SOURCE: "The Structure of Rasselas," in PMLA, Vol. LXVI, No. 5, September, 1951, pp. 698-717.

In the following essay, Kolb discusses the relationship of structure to meaning in Rasselas. Kolb argues that Johnson's story is structurally distinct from the generic eighteenth-century oriental tale, and suggests that the common practice of viewing Rasselas as an oriental tale is misleading and results in an incomplete understanding of the work.

I

In beginning a discussion of the structure of Rasselas one need not spend much time clearing the ground of previous arguments before advancing one's own. What the new commentator must face—and this is perhaps more disturbing than arguments would be—is the almost universal opinion¹ that Rasselas has only the slightest structure and that the little it does have results from Johnson's not too successful effort to write an ordinary novel or "oriental tale."² The narrative is "episodic," unimportant, dull, say...