<< >> ^

CLS2050/3050

Narrative practices

Chris Worth

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives On completion of this subject students should be able to identify and analyse narrative structures and genres; apply the analytical skills they have acquired to a wide range of narrative texts; create better narrative texts themselves; recognise the role that narrative plays in society and ideology; and write effectively about these issues.

Synopsis The subject will investigate contemporary approaches to the analysis and interpretation of narrative texts. What constitutes narrative? What are its basic features? How does story-telling communicate meaning? How do we construct effective narrative texts? The texts studied will be from a variety of genres and countries. They will include canonical literary works, some visual texts, and historical, psychological and autobiographical writing. The conclusion of the subject will be focused around metafictional, postmodernist narrative. There will be some opportunity for the creation of narrative texts as part of the work for the subject and for assessment.

Assessment second year Practical work/seminar participation: 40%
* Essay (2000 words): 30%
* Examination (2 hours): 30%

Assessment third year Practical work/seminar participation: 40%
* Essay (2000 words): 30%
* Examination (2 hours): 30%
* Third-year students will read more complex critical texts and write on essay and examination topics requiring greater theoretical awareness than second-year students.

Prescribed texts

Carter A The bloody chamber Penguin

Cohan S and L Shires Telling stories Routledge

Homer (trs ) The Odyssey Harper

Kafka F The trial Penguin

Rabkin E (ed.)Fantastic worlds Oxford

Rushdie S Midnight's children Picador

Stein G The autobiography of Alice B Toklas Penguin

Recommended texts

Barthes R Roland Barthes Macmillan, 1977

Chambers R Story and situation U Minnesota P, 1984

Maclean M Narrative as performance Methuen, 1988

Martin W Recent theories of narrative Cornell U P, 1986

McHale B Postmodernist fiction Methuen, 1987

Ong W Orality and literacy Methuen 1982

Reid I Narrative exchanges Routledge, 1992

Rimmon-Kenan S Narrative poetics Methuen, 1988

Toolan M Narrative Routledge 1988

White H The Content of the form Johns Hopkins U P, 1987


<< >> ^
Handbook Contents | Faculty Handbooks | Monash University
Published by Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168
Copyright © Monash University 1996 - All Rights Reserved - Caution
Authorised by the Academic Registrar December 1996