Narrative Form

S. Keen

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2003
• Topic: Literature
• Print ISBN:
  9780333960974
  9780333960967
• Subtopic: Literature General
• eBook ISBN:
  9780230503489
• Index: Literature

This handbook concisely introduces narrative form to advanced students of fiction. Beginning with a survey of major theorists and approaches, and using clearly defined terms, Narrative Form explains critical vocabulary and offers a variety of strategies for analyzing the formal qualities of fiction. Keen suggests that interpretations of form can be effectively integrated with contemporary approaches to literature, including feminist, postcolonial, and cultural studies methodologies. Narrative Form shows how to use the language of formal analysis accurately and innovatively.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface: Studying Narrative Form
• 1 Major Approaches to and Theorists of Narrative
• 2 Shapes of Narrative: A Whole of Parts
• 3 Narrative Situation: Who's Who and What's its Function
• 4 People on Paper: Character, Characterization, and Represented Minds
• 5 Plot and Causation: Related Events
• 6 Timing: How Long and How Often?
• 7 Order and Disorder
• 8 Levels: Realms of Existence
• 9 Fictional Worlds and Fictionality
• 10 Disguises: Fiction in the Form of Nonfiction Texts
• 11 Genres and Conventions
• Appendix A: Terms Listed by Chapter
• Appendix B: Representative Texts: A List of Suggested Readings
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index