MA Modern and Contemporary Literature / Course details

Forms of Fiction is designed to bridge the gap between creative writing and narrative theory. Over the twelve weeks of the course we will learn about and use key narratological ideas – such as focalisation, anachrony, the singulative and the iterative, diegesis and mimesis – in order to better understand, describe and evaluate the particular technical choices that fiction writers make. In order to do this, we will read a selection of literary works from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries alongside the narrative theories of Gerard Genette, Mieke Bal, Wayne Booth, Tzvetan Todorov, and others. 

The course will be divided into four sections. The first will look at questions of temporality, order, rhythm and frequency; the second at focalisation or, point of view; the third at narrative reliability; and the fourth will address plot. Throughout the semester, you will be encouraged to think about the relationships between narrative form and theme in the works we look at and to develop a more precise and nuanced awareness of the formal choices you make in your own work. 

When sourcing your readings, please be sure to locate the editions specified – you’ll need to refer quickly in class to particular page numbers, and having the same edition as the rest of the group will help the seminar run smoothly. 

If you choose to use an e-book version of a text, make sure it’s the specified edition, and please use a device which will allow you to easily find a particular page without scrolling (ie, a Kindle or similar, rather than a phone). 

Any readings given in a bold typeface, you’ll need to source yourself. Readings given in a regular typeface will be available to you on Blackboard as pdfs

• To explore and analyse, through close readings of representative novels and stories, a selection of the most influential and significant narrative techniques employed by novelists and short story writers from the late-nineteenth century to the present day.

• To investigate the relationship between narrative form and thematic content.

• To consider the factors which influence writers to choose one narrative form over another and the consequences of those choices.

• To develop students' understanding of the history of narrative forms, and in particular the formal history of the novel.

• To develop students' writing skills, and their ability to construct a detailed and coherent written argument.

By the end of this course unit successful students will have demonstrated:

• A knowledge and understanding of some of the most important narrative techniques employed by fiction writers from the late-nineteenth century onwards.
• An ability to analyse and compare those techniques with close reference to specific examples of their usage.
• A broad understanding of the history of narrative form, and a more detailed understanding of the formal history of the novel.
• An awareness of the reasons why writers choose one form over another and of the consequences of those choices.
• An ability to construct a clear and effective written argument.

By the end of the course students will have: 

1. Gained an in depth understanding of some of the most significant narratological theories. 

2. Learned how to apply those theories to specific texts so as to illuminate the relationship between literary form and theme. 

3. Engaged in constructive critical debate with their fellow students as a way of deepening their understanding of literary texts and narratological theory. 

1. developed their research skills  

2. experienced team-work and collaboration through working in groups in seminars 

3. developed their written and communication skills at postgraduate level. 

1.  Gained experience of conceiving and organising a persuasive written argument. 

2. Improved their analytical skills. 

3. Learned to manage their time effectively so as complete their assigned tasks by the deadlines. 

Secondary reading

Should you wish to extend your reading around narratology, here are some suggested titles. 

Eric Auerbach, Mimesis (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1953) 

Mieke Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative 2nd edition (Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 1997) 

Roland Barthes, Image, Music, Text (London: Fontana, 1977) 

Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1961) 

Peter Brooks, Reading For The Plot (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard, 1992) 

David Dowling, Mrs Dalloway: Mapping Streams of Consciousness (Boston: Twayne, 1991) 

Joseph Flora, Ernest Hemingway: A Study of the Short Fiction (Boston: Twayne, 1989) 

Monika Fludernik, An Introduction to Narratology (London: Routledge, 2008) 

Dewey Ganzel, ‘What the Letter Said: Fact and Inference in The Good Soldier’, Journal of Modern Literature: 11.2 (1984 July), pp. 277-290. 

Gerard Genette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (Ithaca: Cornell, 1980) 

James Phelan, Living To Tell About It: A Rhetoric and Ethics of Character Narration (Ithaca: Cornell, 2004) 

H. Porter Abbott, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge: CUP, 2008) 

Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics (London: Methuen, 1983) 

Robert Scholes ed. Approaches to the Novel (Scranton: Chandler, 1966) 

Paul Smith, New Essays on Hemingway’s Short Fiction (Cambridge: CUP, 1998) 

Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader (London: Vintage, 2003)