CLS2050

Narrative practices

Chris Worth

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First 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 Practical work/seminar participation (2000 words): 40%
* Essay (2000 words): 30%
* Examination (2 hours): 30%

Prescribed texts

Carter A The bloody chamber Penguin
Berger A Narratives Sage
Homer (trs ) The Odyssey Harper
Kafka F The trial Penguin
Rabkin E (ed.)Fantastic worlds Oxford
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
Cohan S and L Shires Telling stories Routledge
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