Essentials of the Theory of Fiction , livre ebook
521
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English
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2005
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521
pages
English
Ebooks
2005
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
06 juillet 2005
EAN13
9780822386599
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
1 Mo
What accounts for the power of stories to both entertain and illuminate? This question has long compelled the attention of storytellers and students of literature alike, and over the past several decades it has opened up broader dialogues about the nature of culture and interpretation. This third edition of the bestselling Essentials of the Theory of Fiction provides a comprehensive view of the theory of fiction from the nineteenth century through modernism and postmodernism to the present. It offers a sample of major theories of fictional technique while emphasizing recent developments in literary criticism. The essays cover a variety of topics, including voice, point of view, narration, sequencing, gender, and race. Ten new selections address issues such as oral memory in African American fiction, temporality, queer theory, magical realism, interactive narratives, and the effect of virtual technologies on literature. For students and generalists alike, Essentials of the Theory of Fiction is an invaluable resource for understanding how fiction works.Contributors. M. M. Bakhtin, John Barth, Roland Barthes, Wayne Booth, John Brenkman, Peter Brooks, Catherine Burgass, Seymour Chatman, J. Yellowlees Douglas, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Wendy B. Faris, Barbara Foley, E. M. Forster, Joseph Frank, Joanne S. Frye, William H. Gass, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Gerard Genette, Ursula K. Heise, Michael J. Hoffman, Linda Hutcheon, Henry James, Susan S. Lanser, Helen Lock, Georg Lukacs, Patrick D. Murphy, Ruth Ronen, Joseph Tabbi, Jon Thiem, Tzvetan Todorov, Virginia Woolf
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Publié par
Date de parution
06 juillet 2005
EAN13
9780822386599
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
1 Mo
E S S E N T I A L S of theTheory of Fiction
E S S E N T I A L S f thTheory of Fiction o e
edited bymichael j. hoffman andpatrick d. murphy
[E D I T I O NT H I R D ]
Duke University Press
Durham and London
2005
∫2005 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of
America on acid-free paper$
Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan
Typeset in Janson by Keystone
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[C O N T E N T S]
Preface to the Third Edition vii
Introduction 1
henry james13The Art of Fiction virginia woolfMr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown 21 e. m. forsterFlat and Round Characters 35 m. m. bakhtin43Epic and Novel joseph frank61Spatial Form in Modern Literature roland barthes75Writing and the Novel wayne boothDistance and Point of View: An Essay in Classification 83
georg lukács101Marxist Aesthetics and Literary Realism william h. gass113The Concept of Character in Fiction gérard genetteTime and Narrative inA la recherche du temps perdu121
seymour chatmanDiscourse: Nonnarrated Stories 139
tzvetan todorovReading as Construction 151 john barthThe Literature of Replenishment 165 henry louis gates, jr.The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey 177
peter brooksReading for the Plot 201 rachel blau duplessisBreaking the Sentence; Breaking the Sequence 221
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barbara foleyThe Documentary Novel and the Problem of Borders 239 joanne s. fryePolitics, Literary Form, and a Feminist Poetics of the Novel 255 linda hutcheon‘‘The Pastime of Past Time’’: Fiction, History, Historiographical Metafiction 275 helen lock‘‘Building Up from Fragments’’: The Oral Memory Process in Some Recent African-American Written Narratives 297 wendy b. farisScheherazade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction 311 jon thiemThe Textualization of the Reader in Magical Realist Fiction 339 ruth ronen351Are Fictional Worlds Possible? ursula k. heiseChronoschisms 361 susan s. lanserQueering Narratology 387 catherine burgassA Brief Story of Postmodern Plot 399 john brenkman411On Voice j. yellowlees douglasWhat Interactive Narratives Do That Print Narratives Cannot 443 joseph tabbiA Media Migration: Toward a Potential Literature 471
Biographical Notes 491
Permissions 495
Index 499
[T O P R E FA C E T H I R D T H E E D I T I O N]
When in the mid-1980s we began to think about this book, we did some research into our potential competition. We discovered at that time that no collection of essays on the theory of fiction had been published for more than ten years and that all the older editions were now out of print. There were a number of anthologies of literary theory, which often included an essay or two on the theory of fiction, but there were no collections that served serious students of fiction who were interested in covering that field or wanted a text that their own students could use in a course on the novel. It seemed clear then, and it remains so now, that there is a serious need for such a text, given the proliferation of courses on prose fiction at colleges and universities and because the theory of fiction is a burgeoning subdivi-sion in the study of literary theory. What we have tried to provide inEssen-tials of the Theory of Fictionis a single text that contains the best and most current essays written on the major topics in the theory of fiction so that readers can experience that field at its highest level. We conceive of our audience as consisting of educated general readers as well as scholars. Our criteria of selection are (1) those texts traditionally con-sidered ‘‘classics,’’ (2) those that reflect the concerns of the most important scholars and critics, (3) those that are the best in their quality of thought and exposition, and (4) those that are the most readable and well written. The reader should know that we have excluded essays that we found needlessly obscure or poorly written, no matter how much they might have repre-sented the most ‘‘advanced’’ ideas. Within these strictures, our focus in all three editions ofEssentialshas been both historical and topical, so we present the essays in chronological order of their publication. We have also tried to represent those topics that have defined the field, and in an attempt to stay current with that discussion, we have in each edition replaced almost a third of the essays that appeared in the previous one. Some readers may wish to read the book straight through in order to
follow the field’s historical development; others may wish to dip in here and there, following their interests of the moment. Instructors may wish to use the essays to introduce fictional topics in conjunction with the reading of specific stories, novellas, or novels. Experience also shows that the book can be used in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course that stresses the historical development of fiction and its accompanying criticism. In the introduction, we introduce readers to the field, state something about its history, and describe some of the categories and terms under which discussion of narrative theory has taken place. Unlike the introductions to many anthologies, ours says comparatively little about each of the essays we have chosen or about their authors, letting the essays speak for themselves. Nonetheless, careful readers will note that in a discipline like this one, such essays always exist in a kind of dialogue—occasionally explicit, perhaps most often implicit—with one another.
Having worked together for almost twenty years on three editions of this book, we have experienced both the joys and the synergy connected with collaboration. This is certainly a better book than either of us could have produced alone. In addition, however, there are others who deserve a word of thanks. In particular, we are grateful to Reynolds Smith, our editor at Duke University Press, for all three versions ofEssentials.His enthusiastic support and thoughtful editing have made our job a pleasure. Patrick Mur-phy wishes to thank Danielle Impellitier, who, as his graduate research assistant, helped locate potential new essays for the third edition. We both would like to thank all the professors and students who have provided comments about the first two editions that have helped us to improve and updateEssentialswith this third edition.
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preface to the third edition
[I N T R O D U C T I O N]
Who was the first storyteller? A lonely hunter consoling his fellows on a cold northern evening far from home? A mother calming a frightened child with tales of gods and demigods? A lover telling his intended of fantastic exploits, designed to foster his courtship? The reader can multiply the number of possibilities, but we will never know the answer, for the impulse to tell stories is as old as the development of speech, far older than the invention of writing. It has deep psychological springs we do not fully comprehend, but the need to make up characters, and to place them in worlds that are parallel to our own or are perhaps wildly at variance with it, is part of the history of all peoples, cultures, and countries; there is no known human group that has not told tales. Oral cultures are great sources for students of the theory of fiction. Researchers have established that in those that still exist, the storyteller (or bard) is highly revered for the ability to relate from memory a number of verse narratives of enormous length, told within the regularities of meter and conventional figures of language that aid the memory, containing the stories of characters known to listeners who share in a common folklore and myth. These stories, about familiar characters in recognizable situations, do not engage their audience in the mysteries of an unresolved plot, for the listeners know the story already, have heard it told before, and are often as familiar with its events as they are with events in their own lives. Then why do they listen? Beyond the story itself, the audience concerns itself with the voice and manner of the teller of the tale; the texture and density of the story’s material; the fit of the characters with the audience’s expectations about how human beings, gods, demigods, and mythic heroes behave in a world something like their own. For such people—as for ourselves— fictions have an extraordinary explanatory power; they make clear why, for instance, there are seasons, why there is an underworld for the spirits of dead ancestors, why there is one royal line of descent and not another. We begin this collection of essays on the theory of fiction with a discus-
