Cobley - Narrative

Human beings have constantly told stories, presented events and placed the world into narrative form. This activity suggests a very basic way of looking at the world, yet, this book argues, even the most seemingly simple of stories is embedded in a complex network of relations. Paul Cobley traces these relations, considering the ways in which humans have employed narrative over the centuries to re-present time, space and identity.

This second, revised and fully updated edition of the successful guidebook to narrative covers a range of narrative forms and their historical development from early oral and literate forms through to contemporary digital media, encompassing Hellenic and Hebraic foundations, the rise of the novel, realist representations, narratives of imperialism, modernism, cinema, postmodernism and new technologies. A final chapter reviews the way that narrative theory has re-orientated definitions of narrative in the last decade.

Written in a clear, engaging style and featuring an extensive glossary of terms, this is the essential introduction to the history and theory of narrative.

Paul Cobley is Professor in Language and Media at Middlesex University, UK. He is the author of a number of books including The American Thriller (2000) as well as editor of a number of volumes including The Routledge Companion to Semiotics (2010).

SERIES EDITOR: JOHN DRAKAKIS, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to todays critical terminology Each book:

provides a handy, explanatory guide to the use (and abuse) of the term;

offers an original and distinctive overview by a leading literary and cultural critic;

relates the term to the larger field of cultural representation.

With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate and the widest possible breadth of examples, The New Critical Idiom is an indispensable approach to key topics in literary studies.

Also available in this series:

Adaptation and Appropriation by Julie Sanders

Allegory by Jeremy Tambling

The Author by Andrew Bennett

Autobiography second edition by Linda Anderson

Class by Gary Day

Colonialism/Postcolonialism second edition by Ania Loomba

Comedy by Andrew Stott

Crime Fiction by John Scaggs

Culture/Metaculture by Francis Mulhern

Dialogue by Peter Womack

Difference by Mark Currie

Discourse second edition by Sara Mills

Drama/Theatre/Performance by Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis

Dramatic Monologue by Glennis Byron

Ecocriticism second edition by Greg Garrard

Elegy by David Kennedy

Epic by Paul innes

Fairy Tale by Andrew Teverson

Genders second edition by David Glover and Cora Kaplan

Genre by John Frow

Gothic second edition by Fred Botting

Grotesque by Justin D Edwards and Rune Graulund

The Historical Novel by Jerome de Groot

Historicism second edition by Paul Hamilton

Humanism second edition by Tony Davies

Ideology second edition by David Hawkes

Interdisciplinarity second edition by Joe Moran

Intertextuality second edition by Graham Allen

Irony by Claire Colebrook

Literature by Peter Widdowson

Lyric by Scott Brewster

Magic(al) Realism by Maggie Ann Bowers

Memory by Anne Whitehead

Metaphor by David Punter

Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form by Philip Hobsbaum

Mimesis by Matthew Potolsky

Modernism second edition by Peter Childs

Myth second edition by Laurence Coupe

Narrative second edition by Paul Cobley

Parody by Simon Dentith

Pastoral by Terry Gifford

Performativity by James Loxley

The Postmodern by Simon Malpas

Realism by Pam Morris

Rhetoric by Jennifer Richards

Romance by Barbara Fuchs

Romanticism second edition by Aidan Day

Science Fiction second edition by Adam Roberts

Sexuality second edition by Joseph Bristow

Spatiality by Robert T. Tally Jr

Stylistics by Richard Bradford

Subjectivity by Donald E. Hall

The Sublime by Philip Shaw

Temporalities by Russell West-Pavlov

Translation by Susan Bassnett

Travel Writing by Carl Thompson

The Unconscious by Antony Easthope

First published 2001, this edition published 2014

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2001, 2014 Paul Cobley

The right of Paul Cobley to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Cobley, Paul, 1963

Narrative / Paul Cobley. 2nd edition.

pages cm. (The New Critical Idiom)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Narration (Rhetoric) 2. Fiction History and criticism. I. Title.

PN3383.N35C63 2013

808.036 dc23

2013019875

ISBN: 978-0-415-83443-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-83444-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-49492-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Garamond

by Taylor & Francis Books

The New Critical Idiom is a series of introductory books which seeks to extend the lexicon of literary terms, in order to address the radical changes which have taken place in the study of literature during the last decades of the twentieth century. The aim is to provide clear, wellillustrated accounts of the full range of terminology currently in use, and to evolve histories of its changing usage.

The current state of the discipline of literary studies is one where there is considerable debate concerning basic questions of terminology. This involves, among other things, the boundaries which distinguish the literary from the non-literary; the position of literature within the larger sphere of culture; the relationship between literatures of different cultures; and questions concerning the relation of literary to other cultural forms within the context of interdisciplinary studies.

It is clear that the field of literary criticism and theory is a dynamic and heterogeneous one. The present need is for individual volumes on terms which combine clarity of exposition with an adventurousness of perspective and a breadth of application. Each volume will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the direction in which the definition of particular terms is likely to move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within which some of these terms have been traditionally contained. This will involve some re-situation of terms within the larger field of cultural representation, and will introduce examples from the area of film and the modern media in addition to examples from a variety of literary texts.