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, it explains critical vocabulary and offers a variety of strategies for analysing the formal qualities of fiction. Suzanne 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

Contents Preface: Studying Narrative Form Major Approaches to and Theorists of Narrative Shapes of Narrative: A Whole of Parts Narrative Situation: Who's Who and What's its Function People on Paper: Character, Characterization, and Represented Minds Plot and Causation: Related Events Timing: How Long and How Often? Order and Disorder Levels: Realms of Existence Fictional Worlds and Fictionality Disguises: Fiction in the Form of Non-Fiction Texts Genres and Conventions Appendix A. Terms Listed by Chapter Appendix B. Representative Texts: A List of Suggested Reading Bibliography Index

Author Biography

SUZANNE KEEN is Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, where she teaches modern, contemporary and postcolonial narrative fiction. She is the author of two books on English fiction and articles on Thomas Hardy, Jeanette Winterson, Anthony Burgess, Peter Ackroyd and Seamus Heaney.