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Genetic Narratology: Analysing Narrative across Versions - cover image

Copyright

Dirk Van Hulle. Copyright of individual chapters are maintained by the chapter author(s).

Published On

2024-12-17

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80511-399-7
Hardback978-1-80511-400-0
PDF978-1-80511-401-7
HTML978-1-80511-403-1
EPUB978-1-80511-402-4

Language

  • English

Print Length

320 pages (xiv+306)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 23 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.91" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 26 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.02" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback610g (21.52oz)
Hardback784g (27.65oz)

Media

Illustrations12
Tables2

Funding

OCLC Number

1479770541

LCCN

2023513461

THEMA

  • GTD
  • FX
  • DS
  • DSA

BISAC

  • LIT006000
  • LIT007000
  • LIT024000
  • LAN005050

LCC

  • PN3355

Keywords

  • Genetic Narratology
  • Narrative Theory
  • Writing Process
  • Textual Variants
  • Manuscript Studies
  • Story Genesis

Genetic Narratology

Analysing Narrative across Versions

Genetic Narratology is the first full-length volume to merge genetic criticism with narratology, offering an innovative approach to understanding literature. By examining the creative process behind literary works through drafts, manuscripts and revisions, this book reveals how narratives are shaped in real time.

Through diverse case studies—from Charlotte Brontë to Stephen King—this collection demonstrates how the material processes of writing influence narrative structure, pacing, and even the ‘untold’. By integrating genetic criticism with narratological methods, contributors explore how stories evolve, providing fresh insights into time, space, character, and suspense.

Bridging the gap between the production and reception of texts, this volume makes a compelling case for incorporating genetic methods into broader narratological frameworks, enhancing not only our understanding of the genesis of literary works, ultimately enriching the reading experience, but also our awareness of the ways we narrativise this genesis.

The book will be of interest to students and researchers alike, offering a new set of tools for analysing narrative across different versions.

Endorsements

This book introduces fresh research perspectives on the workings of creative imagination, as evidenced in the genesis and history of literary texts. By combining case studies with broader reflections from esteemed international experts in the field, it forges new connections between the insights of editorial philology and narratology.

Prof. Michael Scheffel

Bergische Universität Wuppertal

Contents

1. An Introduction to Genetic Narratology: Geneses of Narratives and Narratives of Geneses

(pp. 1–16)
  • Dirk Van Hulle

2. Metagenesis: Manuscripts, and How Metanarration and Metafiction Contribute to Their Analysis

(pp. 17–34)
  • Karin Kukkonen

3. The Structures of Narrative Imagination: Reading an Outline of Theodor Fontane’s Novel Die Poggenpuhls as a Test Case for Genetic Narratology

(pp. 35–54)
  • Matthias Grüne

4. A Lodger Returns: Change in Narrative Voice Across Epigenetic Versions and Works

(pp. 55–72)
  • Josefine Hilfling

5. Melville’s Cancelled Note-to-Self: The Development of a ‘Ragged’ Narrative Across the Drafts of Billy Budd

(pp. 73–90)
  • Charles Mascia

6. ‘The puzzle pieces fit too late’: Posthumous Narratological Changes in Arthur Quiller-Couch and Daphne Du Maurier’s Castle Dor

(pp. 91–110)
  • Claire Qu

7. Prototyping the Narrative Skeleton: Story Structure, Types of Narration and Vestigial Elements in the Genesis of James Joyce’s ‘Ithaca’ Episode

(pp. 111–132)
  • Joris Zilliukas

8. Drafting ‘Anon’ and Killing Anon: Virginia Woolf and the Genesis of English Literary Language

(pp. 133–150)
  • Joshua Phillips

9. Beckett’s ‘Arabian Nights of the Mind’: Unnarratability, Denarrat(ivisat)ion and Narrative Closure in the Radio Play Cascando

(pp. 151–168)
  • Pim Verhulst

10. A Genetic and Biographical Analysis of Barbara Pym’s Companion Character

(pp. 169–188)
  • Jane Loughman

11. Also for Irony: Historical Realism and the Move of a Chapter for the Final Version of V. (1963), by Thomas Pynchon

(pp. 189–198)
  • Luc Herman
  • John M. Krafft

12. You Don’t Get Scared of Monsters, You Get Scared for People: Creating Suspense across Versions in Stephen King’s IT

(pp. 199–220)
  • Vincent Neyt

13. Genetic Narratology and the Novelistic Cycle across Versions

(pp. 221–240)
  • Lars Bernaerts

14. ‘Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure’: Narratological Rupture in The Last Samurai

(pp. 241–260)
  • Kaia Sherry

15. Nanogenetic Econarratology: Where Narratology Meets Keystroke Logging Data

(pp. 261–280)
  • Lamyk Bekius

16. On the Value of Variants and Textual Genesis for Interpretation: Some Remarks on a New Relationship between Historical-Critical Editing, Genetic Criticism and Narratology

(pp. 281–298)
  • Rüdiger Nutt-Kofoth

Contributors

Dirk Van Hulle

(editor)
Professor of Bibliography and Modern Book History at University of Oxford
Professorial Fellow at Jesus College at University of Oxford
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7066-6313

Dirk Van Hulle is Professor of Bibliography and Modern Book History at the University of Oxford, director of the Oxford Centre for Textual Editing and Theory (OCTET) and of the Centre for Manuscript Genetics at the University of Antwerp. With Mark Nixon, he is director of the MLA award-winning Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (www.beckettarchive. org), series editor of the series ‘Elements in Beckett Studies’, editor of the Journal of Beckett Studies, and curator of the Bodleian exhibition Write Cut Rewrite (Oxford, Feb 2024–Jan 2025). His publications include Textual Awareness (2004), Modern Manuscripts (2014), Samuel Beckett’s Library (2013, with Mark Nixon), The New Cambridge Companion to Samuel Beckett (2015), James Joyce’s Work in Progress (2016), Genetic Criticism: Tracing Creativity in Literature (2022), and Write Cut Rewrite (2024, with Mark Nixon).