Making time : world construction in the present-tense novel / Carolin Gebauer.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Gebauer, Carolin, author.

Series:

Narratologia

Narratologia ; 77

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--History and criticism--21st century.

English fiction.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XVII, 378 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin, Germany ; Boston, Massachusetts : De Gruyter, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Responding to the current surge in present-tense novels, Making Time is an innovative contribution to narratological research on present-tense usage in narrative fiction. Breaking with the tradition of conceptualizing the present tense purely as a deictic category denoting synchronicity between a narrative event and its presentation, the study redefines present-tense narration as a fully-fledged narrative strategy whose functional potential far exceeds temporal relations between story and discourse. The first part of the volume presents numerous analytical categories that systematically describe the formal, structural, functional, and syntactic dimensions of present-tense usage in narrative fiction. These categories are then deployed to investigate the uses and functions of present-tense narration in selected twenty-first century novels, including Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, Ian McEwan's Nutshell, and Irvine Welsh's Skagboys. The seven case studies serve to illustrate the ubiquity of present-tense narration in contemporary fiction, ranging from the historical novel to the thriller, and to investigate the various ways in which the present tense contributes to narrative worldmaking.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations of Titles

1 Introduction

Part I: Mapping the Research Field on Present-Tense Narration

2 Linguistic, Narratological, and Philosophical Considerations on Tense Usage in Narrative Fiction

Part II: A Narratological Model of Present-Tense Usage in Narrative Fiction

3 The 'Grammatical' Fallacy, or: Why We Need a Descriptive and Analytical Model of Present- Tense Narration

4 The Formal-Structural Dimension of Fictional (Present-)Tense Usage: Textual Distribution and Narrative Orchestration

5 The Functional Dimension of Fictional Present-Tense Usage: Uses and Functions of Present-Tense Narration

6 The Syntactic Dimension of Fictional Present-Tense Usage: Correlations between (Different Kinds of) Present-Tense Narration and Other Narrative Strategies and/or Phenomena

Part III: Uses and Functions of Present-Tense Narration in Contemporary Narrative Fiction

7 Narrative of Reformation: The Revision of History and Narrative Form in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (2003) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012)

8 Narrative of Punishment: Experientiality, Immersion, and the Representation of Narrative Space in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003)

9 Narrative of Reminiscence: Intercultural Understanding and Narrative Empathy in Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers (2004)

10 Narrative of Deception: Narrative Progression, Suspense, and Surprise in Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog (2005)

11 Narrative of Emergence: Metanarration, Intertextuality, and the Disclosure of Worldmaking in Ian McEwan's Nutshell (2016)

12 Narrative of Emancipation: Character-Centered Illusion, Cognitive Dissonance, and Narrative Unreliability in Emma Donoghue's Room (2010)

13 Narrative of Life: Orality, Narrative Authority, and the (Broken) Illusion of Immediacy in Irvine Welsh's Skagboys (2012) and Dead Men's Trousers (2018)

14 Concluding Remarks, or: The Future of Research on Present-Tense Narration

Works Cited

Author Index

Subject Index

Notes:

Dissertation Wuppertal 2020.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

3-11-070813-2