Table Of ContentSeymour Chatman
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READING NARRATIVE FICTION pre~ents a umque and comprehensive,
application of narrative theory to a carefully chosen group of traditional and
contemporary short stories. This anthology, teaches st~dents how to write
about fiction creatively by-learning how to analyze its structure as well as its
content.
e The 60~short stories included represent authors from different races; gen
ders, classes, and cultures, offering students a broad view of how fiction
reflects the complexities of the human situation.
• The elements of n<!rrative theory are clearly'linked to interpretation of the
readings, showing students how technical insights can help them understand
the intent and impact of a creative work.
e The text respects and builds on student experience with movies and televi-
.'
sion, drawing connections between narrative techniques in fiction and co~p~-
rable techniques used by these media.
e, The appendix, "How to Write about Fiction, " offers clear, direct instruc
tion -in how to write critical papers, illustrated by a sample student essay in
, I
multiple drafts .
.. Questions and study sugge'stions address both.the literary techniques'and
themes of the short story under discussion.
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, / ISBN 0-02-322111-9
90000)
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Reading Narrative Fiction
Reading Narrative
Fiction
SEYMOUR CHATMAN
University of California, Berkeley
With material contributed by
BRIAN ATTEBERY
Idaho State University
Macmillan Publishing Company
New York
Editor: Barbara A. Heinssen
Production Supervisor: Jane O'Neill
Production Manager: Sandra E. Moore
Text Designer: Marilyn Prudente
Cover Designer: Proof Positive
Cover Illustration: Pierre Bonnard, "The Window," 1925, Tate Gallery,
London/Art Resource
This book was set in 10/12 Garamond Book by Digitype, Inc.
and was printed and bound by Book Press, Inc.
The cover was printed by New England Book Components, Inc.
Acknowledgments appear on pages 631-635, which constitute an extension of the
copyright page.
Copyright © 1993 by Macmillan Publishing Company,
a division of Macmillan, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Macmillan Publishing Company
866 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022
Macmillan Publishing Company is part of
the Maxwell Communication Group of Companies.
Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc.
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Suite 200
Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reading narrative fiction / [edited by] Seymour Chatman; with
material contributed by Brian Attebery.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-02-322111-9
1. Short stories. 2. Short story. 3. Narration (RhetoriC)
I. Chatman, Seymour Benjamin, 1928- . II. Attebery, Brian, 1951-
PN6120.2.R44 1993
808.3'1-dc20 92-21747
CIP
Printing: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Year: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
For Mariel
v
Preface
My anthology begins and ends by assuming that we read stories for pleasure:
no responsible teacher wants to interfere with that pleasure. It is the pleasure
of immersion, of being caught up in a fictional world, a web of events,
characters, and settings. But an additional pleasure is that of understanding
how authors create that world, weave that web. So I provide detailed explana
tions, derived from recent studies in narratology, about the important building
blocks authors use to create their fictions. I begin by defining narrative,
especially in comparison to other kinds of texts, such as description and
argument. Later chapters describe, and in some caSes redefine, basic notions
such as plot, character, setting, theme, irony, narrator, and "point of view."
The sixty short stories I have chosen are worthy of inclusion on their
literary merit alone, and some literature classes will elect to use this book
without further concern for my technical input. But these stories also furnish a
treasure trove of narrative strategies. They can be enjoyed in two stages: first, in
their own right as engaging and, in some cases, moving entertainments, and
second, as constructed works of art worth analyzing. Space restriction prevents
me from including a novel (though Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer"
qualifies at least as a novella), but the insights to be acquired about narrative
from these short fictions can easily be applied to novels as well.
Many of the terms used to name narrative features-such as "charac
terization" and "point of view" -are familiar to high school students. But in
classroom discussions of actual stories they tend to be used vaguely or not at
all. I hope that clearer and more exact definitions-and especially illustra
tions of how ~ese features operate in short stories-will enable all students,
whether in freshman composition courses, sophomore survey courses, or ad
vanced literature courses, to read narratives more sensitively and with a new
awareness of how they are constructed. (Terms for narrative features are listed
alphabetically in the Glossary on pp. 625 -629.)
Each of the nine chapters in the first part of the book discusses one
aspect of nction and offers short stories that employ that aspect in a particu
lady effective way. One or more of the short stories may be read before or after
vii
viii PREFACE
the discussion; ideally, they would be read both before and after. The Further
Reading section provides many additional short stories which, aside from their
intrinsic merits, serve as challenging targets for narrative analysis.
I have tried to pick short stories that are particularly relevant to our
times. Uppermost in my mind was fiction's uncanny power to capture, often
more accurately than news accounts, the actual social and psychological diver
sity of human lives. That overriding thought led me to a large number of short
stories by women and by people of color. Further, since English is the native
language of many nations and a second language for many other people
throughout the world, I have included stories from Ireland, Canada, the Carib
bean, Mrica, India, and Australia. The book also offers classic short stories,
both in English and in translation from foreign languages, that illustrate (how
ever modestly) the history of the genre. One consequence of this diversity was
the need to limit the book to a single short story per author. But readers who
would like more selections by a particular author will find ample book refer
ences in the biographical headnote preceding each selection. To simplify the
task of understanding historical, geographical, and other details that American
students might find unfamiliar, I have added explanatory footnotes.
Reading short stories and analyzing their structure is a crucial educa
tional exercise. Happily, unlike many exercises, it is pleasurable in itself.
However hard-headed our society may be, rare is the individual who dislikes
voyages into the worlds of fiction. Even students who haven't read much enjoy
watching stories unfold on television and at the movies. They are aware of and
are more interested in narrative forms than teachers sometimes think. This
anthology tries to show how given narrative techniques-say, "flashback" or
"point of view" -work in any narrative medium whatsoever and, conse
quently, how a student who already understands a bit about their workings in
film and television can easily transfer this competence to literature. The bene
fits of an improved ability to read narrative fiction extend far beyond the
simple pleasure of make-believe. These benefits are discussed in the Introduc
tion. The Introduction also outlines the kind of discussion to be found in the
following nine chapters and sketches in brief how the various parts of a
narrative fit together.
I have designed my book to stimulate oral and written discussion of
these short stories. In the first section, each story is followed by a group of
questions about its content and form, and each chapter ends with suggestions
for writing about the chapter topic and the stories that illustrate it. An appen
dix entitled "How to Write about Fiction" (pp. 603 - 624) offers explicit
instruction-even concrete "do's" and "don'ts"-for composing critical
papers. A sample student journal entry as well as two drafts of a student essay,
with instructional commentary, are also provided. I recommend that students
read this appendix carefully before submitting their first written exercises.
Though I have not included explicit instruction in writing fiction, the
material in the nine chapters and the sixty short stories should inspire those
who want to try their hand at the art. If you feel so inclined, go for it; and don't
worry too much about being original. Many famous authors have started out by
