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Book Information | About the book | Reviews | |||||||||||||
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Cycles
of Influence Fiction, Folktale, Theory Stephen Benson |
In
this wide-ranging and insightful analysis, Stephen Benson proposes a poetics
of narrative for postmodernism by placing new emphasis on the folktale. Postmodernist
fictions have evidenced a return to narrative—to storytelling centered
on a sequence of events, rather than a "spiraling" of events as found in
modernism—and recent theorists have described narrative as a "central
instance of the human mind." By characterizing the folktale as a prime embodiment
of narrative, Benson relates folktales to many of the theoretical concerns
of postmodernism and provides new insights into the works of major writers
who have used this genre, which includes the subgenre of the fairy tale,
in opening narrative up to new possibilities. The arguments presented will interest not only folklorists and scholars of narrative but also readers in fields ranging from comparative literature to feminist theory. |
Giving
a decisive spin to the study of narrative in relation to theory and folktales,
Benson has provided a carefully researched book that historicizes intertextuality
and focuses on the story cycle to discuss structuralism, Arabian
Nights, Angela Carter, Italo Calvino, feminist
theory, and more. A must-read for all scholars and teachers of narrative.
—Cristina Bacchilega, University of Hawai'i-Manoa Stephen Benson is a lecturer in the Department of English at Brunel University in the United Kingdom. |
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| $41.95s cloth / ISBN 0-8143-2949-7 316 pages / 6 x 9 2003 A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003 contents > introduction > extract > index > |
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