Teaching Narrative Theory
- Editors: David Herman, Brian McHale, James Phelan
- Pages: vi & 326 pp.
- Published: 2010
- ISBN: 9781603290814 (Paperback)
“[T]he collection is valuable both as a pilot in narrative theory and a refresher course.”
—Symploke
The last two decades have seen a burst of renewed interest in narrative theory across many academic disciplines as scholars analyze the power of storytelling in print and other media. Teaching Narrative Theory provides a comprehensive resource for instructors who aim to help students identify and understand the distinctive features of narrativity in a text or discourse and make use of the terms and concepts of the field.
This volume in the Options for Teaching series is organized to assist teachers at different levels of instruction and in different disciplinary settings. In twenty-one essays, the contributors discuss narrative theory’s various teaching contexts (e.g., classes on literature, creative writing, and folklore and ethnography); key concepts and terms (e.g., story and plot, time and space, voice, perspective); applications beyond printed texts (e.g., film and digital media); and impact on other areas of theory (e.g., gender and ethnic studies). A glossary provides a guide to the challenging technical terminology characteristic of the field, and the volume as a whole emphasizes the importance of understanding and implementing technical terms in learning narrative theory.
Frederick Luis Aldama
Robert F. Barsky
Beth Boehm
Amy J. Elias
Brian Evenson
David Gorman
Marianne Hirsch
Debra Journet
Emma Kafalenos
Suzanne Keen
Hans Kellner
Jesse Matz
Susan Mooney
James Morrison
Adam Zachary Newton
Jill Walker Rettberg
Scott Rettberg
Brian Richardson
Amy Shuman
Robyn Warhol
Introduction (1)
Part I: Situations
The Undergraduate Literature Classroom (19)
The Undergraduate Theory Course (33)
The Graduate Classroom (46)
Across the Curriculum: Rhetoric and Composition (61)
Across the Curriculum: Creative Writing (70)
Across the Curriculum: Folklore and Ethnography (79)
Across the Curriculum: History/Historiography (89)
Across the Curriculum: Image-Text Studies (98)
Part II: Elements
Story, Plot, and Narrative Progression (109)
Time, Space, and Narrative Worlds (123)
Voice; or, Authors, Narrators, and Audiences (137)
Perspective (151)
Character and Characterization (165)
Part III: Genres and Media
Popular Genres (181)
Film (195)
Visual Culture (208)
Digital Media (221)
Part IV: Interfaces
Gender (237)
Ethnicity (252)
Ethics (266)
Ideology and Critique (281)
Glossary (295)
Notes on Contributors (317)
Index (321)
“Simply one of the most coherent and engaging academic books I’ve read in a good while.”
—Garrett Stewart, University of Iowa
