A Theory Of Narrative

Narrative is a powerful element of human culture storing and sharing thecherished parts of our personal memories and giving structure to our lawsentertainment a... » 

Narrative is a powerful element of human culture storing and sharing thecherished parts of our personal memories and giving structure to our lawsentertainment and history. We experience narrative in words pictures andfilm yet regardless of how the tale is told story remains independent fromthe media that makes it concrete. Narrative follows humans wherever they traveland adapts readily to new forms of communication. Constantly evolving andalways uptodate narrative is a necessary strategy of human expression and afundamental component of human identity.In order to understand human interaction awardwinning scholar Rick Altmanlaunches a close study of narratives nature its variation in differentcontexts and the method through which it makes meaning. Altmans approachbreaks away from traditional forms of analysis identifying three basicstrategies singlefocus dualfocus and multiplefocus. Unpacking anintentionally diverse selection of texts Altman demonstrates how thesestrategies function in context and illustrates their theoretical and practicalapplications in terms of textual analysis literary and film history socialorganization religion and politics. He employs inventive terminology andprecise analytical methods throughout his groundbreaking work making thisvolume ideal for teaching literary and film theory and for exploring theanatomy of narrative on a more general level. «