Seymour Chatman

This seems to synthesize a lot of other peoples' work, particularly Todorov, Genette, Booth and Barthes. I can't actually remember the bits that Chatman puts forward in his own name, which I guess is a good sign that all that synthesis doesn't leave you with a mess, but with a pretty coherent description of narrative art-forms; and I definitely remember thinking that when he argues against one of the aforementioned titans of the discipline, Chatman comes across as more sensible and more sympathetic to, you know, books, rather than theory. That's always a good thing. Despite being part of the structuralist camp, he understands the importance of social and historical context for 'structures,' and admits that a fuller understanding of history and societies than is evident here would help out narrative theory. It's even pretty decent writing. A hard slog, with a lot of definitions and hair-splitting, but better than it could have been.… (mehr)