Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film

Seymour Chatman

ISBN 10: 080149186X / ISBN 13: 9780801491863

Published by Cornell University Press, 1980

About this Item

1980. 1st Edition. Paperback. Num Pages: 288 pages, illustrations. BIC Classification: CFG; CFK. Category: (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 215 x 140 x 21. Weight in Grams: 350. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. 288 pages, illustrations. Cateogry: (UU) Undergraduate. BIC Classification: CFG; CFK. Dimension: 215 x 140 x 21. Weight: 352. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780801491863

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication Date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080149186X
• ISBN 13: 9780801491863
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

"An important American contribution to the study of narrative theory."―Choice

This book is the first comprehensive approach in English to a general theory of narrative, both in verbal and in visual media.

The primary question to which Professor Chatman addresses himself is what narrative is in itself. Following such French structuralists as Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, and Gerard Genette, he posits a what and a way. "The what of narrative," he says, "I call its 'story'; the way, I call its 'discourse.'" Liberally illustrating his concepts with discussions of particular novels and films, he effects a synthesis of the latest Continental critical thinking about narrative and the Anglo-American tradition exemplified by Henry James, Percy Lubbock, Wayne Booth, and others.

A judicious and well-informed book, Story and Discourse should become a standard guide to narrative and to modern thinking about narrative.

About the Author

Seymour Chatman is Professor of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley.