The Cambridge Companion to Narrative

The Cambridge Companion to Narrative provides a unique and valuable overview of current approaches to narrative study.

David Herman (Edited by)

9780521673662, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 July 2007

328 pages, 4 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15 x 1.8 cm, 0.52 kg

'A precious addition to our library, yes, no matter what level students of narrative we are.' University of Debrecen

The Cambridge Companion to Narrative provides a unique and valuable overview of current approaches to narrative study. An international team of experts explores ideas of storytelling and methods of narrative analysis as they have emerged across diverse traditions of inquiry and in connection with a variety of media, from film and television, to storytelling in the 'real-life' contexts of face-to-face interaction, to literary fiction. Each chapter presents a survey of scholarly approaches to topics such as character, dialogue, genre or language, shows how those approaches can be brought to bear on a relatively well-known illustrative example, and indicates directions for further research. Featuring a chapter reviewing definitions of narrative, a glossary of key terms and a comprehensive index, this is an essential resource for both students and scholars in many fields, including language and literature, composition and rhetoric, creative writing, jurisprudence, communication and media studies, and the social sciences.

Part I. Preliminaries: 1. Introduction David Herman
2. Toward a definition of narrative Marie-Laure Ryan
Part II. Studying Narrative Fiction: A Starter-kit: 3. Story, plot, and narration H. Porter Abbott
4. Time and space Teresa Bridgeman
5. Character Uri Margolin
6. Dialogue Bronwen Thomas
7. Focalization Manfred Jahn
8. Genre Heta Pyrhönen
Part III. Other Narrative Media (A Selection): 9. Conversational storytelling Neal R. Norrick
10. Drama and narrative Brian Richardson
11. Film and television narrative Jason Mittell
12. Narrative and digital media Nick Montfort
Part IV. Further Contexts for Narrative Study: 13. Gender Ruth Page
14. Rhetoric/ethics James Phelan
15. Ideology Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck
16. Language Michael Toolan
17. Cognition, emotion, and consciousness David Herman
18. Identity/alterity Monika Fludernik
Further reading
Glossary
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary theory [DSA]