ion. For example, one of their categories is “Undesirable outcome” (1074), which seems to be at a level of abstraction above such categories as “Death of a loved one” and “Loss of a relationship” (1074; indeed, the second seems to be a case of the third which seems, in turn, to be a case of the first). But, insofar as they are concrete enough to count as prototypical, the categories they uncover are clearly in line with the preceding analysis. Thus, the eliciting conditions for sadness prominently include the two just mentioned, which are closely related to the prototype of happiness as romantic union. Other prototypes include “Discovering one is powerless” (1074), which is clearly related to the prototype of happiness as power. In relation to happiness itself, they isolate only three categories that are not overly abstract. These are “Receiving esteem, respect, praise,” “Being accepted, belonging,” and “Receiving love, liking, affection” (1075). The first is clearly connected with the prototype of happiness as power or authority. The third category is clearly related to the prototype of happiness as romantic union. The second category relates to both. Indeed, it relates to both in a way that bears on emplotment. Commonly, the conflicts that define the middle of a plot are resolved in such a way that the larger society comes together and there is an extension of acceptance and belonging in the end (e.g., through the reconciliation of parents and children in the romantic plot). In short, we seem to have some good prima facie evidence for positing two happiness prototypes. The point is not confined to modern America and Europe. Clearly, there were no broad scientific surveys or controlled experimental studies of emotion in premodern societies. However, there are highly regarded discussions and widely accepted ideas—such as the ancient Indic isolation of goals—that provide converging evidence. For example, Chikamatsu, widely thought of as one of the two greatest dramatists of Japan, wrote that, “The only happiness in this broad world” is “True love to true love” (234). The celebrated Malian Epic of Son-Jara states that “All people . . . seek to be men of power” (Sisòkò, I. 1277–78). Euripides’ Hecuba expresses both, lamenting the death of Astyanax: “if you had enjoyed youth and wedlock and the royal power that makes men gods, then you would have been happy” (200). These literary references lead to the second line of research. In order to consider cross-cultural prototypes in narrative, I set out to read a wide range of highly esteemed works of verbal art in unrelated literary traditions. I took up highly esteemed works as it seemed that they were most likely to express common narrative and emotional tendencies in a given culture or period. One crucial feature of a prototype-based account of

Fictions of Discourse: Reading Narrative Theory by Patrick O'Neill (review)

Theory and Interpretation of Narrative

In his introduction to a recently published volume of essays, Narratologies: New Perspectives on Narrative Analysis, David Herman explains what is meant by the term "postclassical narratology." He states, "Recently we have witnessed a small but unmistakable explosion of activity in the field of narrative studies; signs of this minor narratological renaissance include the publication of a spate of articles, spe cial issues, and books that rethink and recontextualize classical models for narrato logical research" (1). He also notes that "Postclassical narratology ... is marked by a profusion of new methodologies and research hypotheses; the result is a host of new perspectives on the forms and functions of narrative itself" (2-3). Such "recent research has highlighted aspects of narrative discourse that classical narratology ei ther failed or chose not to explore"(2). This is a response to that stirring call for papers. I suggest that the topic of fic tional minds is an area of study that would benefit from a postclassical perspective, because classical narratology has neglected the whole minds of fictional characters in action. At first sight, this may seem to be an implausible claim. What about the study of free indirect discourse? Interior monologue? Focalization? Reflectoriza tion? Characterization? Actants? My answer is that these concepts do not add up to a complete and coherent study of all aspects of the minds of characters in novels. Put another way, several of the devices that are used in the constructions of fictional minds by narrators and readers, such as the role of thought report in describing emo tions and the role of behavior descriptions in conveying motivation and intention, have yet to be defamiliarized. As Hegel remarks, "What is 'familiarly known' is not properly known, just for the reason that it is 'familiar' " (92). Manfred Jahn refers, in a different context, to "a number of interesting cognitive mechanisms that have

The Construction of Fictional Minds

This article explores the influence of The Arabian Nights on John Barth's novella Dunyazadiad. This influence lies in The Arabian Nights labyrinth construction of the narrative events. By its experimental literary artifice, Dunyazadiad initiates the early phase of postmodern reactions to modernism's fictional modes and their apocalyptic vision regarding the death of fictional genres. Barth's conscious recapitulation of the twentieth century fictional genre manifests itself properly in the novella's frame-narrative, offering the solution that previous canonical works, especially The Arabian Nights, are the "treasure house" for avoiding the literary exhaustion prevalent in modern fiction. This study aims to scrutinize Barth's experimental parody of The Arabian Nights' frame-tale, narrator, characterizations, and denouement to critique the spirit of exhaustion dominating contemporary modern fictional genre. The theoretical analysis of Dunyazadiad focuses on two main narrative theories, namely Mikail Bakhtin's dialogic mode and Patricia Waugh's formulation of metafiction., This article argues for Barth's reliance on The

Dunyazadiad: The Parody of The Arabian Nights

INVENTING FANTASY: The Prose Romances of William Morris

The categories of reader and writer have often been conceived as binary opposites representing the poles of passivity and production. The idea of this dichotomy between reading and writing has dissolved as the recognition of the indeterminacy of the text is mirrored by postmodern conceptions of the contingent nature of subjectivity. However, the novel form as we know it emerged during the post-enlightenment age when the subject was conceived as singular and original and the individual life as narrative. The issue of who gets to speak and how that speech is received continues to be a major thematic concern in the novel to the present time.
 
This exegesis examines the locus of narrative authority as played out between representations of the author and reader, and reading and writing, in Foe and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The same two novels also show how ‘writing starts with reading’ as Cixous says. Reading and writing share an impetus to override the existing text to rewrite what has been unsaid. These two novels explicitly address a shared reading history, through the recuperation and over-writing of canonical texts and their authors, and therefore illuminate the spectre of the actual author and the actual reader haunting the margins of the text.
 
The creative component of the thesis, the manuscript ‘Tex Surfacing’, is a complementary exploration of the notions of narrative truth, narrative authority and the relationship between reading, writing and subjectivity. The characters of ‘Tex Surfacing’ play out the argumentative positions of author versus reader, and reading versus writing in order to establish who gets to tell the story and what, indeed, the story is.

/pdf/out-of-the-shadows-representations-of-the-reading-and-4p9qjacxvy.pdf

Fictions of Discourse: Reading Narrative Theory by Patrick O'Neill (review)

Citations

Theory and Interpretation of Narrative

The Construction of Fictional Minds

Dunyazadiad: The Parody of The Arabian Nights

INVENTING FANTASY: The Prose Romances of William Morris

Out of the shadows: Representations of the reading and writing process in fiction

Related Papers (4)

Fictions of Discourse: Reading Narrative Theory

Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative

Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics

The rhetoric of fiction