Coming to terms : the rhetoric of narrative in fiction and film

"Coming to Terms is clearly a major effort in the ongoing project of expanding and specifying our knowledge of narrative and the terms and concepts of our narratological theory and criticism."—Harold F. Mosher, Jr., Northern Illinois University, Style, Vol. 26, No. 3, Fall 1992 "A stimulating book, not least because Chatman masters the diffcult art of writing theory in a lucid and interesting manner. . . .Coming to Terms offers a number of original insights and suggestions, and where it does not do so, it provides a clear and useful exposition of the relevant ideas and arguments put forward by other scholars. For those interested in narrative theory or in the relation between fiction and film, coming to terms with this book will be a worthwhile endeavor."—Burkhard Niederhoff, Amerikastudien, Vol. 39, 1994 Acknowledgments ix Introduction I 1. Narrative and Two Other Text-Types 6 2. Description Is No Textual Handmaiden 22 3. What Is Description in the Cinema? 38 4. Argumentation in Film: Mon oncle d'Amérique 56 5. In Defense of the Implied Author 74 6. The Implied Author at Work 90 7. The Literary Narrator 109 8. The Cinematic Narrator 124 9. A New Point of View on "Point of View" 139 10. A New Kind of Film Adaptation: The French Lieutenant's Woman 161 11. The "Rhetoric" "of' "Fiction" 184 Notes 205 Index 235