A theory of narrative / Rick Altman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Altman, Rick, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Narration (Rhetoric).

Narrative art.

Physical Description:

xi, 377 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2008]

Summary:

Narrative is a powerful element of human culture, storing and sharing the cherished parts of our personal memories and giving structure to our laws, entertainment, and history. We experience narrative in words, pictures, and film, yet regardless of how the tale is told, story remains independent from the media that makes it concrete. Narrative follows humans wherever they travel and adapts readily to new forms of communication. Constantly evolving and always up-to-date, narrative is a necessary strategy of human expression and a fundamental component of human identity.

In order to understand human interaction, award-winning scholar Rick Altman launches a close study of narrative's nature, its variation in different contexts, and the method through which it makes meaning. Altman's approach breaks with traditional forms of analysis, identifying three basic strategies: single-focus, dual-focus, and multiple-focus. Unpacking an intentionally diverse selection of texts, Altman demonstrates how these strategies function in context and illustrates their theoretical and practical applications in terms of textual analysis, literary and film history, social organization, religion, and politics. He employs inventive terminology and precise analytical methods throughout his groundbreaking work, making this volume ideal for teaching literary and film theory and for exploring the anatomy of narrative on a more general level.

Contents:

1 What Is Narrative? 1

The Traditional Understanding of Narrative 2

The Nature of Narrative Revisited 9

A New Approach to Narrative Analysis 21

2 The Song ... of Roland? 28

The Following-Pattern 29

Symmetry 38

Integration 42

Polarity Adjustment 48

3 Dual-Focus Narrative 55

Beginnings 57

Principles of Opposition 67

Replacement Operations and Polarity Adjustment 78

Endings 84

The Dual-Focus System 90

4 Hester's Speculation 99

The Centrality of the Margins 100

Speculation 106

The Triumph of Individual Conscience 110

5 Single-Focus Narrative 119

The Birth of Desire 120

Models and Motives 134

Twice-Told Tales 154

Modes of Identification 170

The Single-Focus System 188

6 Pieter Bruegel, or the Space of Multiplicity 191

The Hole in the Center 199

Thematic Resolution 221

The Tilted Plane 230

7 Multiple-Focus Narrative 241

Illegitimate Narration 243

Carnivalization 247

Multiplicity as Critique 254

How Did We Get Here from There? 262

Hem-Naming 266

Intentional Accidents 276

The Reader as Alchemist 284

The Multiple-Focus System 288

8 Theoretical Conclusion 291

Mapping 291

Narrative Transformations 297

The Transformational Matrix 305

The Typological Matrix 311

9 Practical Conclusion 315

Textual Analysis 315

Literary and Film History 320

Social Organization 327

Religion 334

Political Life 337

Imaging the World 338.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-355) and index.

ISBN:

9780231144285

0231144288

9780231144292

0231144296

9780231513128

0231513127

OCLC:

184821672