The Reader's Construction of Narrative
Routledge Library Editions: Literary Theory Series

In this book, first published in 1981, the author argues that narrative is an interaction between "the presented world and the presentational process" and attempts to define narrative from the perspective of reading. The Reader?s Construction of Narrative includes chapters on narrative language, translating narrative and discusses what happens when we read a narrative text. This book will be of particular interest to students of literary theory.

Preface; 1. What happens when we read a narrative text? 2. Presentational process and ‘narrative transgression’ 3. Narrative language 4. Narrative stratification and the dialectic of reading 5. Ladders of fictionality 6. Bracketed world and reader construction in the modern short story 7. Narrative strands: presented and presentational 8. Acts of narrating: transformations of presentational control 9. Parodic narrative 10. Narrative and the form-content metaphor 11. Translating narrative 12. Fictional modality: a challenge to linguistics; Notes; Index