Tristram Shandy/Agonistic

Next is the characteristic of orality to be agonistically toned—that is, challenging the listener through riddles to engage him in intellectual combat. Tristram is basically a riddle in itself; it offers a series of clues and sequences (not in chronological order) to be unraveled by the reader in an attempt to piece together the narrative of Tristram’s life. This challenge is a common theme throughout the book, as well as in Sterne’s contemporaries’ works. Called “learned satire,” it was as much an attempt to challenge the reader as it was to ‘show off’ intellectually. Riddles were not only used to store knowledge within the oral tradition, they were also used to engage listeners in combat.