Books in the Frontiers of Narrative series

Updates the field of possible worlds theory and postclassical narratology by developing this theoretical framework further and applying it to a range of contemporary literary narratives. This volume outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the possible worlds approach, provides updated methods for analysing fictional narrative, and profiles those methods via the analysis of a range of texts.

Optional-Narrator Theory makes a strong intervention in (or against) narratology, pushing back against the widespread belief among narrative theorists in general and theorists of the novel in particular that the presence of a fictional narrator is a defining feature of fictional narratives.

The study of narrative has been a continuous concern from antiquity to the present day because stories are everywhere - from fiction across media to nation building and personal identity. This title sorts out traditional narrative theories, providing the necessary skills to interpret any story that comes along.

Suggests that readers understand novels primarily by following the functioning of the minds of characters in the novel storyworlds. This work analyzes constructions of characters' minds in the fictional texts of a wide range of authors, from Aphra Behn and Henry Fielding to Evelyn Waugh and Thomas Pynchon.

Argues that narrative is simultaneously a cognitive style, a discourse genre, and a resource for writing. Because stories are strategies that help humans make sense of their world, narratives not only have a logic but also are a logic in their own right, providing an irreplaceable resource for structuring and comprehending experience.