Somebody Telling Somebody Else by James Phelan

Somebody Telling Somebody Else by James Phelan

In Somebody Telling Somebody Else, James Phelan proposes a paradigm shift for narrative theory, a turn from viewing narrative as a structure to viewing it as a rhetorical action in which a teller selectively deploys the resources of storytelling in order to accomplish particular purposes in relation to particular audiences. Phelan explores the consequences of this shift for an understanding of various elements of narrative, including reliable and unreliable narration, character-character dialogue, and occasions of narration.

In doing so, he offers new readings of a wide range of narratives from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, from Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim to George V. Higgins's The Friends of Eddie Coyle, from Franz Kafka's Das Urteil to Toni Morrison's Recitatif, from David Small's Stitches to Jhumpa Lahiri's Third and Final Continent, from John O'Hara's Appearances to Ian McEwan's Enduring Love. Phelan contends that the standard view of narrative as a synthesis of story and discourse is inadequate to handle the complexities of narrative communication, and he demonstrates the greater explanatory power of his rhetorical view. Furthermore, Phelan gives new prominence to the presence and activity of the somebody else, as he shows that an audience's unfolding responses to a narrative often influence its very construction.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780814254318
ISBN 10	0814254314
Title	Somebody Telling Somebody Else
Author	James Phelan
Series	Theory Interpretation Narrativ
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Ohio State University Press
Year published	2017-08-30
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.