A Rhetoric of the Unreal: Studies in Narrative and Structure, Especially of the FantasticCUP Archive, 1981 M10 15 - 448 pages This 1981 book is a study of wide range of fiction, from short stories to tales of horror, from fairy-tales and romances to science fiction, to which the rather loose term 'fantastic' has been applied. Cutting across this wide field, Professor Brooke-Rose examines in a clear and precise way the essential differences between these types of narrative against the background of realistic fiction. In doing so, she employs many of the methods of modern literary theory from Russian formalism to structuralism, while at the same time bringing to these approaches a sharp critical intuition and sound common sense of her own. The range of texts considered is broad: from Poe and James to Tolkien; from Flann O'Brien to the American postmodernism. This book should prove a source of stimulation to all teachers and students of modern literary theory and genre, as well as those interested in 'fantastic' literature. |
Contents
Science fiction and realistic fiction | 72 |
The encoded reader | 107 |
7 | 151 |
mirror structures as basic structures | 158 |
The surface structures in The Turn of the Screw | 188 |
realism and the marvellous | 233 |
the new science fiction | 256 |
RobbeGrillet | 291 |
Transgressions | 311 |
Eximplosions | 339 |
a simpler | 364 |
Notes | 390 |
417 | |
433 | |
Common terms and phrases
ambiguity analepsis analysed apparition appears Aragorn Baroque Barthes chapter character course critics Denethor dialogue dramatised elements encoded example fact Faramir Felman Flora frame Frodo function Gandalf Genette genre ghosts Gollum governess governess's grammar green Grey Company Grose Hamon hermeneutic hero hobbits idea implied instance interpretation language later literary marvellous means metafiction metatext metonymic Miles Miss Jessel modern narrative narrator narrator's Nathalie Sarraute natural notion nouveau roman object occurs over-determination parody poetic postmodernism present tense pure fantastic question Quint reader reading realistic discourse realistic fiction realistic novel reality referential repetition rhetoric Rivendell Robbe-Grillet romance Rumfoord Sarraute Saruman scene science fiction seems sense sentence significance Sirens of Titan sleep story structure stylisation supernatural Suvin tells theoretical theory Todorov traditional Tralfamadore transgression turn under-determined utterance voice words writing