"Puts major theories of narrative in dialogue with post-postmodernist theory to present a new pluralist narratological framework, expanding consideration of recent works that employ unnatural devices for feminist purposes. Authors under discussion include Ali Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Kate Atkinson, and Ruth Ozeki"-- Provided by publisher.
Puts major theories of narrative in dialogue with post-postmodernist theory to present a new pluralist narratological framework, expanding consideration of recent works that employ unnatural devices for feminist purposes.
In Contemporary Feminist Fiction and a Case for Expanding Rhetorical Narratology, Katherine J. Weese explores intersections among rhetorical, unnatural, and feminist narrative theories and post-postmodern theory to argue that an expanded rhetorical poetics offers the most comprehensive model for illuminating recent works that employ unnatural devices for feminist purposes. This pluralist narratological framework is a vital counterpoint to theorists tendency to read twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels through a post-postmodernist or metamodernist lens that overlooks unnatural, feminist, and rhetorical narrative theories. Examining Ali Smiths The Accidental and Hotel World, Barbara Kingsolvers The Poisonwood Bible, Toni Morrisons Beloved, Kate Atkinsons A God in Ruins and Life after Life, and Ruth Ozekis A Tale for the Time Being, Weese demonstrates how various narratological theories inform rather than compete with one another. Through an expanded rhetorical poetics, including a refined version of James Phelans MTS (mimetic, thematic, synthetic) model, she reframes post-postmodern theorists concerns with communicative function through a narratological lens to make the case that exploring the rhetorical function of unnatural devices challenges and extends the claims of narrow metamodern readings.
