digress to a seemingly disconnected subject before returning to a development of the composition's theme, a proof of its validity, and a conclusion. This use of the digression is still noticeable in many sermons: after the topic, the speaker will introduce a "story" that seems to be unrelated, return to the subject, and then reveal that the story illustrates the speaker's point. A schizothemia is a digression by means of a long reminescence. Rhetoric (from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture. ... Corax (Korax), along with Tisias, was one of the founders of Greek rhetoric. ... Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. ... A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. ...

In literature, the digression (not to be confused with subplot) was a substantial part of satiric works of the 18th century. Works such as Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Diderot's Jacques le fataliste et son maître made digressiveness itself a part of the satire. Sterne's novel, in particular, depended upon the digression, and he wrote, "Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; -- they are the life, the soul of reading; -- take them out of this book (Tristram Shandy) for instance, -- you might as well take the book along with them." This use of digression as satire later showed up in Thomas Carlysle's work. The digression was also used for non-satiric purposes in fiction. In Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, the author has numerous asides and digressive statements that are a side-fiction, and this sort of digression within chapters shows up later in the work of Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Herman Melville, Victor Hugo and others. The novels of Tolstoi, J.D. Salinger, Marcel Proust, Henry Miller, Milan Kundera and Robert Musil are also full of digressions. A subplot is a series of connected actions within a work of narrative that function separately from the main plot. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. ... A Tale of a Tub (play). ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. ... Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784) was a French writer and philosopher. ... Jacques le fataliste et son maître (English title: Jacques the Fatalist and his Master) is a book written by Denis Diderot from the late 1760s to 1778 and published in 1796. ... The usual spelling for the name is Thomas Carlyle and there is an extensive article on him under that heading. ... Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. ... The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (often known simply as Tom Jones) is a comic novel by Henry Fielding. ... Charles Dickens was a prolific writer who was almost always working on a new instalment for a story and rarely missed a deadline. ... William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. ... Herman Melville Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, essayist, and poet. ... Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885) is recognized as one of the most influential French Romantic writers of the 19th century and is often identified as the greatest French writer. ... Coat of arms of Count Leo Tolstoy Tolstoy, or Tolstoi (Russian: Толсто́й) is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from one Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy (i. ... Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic coming-of-age story that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. ... Marcel-Valentin-Louis-Eugène-Georges Proust (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922) was a French intellectual, novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the author of In Search of Lost Time (in French À la recherche du temps perdu, also translated previously as Remembrance of Things Past), a monumental work... Henry Miller photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and, to a lesser extent, painter of German Catholic heritage. ... Milan Kundera (born April 1, 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia) is a Franco-Czech writer. ... Robert Musil (Klagenfurt, Austria, November 6, 1880 – April 15, 1942 in Geneva, Switzerland) was an Austrian writer, author of the unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities (in German, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften), one of the most important modernist novels. ...

In late twentieth-century literature (in post-modern fiction), authors began to use digressions as a way of distancing the reader from the fiction and for creating a greater sense of play. John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman and Lawrence Norfolk's Lempriere's Dictionary both employ digressions to offer scholarly background to the fiction, while others, like Gilbert Sorrentino in Mulligan Stew, use digression to prevent the functioning of the fiction's illusions. Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... John Fowles is an English novelist and essayist. ... The French Lieutenants Woman is a 1969 novel by John Fowles. ... Lawrence Norfolk, a British novelist, produces complex plots seething with detail, largely in historical settings. ... Gilbert Sorrentino (born 1927) is an American novelist and poet. ...

Bibliography

• Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, vol IV.

• Maurice Laugaa, 'le théâtre de la digression dans le discours classique' in Semiotica IV, 1971.

• Randa Sabry, Stratégies discursives, Editions de E.H.E.S.S., Paris, 1992. (known as the best historical and theorical study on the digression in literature and rhetoric. Written in french but still unavailable in english)

• Christine Montalbetti & Nathalie Piegay-Gros, la digression dans le récit, Bertrand-Lacoste, Paris, 1994. (summary book for students)

• Pierre Bayard, Hors-sujet : Proust et la digression, Editions de Minuit, Paris, 1996.