Henry James Narrative Technique situates Henry James famous method within an emerging modernist tradition with roots in philosophical debates between rationalism and empiricism. This cogent study considers James works in the context of nineteenth-century thought on consciousness, perception, and cognition. Kristin Boudreau makes the compelling argument that these philosophical discussions influenced James depictions of consciousness and are integral to his narrative technique.
A narrative technique (also known, more narrowly for literary ctional narratives, as a literary technique, literary device or fictional device) is any of several speci c methods the creator of a narrative uses to convey what they to say. In other words, a strategy used in the making of a narrative to relay information to the audience and, particularly, to "develop" the narrative, usually in order to make it more complete, complicated or interesting. Literary techniques are distinguished from literary elements, which exist inherently in works of writing."
Drawing on a wide range of films from the 1920s to the 1990s—from Keaton’s Our Hospitality to Casablanca to Terminator 2, Kristin Thompson offers the first in-depth analysis of Hollywood’s storytelling techniques and how they are used to make complex, easily comprehensible, entertaining films.
"The purpose of this book is to outline a method of literary training. It aims to provide systematic discipline in the handling of narrative materials ... for college students of English composition ..."--Pref.
In this study, Ruth D. Weston probes the whole of Eudora Welty’s work to reveal the writer’s close relationship to the gothic tradition. Specifically, Weston shows how Welty employs the theme of enclosure and escape and settings that convey a sense of mystery—gothic adaptations both—to create certain narrative techniques in her fiction. Differentiating at the outset between the Gothic genre as opposed to elements of the gothic tradition, and acknowledging both critics’ and Welty’s own reluctance to link her writing with the former, Weston plunges in and brilliantly discloses the relationship Welty’s writing has to both, and in doing so describes a rich literary heritage to which Welty belongs. She shows how the tradition of adapting European Gothic conventions to American settings has come down to us through writers such as Hawthorne, particularly through the short story, and continues in Welty’s fiction. Among Welty’s narrative techniques that Weston discusses are plot structures built around betrayal and captivity, reversal of characters’ gender roles, a tone sometimes similar to that of gothic genres such as the fairy tale or ghost story, and affective settings in “gothic spaces” such as the woods along the Natchez Trace. These techniques, Weston explains, help Welty in illustrating restrictions placed on the individual’s search for selfhood by human relationships, cultural expectations, and memory. In addition to examining the texts themselves, Weston draws on Welty’s critical and theoretical writings and her letters and other materials in archival collections. She also gleans insights from the work of contemporary narrative theorists, feminist critics, and recent commentators on the Gothic. In the course of her presentation, she offers some excellent new assessments of Welty’s relation to the “female Gothic” and the “Southern Gothic” and to William Faulkner and Jane Austen. This book is one of the most informed studies to date of Welty’s relation to the literary mainstream of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Welty scholars as well as general readers of American and southern literature will gain a deep appreciation for Welty’s imaginative and original response to the Gothic literary tradition.
Ovid was one of the greatest writers of classical antiquity, and arguably the single most influential ancient poet for post-classical literature and culture. In this Cambridge Companion, chapters by leading authorities from Europe and North America discuss the backgrounds and contexts for Ovid, the individual works, and his influence on later literature and art. Coverage of essential information is combined with exciting critical approaches. This Companion is designed both as an accessible handbook for the general reader who wishes to learn about Ovid, and as a series of stimulating essays for students of Latin poetry and of the classical tradition.
Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don’t know how to tell a story. These writers may know how to format a script, write snappy dialogue, and set a scene. They may have interesting characters and perhaps some clever plot devices. But, invariably, while they may have the kernel of a good idea for a screenplay, they fail to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the Nutshell Technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story. Now, for the first time, Chamberlain presents her unique method in book form with The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting. Using easy-to-follow diagrams (“nutshells”), she thoroughly explains how the Nutshell Technique can make or break a film script. Chamberlain takes readers step-by-step through thirty classic and contemporary movies, showing how such dissimilar screenplays as Casablanca, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Silver Linings Playbook, and Argo all have the same system working behind the scenes, and she teaches readers exactly how to apply these principles to their own screenwriting. Learn the Nutshell Technique, and you’ll discover how to turn a mere situation into a truly compelling screenplay story.
Combining linguistic theory with analytical concepts and literary interpretation and appreciation, Jane Austen's Narrative Techniques traces the creation and development of Austen's narrative techniques. Massimiliano Morini employs the tools developed by post-war linguistics and above all pragmatics, the study of the ways in which speakers communicate meaning, since Austen's 'wordings' can only be interpreted within the fictional context of character-character, narrator-character, narrator-reader interaction. Examining a wide range of Austen texts, from her unpublished works through masterpieces like Mansfield Park and Emma, Morini discusses familiar Austen themes, using linguistic means to shed fresh light on the question of point of view in Austen and on Austen's much-admired brilliance in creating lively and plausible dialogue. Accessibly written and informed by the latest work in linguistic and literary studies, Jane Austen's Narrative Techniques offers Austen specialists a new avenue for understanding her narrative techniques and serves as a case study for scholars and students of pragmatics and applied linguistics.
In the Parallel Lives Plutarch does not absolve his readers of the need for moral reflection by offering any sort of hard and fast rules for their moral judgement. Rather, he uses strategies to elicit readers’ active engagement with the act of judging. This book, drawing on the insights of recent narrative theories, especially narratology and reader-response criticism, examines Plutarch’s narrative techniques in the Parallel Lives of drawing his readers into the process of moral evaluation and exposing them to the complexities entailed in it. Subjects discussed include Plutarch’s prefatory projection of himself and his readers and the interaction between the two; Plutarch’s presentation of the mental and emotional workings of historical agents, which serves to re-enact the participants’ experience at the time and thus arouse empathy in the readers; Plutarch’s closural strategies and their profound effects on the readers’ moral inquiry; Plutarch’s principles of historical criticism in On the malice of Herodotus in relation to his narrative strategies in the Lives. Through illustrating Plutarch’s narrative technique, this book elucidates Plutarch’s praise-and-blame rhetoric in the Lives as well as his sensibility to the challenges inherent in recounting, reading about, and evaluating the lives of the great men of history.
