Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction to the eighth edition
Chapter 1 Fiction and the novel
The universality and the distinctiveness of fiction
Fiction, play, fantasy
Imaginary characters and real life
Prose
Narrative
Characters, action, plot
Novel, short story, novella
Chapter 2 History, genre, culture
When was the novel born?
Ancestors and close relations
Novel and romance
Life and pattern
The 'rise of the novel'
Chapter 3 Shorter fiction
The short story
The novella
Chapter 4 Realism, modernism, postmodernism – and beyond
Realism
Modernism
Postmodernism
The electronic revolution
Chapter 5 Popular fiction
Genre, the canon, and the popular
Fiction for children
The fiction of horror: ghosts and the gothic
Science fiction
The detective story
The spy thriller
The comic novel
The graphic novel
Chapter 6 Analysing fiction
Prose fiction and formal analysis
Narrative technique
Character
Plot
Structure
Setting
Theme
Symbol and image
Speech and dialogue
Chapter 7 Studying the novel
Studying the novel in the digital age
Reading, responding, criticizing
How to take notes
Using critics
Using computers
Revision / review
Essays and examinations
Chapter 8 Critical approaches to fiction
Categorizing criticism
Narratology: structuralist and rhetorical
The literary critical tradition
Textual approaches
Contextual approaches
Ideological approaches
Chapter 9 Versions, adaptations, translations
Versions
Adaptations
Translations
Chapter 10 World literature and fiction
World literature
For whom does the novel speak today?
Fiction, truth, and (recent) history
The fiction of disability
Timeline of the novel
Glossary of terms
Bibliography
Index
