Preface Introduction: The Pleasures of Reading Fiction. 1. What is a Narrative? Some Basic Terms. The Text Types. Alice Walker,The Flowers. Getting the Point. The Meanings of 'Fiction'. Kate Chopin,Two Portraits. Story and Discourse. Suggestions for Writing. 2. The Plot. Definition of Plot. Closed and Open Plots. Story-Time and Discourse-Time. Narrative Order and Duration. Carson McCullers,A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud. Margaret Atwood,The Sin-Eater. Joyce Carol Oats,Four Summers. Suggestions for Writing. 3. Character and Setting. Character: A Definition. Characterization. Setting. Isaac Bashevis Singer,Short Friday. Isaac Babel,How It Was Done in Odessa. Virginia Woolf,Kew Gardens.… Suggestions for Writing. 4. Narration: Narrator and Narratee. Telling: Internal and External Narrators. Showing: Impersonal Narration. Omniscience and Limitation. The Narratee. Elizabeth Jolley,Wendesdays and Fridays. Anton Chekov,The Darling. Sarah Orne Jewett,A White Heron. Tillie Olsen,I Stand Here Ironing. Suggestions for Writing. 5. Point of View: Character's Filter and Narrator's Slant. Character's Filter. The Filter-Character is Not the Narrator. Narrator's Slant. The Grammar of Filter. Filter in Internal Narration. James Joyce,A Little Cloud. James Baldwin,The Rockpile. Nadine Gordimer,Town and Country Lovers. V.S. Naipaul,The Thing Without A Name. Mary McCarthy,C.Y.E. Suggestions for Writing. 6. Narrative Irony. Definitions of Situational and Verbal Irony. Situational and Verbal Irony in Narrative Fiction. Fallible Filters. Unreliable Narration. Albert Camus,The Guest. Edith Wharton,Roman Fever. Flannery O'Connor,The River. Edgar Allan Poe,The Tell-Tale Heart. Ring Lardner,Haircut. Suggestions for Writing. 7. Authors and Readers: Real and Implied. The Real Author. The Implied Author. The Implied Author is Not the Narrator. Problems Solved by the Notion of Implied Author. The Real Jack London and Two Different Implied 'Jack Londons'. The Real Reader and the Implied Reader. The Implied Reader is Not the Narratee. Jack London, the Unparalleled Invasion. Jack London,The Apostate. Suggestions for Writing. 8. Theme and Ideology. The Definition of Theme. Thesis. How to Formulate a Theme. Ideology. The Invisibility of Ideology. Dealing with the Ideologies of Fictions. William Faulkner,Delta Autumn. Ernest Hemingway,Indian Camp. Ama Ata Aidoo,Certain Winds from the South. Suggestions for Writing. 9. Narrative Limits: Experimental and Postmodern Fiction. Undermining Conventions. Questioning the Discourse. Attacks on the Discourse by the Story. Julio Cortázar,Continuity of Parks. Filter at Odds with Itself. Jorge Luis Borges,The Garden of Forking Paths. John Barth,Lost in the Funhouse. Julio Cortázar,The Idol of the Cyclades. Suggestions for Writing. Further Reading. Donald Barthelme,Me and Miss Mandible. Ann Beattie,A Reasonable Man. Ambrose Bierce,An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Elizabeth Bowen,Careless Talk. Italo Calvino,Big Fish, Little Fish. Samuel Clemens,The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Colette,The Hand. Joseph Conrad,The Secret Sharer. Stephen Crane,Moonlight on the Snow. Isak Dinesen,