Analyzing World Fiction
New Horizons in Narrative Theory
Published on 1. September 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
327 pages
978-0-292-74764-7 (ISBN)
Description
Why are many readers drawn to stories that texture ethnic experiences and identities other than their own? How do authors such as Salman Rushdie and Maxine Hong Kingston, or filmmakers in Bollywood or Mexico City produce complex fiction that satisfies audiences worldwide? In Analyzing World Fiction, fifteen renowned luminaries use tools of narratology and insights from cognitive science and neurobiology to provide answers to these questions and more.
With essays ranging from James Phelan's "Voice, Politics, and Judgments in Their Eyes Were Watching God" and Hilary Dannenberg's "Narrating Multiculturalism in British Media: Voice and Cultural Identity in Television" to Ellen McCracken's exploration of paratextual strategies in Chicana literature, this expansive collection turns the tide on approaches to postcolonial and multicultural phenomena that tend to compress author and narrator, text and real life. Striving to celebrate the art of fiction, the voices in this anthology explore the "ingredients" that make for powerful, universally intriguing, deeply human story-weaving.
Systematically synthesizing the tools of narrative theory along with findings from the brain sciences to analyze multicultural and postcolonial film, literature, and television, the contributors pioneer new techniques for appreciating all facets of the wonder of storytelling.
With essays ranging from James Phelan's "Voice, Politics, and Judgments in Their Eyes Were Watching God" and Hilary Dannenberg's "Narrating Multiculturalism in British Media: Voice and Cultural Identity in Television" to Ellen McCracken's exploration of paratextual strategies in Chicana literature, this expansive collection turns the tide on approaches to postcolonial and multicultural phenomena that tend to compress author and narrator, text and real life. Striving to celebrate the art of fiction, the voices in this anthology explore the "ingredients" that make for powerful, universally intriguing, deeply human story-weaving.
Systematically synthesizing the tools of narrative theory along with findings from the brain sciences to analyze multicultural and postcolonial film, literature, and television, the contributors pioneer new techniques for appreciating all facets of the wonder of storytelling.
Reviews / Votes
"This collection of sixteen essays grew out of the symposium "Multicultural Narratives and Narrative Theory" (Ohio State University, October 2007). Its aim, as the editor states in the preface, is to bring together narrative theory and US ethnic and postcolonial studies. The essays collected here include analyses of African American, Asian American, Chinese, Filipino American, Francophone Caribbean, French, Mexican, South Asian Indian, and US Latina narratives, encompassing different media - literature, theater, cinema, and television. This collection of sixteen essays grew out of the symposium "Multicultural Narratives and Narrative Theory" (Ohio State University, October 2007). Its aim, as the editor states in the preface, is to bring together narrative theory and US ethnic and postcolonial studies. The essays collected here include analyses of African American, Asian American, Chinese, Filipino American, Francophone Caribbean, French, Mexican, South Asian Indian, and US Latina narratives, encompassing different media - literature, theater, cinema, and television." - Eyal Segal, Poetics TodayMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-74764-7 (9780292747647)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Frederick Luis Aldama is Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English at the Ohio State University. He is the author and editor of eleven books, including Postethnic Narrative Criticism; the MLA-award winning Dancing with Ghosts: A Critical Biography of Arturo Islas; Why the Humanities Matter; Your Brain on Latino Comics; and A User's Guide to Postcolonial and Latino Borderland Fiction.
Content
How to Use This Book (Frederick Luis Aldama)
Part I: Voice
1. U.S. Ethnic and Postcolonial Fiction: Toward a Poetics of Collective Narratives (Brian Richardson)
2. Language Peculiarities and Challenges to Universal Narrative Poetics (Dan Shen)
3. Reading Narratologically: Azouz Begag's Le Gone du ChaAba (Gerald Prince)
4. Jasmine Reconsidered: Narrative Structure and Multicultural Subjectivity (Robyn Warhol)
5. Voice, Politics, and Judgments in Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Initiation, the Launch, and the Debate about the Narration (James Phelan)
6. Narrating Multiculturalism in British Media: Voice and Cultural Identity in Television Documentary and Comedy (Hilary P. Dannenberg)
Part II: Emotion
7. Anger, Temporality, and the Politics of Reading The Woman Warrior (Sue J. Kim)
8. Agency and Emotion: R. K. Narayan's The Guide (Lalita Pandit Hogan)
9. The Narrativization of National Metaphors in Indian Cinema (Patrick Colm Hogan)
10. Fear and Action: A Cognitive Approach to Teaching Children of Men (Arturo J. Aldama)
Part III: Comparisons and Contrasts
11. The Postmodern Continuum of Canon and Kitsch: Narrative and Semiotic Strategies of Chicana High Culture and Chica Lit (Ellen McCracken)
12. Initiating Dialogue: Narrative Beginnings in Multicultural Narratives (Catherine Romagnolo)
13. "It's Badly Done": Redefining Craft in America Is in the Heart (Sue-Im Lee)
14. Nobody Knows: Invisible Man and John Okada's No-No Boy (Josephine Nock-Hee Park)
15. Intertextuality, Translation, and Postcolonial Misrecognition in AimE CEsaire (Paul Breslin)
Afterword. How This Book Reads You: Looking beyond Analyzing World Fiction: New Horizons in Narrative Theory (William Anthony Nericcio)
Works Cited and Filmography
Contributor Notes
Part I: Voice
1. U.S. Ethnic and Postcolonial Fiction: Toward a Poetics of Collective Narratives (Brian Richardson)
2. Language Peculiarities and Challenges to Universal Narrative Poetics (Dan Shen)
3. Reading Narratologically: Azouz Begag's Le Gone du ChaAba (Gerald Prince)
4. Jasmine Reconsidered: Narrative Structure and Multicultural Subjectivity (Robyn Warhol)
5. Voice, Politics, and Judgments in Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Initiation, the Launch, and the Debate about the Narration (James Phelan)
6. Narrating Multiculturalism in British Media: Voice and Cultural Identity in Television Documentary and Comedy (Hilary P. Dannenberg)
Part II: Emotion
7. Anger, Temporality, and the Politics of Reading The Woman Warrior (Sue J. Kim)
8. Agency and Emotion: R. K. Narayan's The Guide (Lalita Pandit Hogan)
9. The Narrativization of National Metaphors in Indian Cinema (Patrick Colm Hogan)
10. Fear and Action: A Cognitive Approach to Teaching Children of Men (Arturo J. Aldama)
Part III: Comparisons and Contrasts
11. The Postmodern Continuum of Canon and Kitsch: Narrative and Semiotic Strategies of Chicana High Culture and Chica Lit (Ellen McCracken)
12. Initiating Dialogue: Narrative Beginnings in Multicultural Narratives (Catherine Romagnolo)
13. "It's Badly Done": Redefining Craft in America Is in the Heart (Sue-Im Lee)
14. Nobody Knows: Invisible Man and John Okada's No-No Boy (Josephine Nock-Hee Park)
15. Intertextuality, Translation, and Postcolonial Misrecognition in AimE CEsaire (Paul Breslin)
Afterword. How This Book Reads You: Looking beyond Analyzing World Fiction: New Horizons in Narrative Theory (William Anthony Nericcio)
Works Cited and Filmography
Contributor Notes