Somebody Telling Somebody Else: A Rhetorical Poetics of Narrative

by James Phelan

Overview

In Somebody Telling Somebody Else, James Phelan proposes a paradigm shift for narrative theory, a turn from viewing narrative as a structure to viewing it as a rhetorical action in which a teller selectively deploys the resources of storytelling in order to accomplish particular purposes in relation to particular audiences. Phelan explores the consequences of this shift for an understanding of various elements of narrative, including reliable and unreliable narration, character-character dialogue, and occasions of narration.
 
In doing so, he offers new readings of a wide range of narratives from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, from Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim to George V. Higgins’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle, from Franz Kafka’s “Das Urteil” to Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” from David Small’s Stitches to Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Third and Final Continent,” from John O’Hara’s “Appearances” to Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love.  Phelan contends that the standard view of narrative as a synthesis of story and discourse is inadequate to handle the complexities of narrative communication, and he demonstrates the greater explanatory power of his rhetorical view.  Furthermore, Phelan gives new prominence to the presence and activity of the “somebody else,” as he shows that an audience’s unfolding responses to a narrative often influence its very construction.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814275221
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Publication date:	09/10/2017
Series:	Theory and Interpretation of Narrative
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

James Phelan is Distinguished University Professor of English at The Ohio State University and author of Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative (OSU Press, 2007).

Table of Contents

SOMEBODY TELLING SOMEBODY ELSE: A Rhetorical Poetics of Narrative Series Title Page Title Page Copyright Dedication CONTENTS PREFACE PART 1: On the Explanatory Power of Rhetorical Poetics IN SEARCH OF A NEW PARADIGM WHY AREN’T CHARACTERS IN THE NARRATIVE COMMUNICATION MODEL? MULTIPLE CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION AND SYNERGIES AMONG THEM AUTHORS, RESOURCES, AUDIENCES: A RHETORICAL VIEW OF NARRATIVE COMMUNICATION CHAPTER 2: Somebody Telling Somebody Else: AUDIENCES AND PROBABLE IMPOSSIBILITIES ARISTOTLE ON PROBABILITY SHELDON SACKS ON READERLY INFERENCES ABOUT GENRE BEYOND ARISTOTLE AND SACKS: IMPLAUSIBILITIES AND READERLY DYNAMICS RHETORICAL THEORY AND UNNATURAL NARRATOLOGY CROSSOVER PHENOMENA: DAVID SMALL’S STITCHES A SPECTRUM OF (IM)PROBABILITY PART 2: Resources GENERIC FRAMES, TECHNIQUES, OCCASIONS—AND SYNERGIES INTRODUCTION: Constructing a Rhetorical Poetics CHAPTER 3: Probability in Fiction and Nonfiction: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING RHETORICAL THEORY’S ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT FICTION AND NONFICTION PLOTTING AND PROBABILITY IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING CHAPTER 4: Engaging the Stubborn: NARRATIVE SPEED AND READERLY JUDGMENTS IN FRANZ KAFKA’S “DAS URTEIL” PROGRESSION, SPEED, AND JUDGMENT IN “DAS URTEIL” FROM “DAS URTEIL” TO ISSUES IN RHETORICAL POETICS AESTHETICS AND ETHICS WAYNE C. BOOTH, UNRELIABLE NARRATION, AND THE ETHICS OF LOLITA ESTRANGING AND BONDING UNRELIABILITY WITHIN A RHETORICAL APPROACH TO NARRATION SIX SUBTYPES OF BONDING UNRELIABILITY: LOCAL AND GLOBAL EFFECTS ESTRANGING AND BONDING UNRELIABILITY AND THE ETHICS OF LOLITA CHAPTER 6: The How and Why of Backward Narration in Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow THE WHAT AND (SOME OF) THE WHY OF AMIS’S TECHNIQUE THE HOW AND (MORE OF) THE WHY OF THE TECHNIQUE POCKETS OF RELIABLE NARRATION THE NARRATION OF UNVERDORBEN’S EXPERIENCE AT AUSCHWITZ TWO FINAL POCKETS OF RELIABILITY JIM’S CHARACTER AND EXPERIENCE AS AN INSTANCE OF THE STUBBORN MARLOW’S NARRATION AS RHETORICAL ACTION MARLOW’S NARRATION AND FAREWELL IN THE WRITTEN NARRATIVE CHAPTER 8: Toni Morrison’s Determinate Ambiguity in “Recitatif” METAREPRESENTATION, CHARACTER NARRATION, AND THE ETHICS OF MORRISON’S TELLING NARRATIVE PROGRESSION, SOCIAL MINDS, AND A PROBABLE IMPLAUSIBILITY IN “RECITATIF” CHAPTER 9: Conversational and Authorial Disclosure in Dialogue Narrative: GEORGE HIGGINS’S THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE AND JOHN O’HARA’S “APPEARANCES” CONVERSATIONAL AND AUTHORIAL DISCLOSURES IN THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE HIGGINS’S DIALOGUE DIALOGUE AND THE DIALOGUE NOVEL; OR CONVERSATION AS NARRATION TEXTUAL DYNAMICS IN EDDIE COYLE HIGGINS AND EDDIE; OR, AUTHORIAL AND CONVERSATIONAL DISCLOSURE IN CHAPTER 2 HIGGINS AND DILLON AUTHORIAL DISCLOSURES ACROSS CONVERSATIONS IN “APPEARANCES” CHAPTER 10: The Implied Author, Deficient Narration, and Nonfiction Narrative: JOAN DIDION’S THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING AND JEAN-DOMINIQUE BAUBY’S THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY ELBOW ROOM FOR INTENTIONALITY INTENTIONALITY FROM A RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVE FLESH-AND-BLOOD AUTHORS, IMPLIED AUTHORS, AND OCKHAM’S RAZOR THE IMPLIED AUTHOR, NONFICTION NARRATIVE, AND DEFICIENT NARRATION “THE THIRD AND FINAL CONTINENT” FROM UNRELIABLE TO RELIABLE CHARACTER NARRATION LAHIRI’S SYNERGIES THE PROBABLE IMPLAUSIBILITY; OR THE CROSSOVER LOGIC OF MALA’S LAUGHTER MASK NARRATION CONCLUSION CHAPTER 12: Reliable, Unreliable, and Deficient Narration: TOWARD A RHETORICAL POETICS RELIABLE NARRATION UNRELIABLE NARRATION DEFICIENT NARRATION CONCLUSION; OR SO WHAT? CHAPTER 13: Occasions of Narration and the Functions of Narrative Segments in Enduring Love THE THREE TELLINGS IN ENDURING LOVE JOE ROSE’S TELLING APPENDIX I APPENDIX II CONCLUSION CONCLUSION: Reflections on the How and Why of Rhetorical Poetics WORKS CITED INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"In Somebody Telling Somebody Else, James Phelan reveals how major parts of his theoretical arsenal relate to one another. As he does this, he gives his readers a view of what it's like to do rhetorical narrative poetics, and an idea of the places it will take them that other approaches will not. This is a superb, stimulating book that demonstrates how powerful a tool the rhetorical approach to the poetics of narrative is. It will be widely read and influential." --Harry E. Shaw, author of Narrating Reality: Austen, Scott, Eliot

From the Publisher