Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Cambridge Companion to Narrative provides a unique and valuable overview of current approaches to narrative study. An international team of experts explores ideas of storytelling and methods of narrative analysis as they have emerged across diverse traditions of inquiry and in connection with a variety of media, from film and television, to storytelling in the 'real-life' contexts of face-to-face interaction, to literary fiction. Each chapter presents a survey of scholarly approaches to topics such as character, dialogue, genre or language, shows how those approaches can be brought to bear on a relatively well-known illustrative example, and indicates directions for further research. Featuring a chapter reviewing definitions of narrative, a glossary of key terms and a comprehensive index, this is an essential resource for both students and scholars in many fields, including language and literature, composition and rhetoric, creative writing, jurisprudence, communication and media studies, and the social sciences.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part I Preliminaries
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Toward a definition of narrative
• Part II Studying Narrative Fiction
• 3 Story, plot, and narration
• 4 Time and space
• 5 Character
• 6 Dialogue
• 7 Focalization
• 8 Genre
• Part III Other Narrative Media (A Selection)
• 9 Conversational storytelling
• 10 Drama and narrative
• 11 Film and television narrative
• 12 Narrative and digital media
• Part IV Further Contexts for Narrative Study
• 13 Gender
• 14 Rhetoric/ethics
• 15 Ideology
• 16 Language
• 17 Cognition, emotion, and consciousness
• 18 Identity/alterity
• Further reading
• Glossary
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Offering an excellent introduction to the elements of storytelling and methods of narrative analysis, this well-written, accessible addition to the "Cambridge Companions to Literature" series provides an excellent array of viewpoints from international experts on the basic elements and current criticism in narrative studies. Herman (Ohio State Univ.) organizes the volume in four parts: "Preliminaries," "Studying Narrative Fiction--A Starter Kit," "Other Narrative Media," and "Further Contexts for Narrative Study." He includes essays that offer a history of the study of narrative and provide an expansive discussion of what constitutes narrative studies. The essays are readable and use well-known works of literature to illustrate their ideas, and the suggestions for further reading and thorough index are bound to be useful. Joining H. Porter Abbott's The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (2nd ed., 2008), this volume will be a welcome resource for both students beginning their research into narrative study and seasoned scholars looking for an overview of the field. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. C. R. Brown Mercyhurst College