Basic Elements of Narrative
1. Edition January 2009
272 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Basic Elements of Narrative outlines a way of thinking about
what narrative is and how to identify its basic elements across
various media, introducing key concepts developed by previous
theorists and contributing original ideas to the growing body of
scholarship on stories.
* Includes an overview of recent developments in narrative
scholarship
* Provides an accessible introduction to key concepts in the
field
* Views narrative as a cognitive structure, type of text, and
resource for interpersonal communication
* Uses examples from literature, face to face interaction,
graphic novels, and film to explore the core features of
narrative
* Includes a glossary of key terms, full bibliography, and
comprehensive index
* Appropriate for multiple audiences, including students,
non-specialists, and experts in the field
The Elements.
Preface.
The Scope and Aims of This Book.
Storytelling Media and Modes of Narration.
Acknowledgments.
1. Getting Started: A Thumbnail Sketch of the Approach
Developed in This Book.
Toward a Working Definition of Narrative.
Profiles of Narrative.
Narrative: Basic Elements.
2. Background and Context: Framing the Approach.
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Narrative and Narrative
Theory.
Major Trends in Recent Scholarship on Narrative.
3. Back to the Elements: Narrative Occasions.
Situating Stories.
Sociolinguistic Approaches.
Positioning Theory.
The Narrative Communication Model.
Conclusion.
4. Temporality, Particularity, and Narrative: An Excursion
into the Theory of Text Types.
From Contexts of Narration to Narrative as a Type of Text.
Text Types and Categorization Processes.
Narrative as a Text-Type Category: Descriptions vs. Stories vs.
Explanations.
Summing up: Text Types, Communicative Competence, and the Role
of Stories in Science.
5. The Third Element: Or, How to Build a Storyworld.
Narratives as Blueprints for Worldmaking.
Narrative Ways of Worldmaking.
Narrative Worlds: A Survey of Approaches.
Configuring Narrative Worlds: The WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN
Dimensions of Storyworlds.
Worlds Disrupted: Narrativity and Noncanonical Events.
6. The Nexus of Narrative and Mind.
The Consciousness Factor.
Consciousness Across Narrative Genres.
Experiencing Minds: What It's Like, Qualia, Raw Feels.
Storied Minds: Narrative Foundations of Consciousness?.
Appendix.
Reproduction of Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants"
(1927).
Transcript of a Story Told during Face-to-Face Interaction: UFO
or the Devil.
Pages from Daniel's Clowes's Graphic Novel Ghost World
(1997).
Screenshots from Terry Zwigoff's Film Version of Ghost World
(2001).
Glossary.
References.
Index
would be useful to scholars in narrative theory, literary analysis
and sociolinguistics...It is, however, a complete and solid
companion for those con-cerned with the important task of
further developing the field of narrative inquiry." (Discourse
Studies, December 2010)
"In Basic Elements of Narrative the eminent narratologist
David Herman offers new ideas about what narrative is . . .The
interdisciplinary nature of this chicken-and-egg question-whether
narratives represent what it's like to live in our world or we
learn from narratives what it's like to live in our world-serves as
an excellent indication of the breadth of the audience for which
Herman's book will be thought-provoking." (Papers on Language
and Literature, 2010)
