Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film [Paperback]

Seymour Benjamin Chatman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 1980 | ISBN-10: 080149186X | ISBN-13: 978-0801491863

Synthesizing the work of continental critics such as Genette, Todorov, and Barthes, and that of critics in the Anglo-American tradition, such as Lubbock and Booth, Seymour Chatman provides a comprehensive approach to a general theory of narrative, in both verbal and visual media. In this book, he analyzes what narrative is 'in itself.'

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (May 31, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080149186X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801491863
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful for analyzing written and film narratives, October 14, 2000

By 

Gideon Haberkorn - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (Paperback)

This book offers, for me, the most understandable model of a narrative I've read so far. Chatman offers helpful concepts for analyzing both written and film narratives. He tries to create a synthesis of all narrative theory before his book, and he does a very good job. Instead of getting lost in a collection of different approaches, you actually find yourself connecting them all, seeing where they fit together.

Among all the books on narratology and narrative analysis I've read, this is the one most helpful not only for analyzing film narratives but also written narratives (although I would always recommend you also read "Narratology: An Introduction", "Narrative Fiction" and perhaps Bordwell and Thompson's " Film Art : An Introduction", if you want to focus especially on films).

This book and the way Chatman dissects the narrative are also interesting for people more interested in writing than in analysis: I believe the parts Chatman splits the narrative into resemble very closely those writers use in putting one together. So this book may actually help writers gain new insights into what they are doing instinctively.

First and foremost, however, it is a very useful book for the student and scholar of literature.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rhetoric and Narrative, February 24, 2002

By 

Adirondack Views (Lake Placid, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (Paperback)

Chatman's book has been around for a while, but it is still probably the best summary of structuralist narrative theory out there. Chatman makes the very important connection beetween narrative theory and its rhetorical effects on audience. His treatment of the construction of time in narrative summarizes several other prominent narrative theorists, but his terminology is perhaps the most useful. His clear presentation of the distinction between "story" and "discourse" (often called "l'histoire" and "recit" after Genette) and the linking of discourse to rhetorical theory is perhaps the book's most useful feature. Chatman, whose early works included a treatise on poetic meter, is known primarily as a film theorist, but his work analyzes narrative in many media and in many forms. I have used this book as an introduction to narrative theory in my classes.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very useful, March 4, 2008

By 

Picky Consumer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (Paperback)

This is a terrifically useful book and is quite well known in graduate student circles. I came across it randomly at a bookstore when I was searching for a good introduction to literary theory and basic concepts. This book was clear and insightful and Chatman's presentation has since become the anchor around which I was able to read and digest all the other books that came after it. If you're looking for a 'way into' literary theory concepts, this one will be very helpful.

The title, story and discourse - refers to the basic distinction literary theorists make between a story (chronological set of events) and its narration (chronology can be manipulated to produce various rhetorical effects such as suspense, etc).