Research Catalog

Title

Narrativity : theory and practice / Philip J.M. Sturgess.

Author

Sturgess, Philip John Moore.

Publication

Oxford [England] : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 322 pages; 23 cm

Summary

Defining narrativity as the enabling force of narrative, this is the first full-length exploration in English of the concept. It develops the notion of a 'logic of narrativity', and by this means tries to contribute a new critical strategy to the field of narrative theory. The book also takes issue with a number of critical approaches which in recent years have acquired near-orthodox status in the matter of textual interpretation. Most prominent amongst these approaches are deconstruction and a particular form of Marxist criticism. The author's own theoretical claims are substantiated by readings of major twentieth-century novels by Conrad, Joyce, Flann O'Brien and Arthur Koestler and the book concludes with an analysis of an earlier narrative, Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, which illustrates the wider premisses of the theory and its applications.

Subject

• English fiction > History and criticism > Theory, etc
• English fiction > History and criticism
• Narration (Rhetoric)
• Fiction > Technique
• English fiction
• Verteltheorie
• Letterkunde
• Engels
• Roman anglais > Histoire et critique
• Narration
• Roman > Technique

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [312]-316) and index.

Contents

Narrativity and its Definitions -- A Logic of Narrativity -- Narrativity and Double Logics -- Narrativity and the Case against Contradiction -- Narrativity, Structure, and Spatial Form -- Narrativity and the French Perspective -- The Practice of Narrativity -- The Logic of Duplicity and Design in Under Western Eyes -- A Story of Narrativity in Ulysses -- Narrative Despotism and Metafictional Mastery: The Case of Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds -- A Double Logic and the Nightmare of Reason: Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon -- Conclusion: A Reading of Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent.

ISBN

• 0198119542
• 9780198119548

LCCN

92012027

OCLC

• ocm25631364
• 25631364
• SCSB-1965612

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library