Literary and linguistic approaches to feminist narratology / Ruth E. Page.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Page, Ruth E., 1972-

Contributor:

Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminism and literature.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Discourse analysis, Narrative.

Physical Description:

xi, 209 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Summary:

Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology offers a critical new approach to analyzing the relationships between gender and narrative. Amidst the diversification of postclassical narratology and of gender studies there have been calls for integration across disciplinary fields. This book responds to such a call and for the first time brings together a sustained examination of feminist narratology that combines literary and linguistic perspectives. It presents a series of original studies that include literary texts from different historical periods and expressive traditions, set alongside narratives from the media, emergent forms of hypertext fiction and the storytelling of children. Ruth Page offers a timely re-evaluation of work that has flourished since the inception of feminist narratology in the mid-1980s, challenging its earlier assumptions in the light of more recent postmodern feminist theories. This approach re-energizes and extends the scope of feminist narratology, offering new directions for this important field of narrative theory.

Contents:

1 Feminist Narratology in Context 1

Narratives about theory 1

Developments in narratology 2

Developments in feminism 6

Postmodern feminist narratology 11

2 The Question of Gender and Form 20

Psychoanalysis, literary theory and feminism 20

Female/feminine/feminist alternatives 22

A linguistic approach: Narrativity and gender 25

Narrativity and gender in Flesh and Blood 27

Narrativity and gender in Beloved 31

Narrativity and gender in Une Glossaire/a Glossary 35

Narrativity in Pale Fire and Invisible Cities 40

3 The Question of Gender and Context 45

Lanser's call for feminist narratology 45

Revising theories of plot 49

Marking of climactic peak 58

Alternative patterns of Peak marking 61

4 The Importance of Similarities 73

Moving towards sociolinguistics 73

Data sample and analytic framework 75

Evaluation as a structuring device 78

Evaluation as a means of constructing solidarity 82

Summary and explanation 89

5 Questioning Intra-category Variation 94

Feminism and reader response 94

Hypertext, gender and reader response 96

Data sample and methodology 100

Reading pathways: Degrees of linearity 101

Narrativity and the storyworld 107

Gender and characterization in the storyworlds 111

6 Media Narratives of Success and Failure 116

On the limits of performativity 116

Critical linguistics and media texts 117

Data sample and narrative framework 119

Narratives of progression 122

Representation: Naming over time 127

Narratives of stability and regression 138

7 Gender, Age and Narrative Development 144

Age as a sociolinguistic variable 144

Literacy in New Zealand schools 145

Data sample and methodology 146

Storytelling characteristics at seven years of age 148

Storytelling characteristics at ten years of age 156

Cultural context and gender 168

8 Beyond Feminist Narratology? 173

Synthesis: Weaving the strands together 173

The impact on narrative theory 173

Concepts of gender 176

The importance of context 177

Looking to the future 181

The question of questions 185.

Notes:

"Arts & Humanities Research Council."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-206) and index.

ISBN:

1403991162

OCLC:

61520424

Publisher Number:

9781403991164 (hbk.)