Contents
List of Illustrations
The Elements
Preface
The Scope and Aims of This Book
Storytelling Media and Modes of Narration
Acknowledgments
1. Getting Started: A Thumbnail Sketch of the Approach Developed in This Book
Toward a Working Definition of Narrative
Profiles of Narrative
Narrative: Basic Elements
2. Background and Context: Framing the Approach
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Narrative and Narrative Theory
Major Trends in Recent Scholarship on Narrative
3. Back to the Elements: Narrative Occasions
Situating Stories
Sociolinguistic Approaches
Positioning Theory
The Narrative Communication Model
Conclusion
4. Temporality, Particularity, and Narrative: An Excursion into the Theory of Text Types
From Contexts of Narration to Narrative as a Type of Text
Text Types and Categorization Processes
Narrative as a Text-Type Category: Descriptions vs. Stories vs. Explanations
Summing up: Text Types, Communicative Competence, and the Role of Stories in Science
5. The Third Element: Or, How to Build a Storyworld
Narratives as Blueprints for Worldmaking
Narrative Ways of Worldmaking
Narrative Worlds: A Survey of Approaches
Configuring Narrative Worlds: The WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN Dimensions of Storyworlds
Worlds Disrupted: Narrativity and Noncanonical Events
6. The Nexus of Narrative and Mind
The Consciousness Factor
Consciousness Across Narrative Genres
Experiencing Minds: What It's Like, Qualia, Raw Feels
Storied Minds: Narrative Foundations of Consciousness?
Appendix
Reproduction of Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" (1927)
Transcript of a Story Told during Face-to-Face Interaction: UFO or the Devil
Pages from Daniel's Clowes's Graphic Novel Ghost World (1997)
Screenshots from Terry Zwigoff's Film Version of Ghost World (2001)
Glossary
References
Index

Basic Elements of Narrative outlines a way of thinking about what narrative is and how to identify its basic elements across various media, introducing key concepts developed by previous theorists and contributing original ideas to the growing body of scholarship on stories.: Includes an overview of recent developments in narrative scholarship; Provides an accessible introduction to key concepts in the field; Views narrative as a cognitive structure, type of text, and resource for interpersonal communication; Uses examples from literature, face to face interaction, graphic novels, and film to.