Interactive Fictions: Scenes of Storytelling in the Novel (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)

Arguing that genre must play a role in our study of narrative fiction, this "tour" of the novel examines interactive storytelling scenes in which characters argue about how to tell a tale that meets their respective social and aesthetic expectations. Through intense readings of interactive storytelling scenes in works spanning the 17th through 20th centuries, Halevi-Wise demonstrates how dramatized arguments about storytelling open a window on social and generic dilemmas affecting the narrative of each novel at the time of its composition. Examined in detail are Cervantes' Don Quixote, Sterne's Tristam Shandy, Austen's Northanger Abbey, Dickens's Little Dorrit, Conrad's Lord Jim, Yehoshua's Mr. Mani, and Esquival's Like Water for Chocolate.