Postmodern Narrative Theory

How have developments in literary and cultural theory transformed our understanding of narrative? What has happened to narrative in the wake of poststructuralism? What is the role and function of narrative in the contemporary world?

In this revised, updated and expanded new edition of an established text, Mark Currie explores these central questions and guides students through the complex theories that have shaped the study of narrative in recent decades. Postmodern Narrative Theory, Second Edition:

• Establishes direct links between the workings of fictional narratives and those of the non-fictional world
• Charts the transition in narrative theory from its formalist beginnings, through deconstruction, towards its current concerns with the social, cultural and cognitive uses of narrative
• Explores the relationship between postmodern narrative and postmodern theory more closely
• Presents detailed illustrative readings of known literary texts such as Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and now features a new chapter on Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello and Slow Man.

Approachable and stimulating, this is an essential introduction for anyone studying postmodernism, the theory of narrative or contemporary fiction.

This is an accessible and stimulating summary of the often over-complex theories that have transformed the study of narrative in recent decades. Mark Currie establishes direct links between the workings of fictional narratives and those of the non-fictional world, arguing that it is their inseparability which characterizes postmodern fiction, criticism and culture. The book charts the transition in narrative theory from its formalist beginnings, through deconstruction, various new historicisms and psychoanalysis, towards its current concerns with the social and cultural function of narrative. Through its two principal themes--the relationship of narrative to identity and the role of time in experience--the book plots the connections between fiction, criticism and ideology that represent the contribution of narrative theory to an understanding of postmodern culture.

MARK CURRIE is Professor of Contemporary Literature at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. He is the author of Difference (Routledge, 2004) and About Time: Narrative Fiction and the Philosophy of Time (Edinburgh University Press, 2007). He has also published numerous articles on literary theory, narratology and contemporary fiction.