In this ground-breaking work, Monika Fludernik combines insights from literary theory and linguistics to provide a challenging new theory of narrative. This theory is based upon insights from three areas of research: 'natural' cognitive linguistics; the sociolinguistic concept of 'natural' narrative; and the argument for 'naturalization', ie: our ability to impose meaning on seemingly diverse textual elements. This book is both an historical survey and theoretical study, with the author drawing on an enormous range of examples from the earliest oral narratives to contemporary experimental fiction. She uses these examples to prove that recent literature, far from heralding the final collapse of narrative represents the epitome of a centuries-long developmental process. Unlike traditional narrative theories, Fludernik's 'natural narratology' is capable of embracing all types of narrative, such as the joke, the medieval poem and the post-modern novel.