The Nature of Narrative (Galaxy Books) [Paperback]

Robert Scholes (Author), Robert Kellogg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1968 | ISBN-10: 0195007735 | ISBN-13: 978-0195007732 | Edition: New edition

This analytical study provides a welcome balance to the critical practice of judging all narrative literature by standards appropriate only to the novel. Scholes and Kellogg argue that such a narrow view obscures the real tradition of narrative literature in the Western world. Examining the work of Joyce, Proust, Mann, Lawrence, Faulkner, and other writers of this century, they consider elements common to all narrative forms, including myth, folktale, epic, romance, allegory, confession, and satire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Still a basic study, and the only one of its kind."--Andrew Welsh, Rutgers University

"A pioneer venture into one of the richest areas in literature, this volume is worthy of comparison with the classic studies of Harry Levin and Rene Wellek."--Modern Language Journal

"Still the most valuable introduction to the formal, historical, and generic aspects of fiction and narrative."--Francis Blessington, Northeastern University

About the Author

Robert Scholes is at Brown University. Robert Kellogg is at University of Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 334 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; New edition edition (December 31, 1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195007735
• ISBN-13: 978-0195007732
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Scholes was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1929. His mother was one of five Brooklyn girls orphaned by the influenza epidemic, raised by the oldest sister, with the help of the Catholic Church. Her parents were Italian immigrants to the U. S. Robert's father (Ted Scholes) was from Philadelphia, of English and Irish background. The name (pronounced skoles) comes from Yorkshire.

Robert went to public schools in Forest Hills, Queens and then, from the fourth grade through High School in Garden City, on Long Island, New York. He graduated from Yale in 1950 and spent several years on active duty with the U. S. Navy, after attending Officer's Candidate School in Newport, RI. He served in the U. S. S. Helena, a heavy cruiser, which was involved in combat during the Korean War, making two extended cruises to the Pacific and bring newly elected President Eisenhower from Guam to Hawaii in 1952. Serving as a gunnery officer, Scholes lost some hearing during this period. After the Korean war, he spent a year in the Philadelphia Navy Yard,helping with the overhaul of destroyers. During his time on active duty his first wife, Joan, had two children, Christine and Peter.

In 1955 he entered graduate school at Cornell on the G. I. Bill, getting his MA in 1956 and PhD in 1959. His dissertation was a catalogue of the newly acquired papers of James Joyce in the Cornell Library. His first academic job was as an Instructor at the U. of Virginia, where he was promoted to Assistant Professor after two years. At the U. of Virginia William Faulkner came to his class when he taught one of Faulkner's novels.

In 1964 he became an Associate Professor at the U. of Iowa, where he was made a Professor in 1966. In 1970 he moved to Brown, where he has been ever since. In the spring of 1971 his first wife died of cancer. In 1972 he married Jo Ann Putnam and acquired four more children: Cynthia, Rick, Greg, and Mike.

During his career he has been author, co-author, or editor of more than thirty books, and has served as President of the Semiotic Society of America and of the Modern Language Association. His books range from literary theory and modernist studies to matters of the class room and the curriculum. He helped to found the Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown, and, in 1995 he began the Modernist Journals Project, which provides digital editions of modern periodicals for use by scholars, teachers, and students. In 1999 he retired from full-time teaching and became an unpaid Research Professor of Modern Culture and Media, as well as a Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Let Me Save You Some Time, May 28, 2004

By 

B. M. White (Eastlake, oh United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nature of Narrative (Galaxy Books) (Paperback)

In the closing passage of this book, after reading some 200+ pages about narrative art as it progressed from the oral to the written form (a journey with some admittedly fascinating stops along the way), the author announces that the written form, i.e. books, is dying out and that the medium of film is its new successor. Yep, it's another one of those, "Thank you for investing you time in reading this, now let me spit in your face before I go" books, just like Rank's Art and Artist, but it's not quite as bad as Rank though. Rank announced the death of all art. This guy was just announcing the death of the book. I should have known from the beginning when he kept talking about "putting the novel in its place."

What really annoyed me was the way he kept talking like James Joyce was the cutting edge of modern literature, implying that everyone who doesn't write that kind of crazy garbage is out of touch with the times. He made it sound as if it were impossible or at least pathically naive to just tell a simple story in our complex modern age, because 'good heavens!!' its impossible to bridge the ironic gap between author and narrator and persona, and then there's Henry James over there trying refine the author out of existence, Silly Rabbit, and 'my goodness' how are you going to satisfy the modern mind's insatiable desire for verisimilitude and oh let's not forget the Theory of Relativity casting its cloud over everything. The Theory of Relativity is like a magical rabbit that modern intellectuals pull out of their hats in the most unlikeliest of situations. Anyway, I doubt most contemporary writers think or need to think about these sorts of things. And if they do...well, they just buckle down and do the best they can and get the story told and forget that they ever read books like this.