Recent Theories of Narrative

Ithaca: Cornell University Press [0-8014-9355-2] 1987. (Trade paperback) Very good. 242pp. Diagrams, appendix, notes, index. The back cover has two light pink smudges and there are minor ink marks in the text. "This book ranges over the entire spectrum of recent theories of narrative (in nonliterary as well as literary disciplines) to show how they have altered our understanding not only of fiction but of nonfictional forms such as biography and historical writing. Wallace Martin compares and evaluates these theories through repeated references to the same examples: Katherine Mansfield's 'Bliss,' Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,' the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and a series of stories based on the folk motif of 'the lover's gift regained.'". (Ideas, Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, Narrative, Writing).