I. Polemics of the Novel Form

Thus, the novel, in contrast to other genres whose existence resides within the finished form, appears as something in process of becoming. [....] As form, the novel establishes a fluctuating yet firm balance between becoming and being; as the idea of becoming, it becomes a state. Thus the novel, by transforming itself into a normative being of becoming, surmounts itself. 'The voyage is completed: the way begins.'
Georg Lukács, The Theory of the Novel (1920)

Mr. Joyce has written one novel--the Portrait; Mr. Wyndham Lewis has written one novel--Tarr. I do not suppose that either of them will ever write another 'novel.'
T. S. Eliot, "'Ulysses', Order, and Myth" (1923)

THE NOVEL IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE NOVEL
Harry Crosby, Stuart Gilbert, Eugene Jolas,
Theo Rutra, and Robert Sage, transition (1928)

Everything that was literature has fallen from me. There are no more books to be written, thank God.

This then? This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty ... what you will. I am going to sing for you, a little off key perhaps, but I will sing. I will sing while you croak, I will dance over your dirty corpse....
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer (1934)