[.ca] Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (ISBN 0801492599)

The Seminal Work in Narrative Theory:
This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to look seriously at narrative theory. Genette's analysis of the construction of time in narrative discourse is the still the model for theorists writing since then. Such categories as order, frequency, and duration in the narrative presentation of story-time show how narrative decisions on the part of authors can have dramatically different rhetorical effects. Genette views these narrative strategies as a form of rhetorical figuration and gives them terms drawn from classical rhetoric (e.g., "prolepsis" for a flashing forward, "analepsis" for a flashback). Genette's work is one of the clearest of all the French theorists of the 1970s and 1980s who became popular among literary critics and theorists in the US. His work is easily the most empirical of his academic geration of French theorists and perhaps the most likely to be useful in generations to come.

indispensable for anyone interested in narrative fiction:
One of the most cited and influential works on narrative criticism. Building a systematic theory of narrative discourse in his textual analysis of Marcel Proust's Remebrance of Things Past (with allusions to other fiction), Genette focuses on narrative order (e.g., anachronies, analepses), duration (e.g., narrative pacing, summary, pause), frequency (or repetition), mood (e.g., perspective and focalization), and voice (e.g., narrative levels). Here the author has observed fictional devices and constituent elements of narrative that are overlooked by others. Jane E. Lewin's tranlsation from the French original is lucid and one can find the meaning and function of Genette's technical terms within the work itself (although discussed in numerous introductions). Genette's sequel with the same translator, Lewin, is Narrative Criticism Revisited.Narrative Discourse: An Essay in MethodNarrative Discourse Revisited

Much theory, though not for the faint hearted:
Genette is one of the biggest-names in stylistic literary criticism around. One would imagine that this means his works are read far and wide, though this is not always the case. Narrative Discourse samples essays from Figures III, Genette's most well read collection of essays. The theme of all of the essays is structure and presentation in the narrative, itself a topic which has only recieved a high place in the study of narrative in recent history. This collection gives the reader the basics of Genette's own view of narrative, but stands itself incomplete without criticism (which is presented and answered in Narrative Discourse Revisited). Genette's ideas besides, this volume is difficult reading for the simple reason that information is not easily locatable and one is required to sift through the beach to find a sand dune: in other words, a person does ALL the work even if you want to double check the meaning of a single major term. This is another reason to get Narrative Discourse Revisited, where Genette actually explains in simple, straitforward terms his own ideas on narrative. One unfortunate note on the translation is the original terms as they appeared in French are not included in the text. Instead, terms were applied which seem to add more confusion that clarity, such as the term recit in French being simply translated as narrative and histore translated as "story", neither of which are very accurate considering their respective english meaning. In short, if you are going to buy this buy the other as well. It will save a lot of headaches in the end.