Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative (Theory and Interpretation of Narrative)

In __Experiencing Fiction,__ James Phelan develops a provocative and engaging affirmative answer to the question, “Can we experience narrative fiction in similar ways?” Phelan grounds that answer in two elements of narrative located at the intersection between authorial design and reader response: judgments and progressions. Phelan contends that focusing on the three main kinds of judgment—interpretive, ethical, and aesthetic—and on the principles underlying a narrative’s movement from beginning to end reveals the experience of reading fiction to be potentially sharable. In Part One, Phelan skillfully analyzes progressions and judgments in narratives with a high degree of narrativity: Jane Austen’s __Persuasion__, Toni Morrison’s __Beloved__, Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever,” and Ian McEwan’s __Atonement__. In Part Two, Phelan turns his attention to the different relationships between judgments and progressions in hybrid forms—in the lyric narratives of Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Sandra Cisneros’s “Woman Hollering Creek,” and Robert Frost’s “Home Burial,” and in the portrait narratives of Alice Munro’s “Prue” and Ann Beattie’s “Janus.” More generally, Phelan moves back and forth between the exploration of theoretical principles and the detailed work of interpretation. As a result, __Experiencing Fiction__ combines Phelan’s fresh and compelling readings of numerous innovative narratives with his fullest articulation of the rhetorical theory of narrative. Judgments, Progressions, And The Rhetorical Experience Of Narrative -- Jane Austen's Experiment In Narrative Comedy : The Beginning And Early Middle Of Persuasion -- Sethe's Choice And Toni Morrison's Strategies : The Beginning And Middle Of Beloved -- Chicago Criticism, New Criticism, Cultural Thematics, And Rhetorical Poetics -- Progressing Toward Surprise : Edith Wharton's Roman Fever -- Delayed Disclosure And The Problem Of Other Minds : Ian Mcewan's Atonement -- Rhetorical Aesthetics Within Rhetorical Poetics -- Interlacings Of Narrative And Lyric : Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-lighted Place And Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek -- Narrative In The Service Of Portraiture : Alice Munro's Prue And Ann Beattie's Janus -- Dramatic Dialogue As Lyric Narrative : Robert Frost's Home Burial -- Experiencing Fiction And Its Corpus : Extensions To Nonfiction Narrative And Synthetic Fiction. James Phelan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 237-242) And Index.