Studying the Novel

Jeremy Hawthorn is Emeritus Professor of British Literature at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. He has published many books and articles on fiction and on literary theory.

This new edition of Studying the Novel is markedly the product of a life time of teaching and sustained reflection on the novel. It takes the reader from the basics of character, action, plot through to recent developments in critical approaches to the novel – narratological, textual, contextual, ideological; and from the ancestors of the novel through to world literature via computer games, interactive fiction and hypertext fiction. For this new edition, Hawthorn has added a new chapter on popular fiction (including children’s fiction and the graphic novel) and new sections on the novel and disability and the novel and apartheid. Studying the Novel is written with Hawthorn’s usual clarity and intelligence: it manages to provide helpful guidance for those just starting into the serious study of the novel (including ‘How to take Notes’ and ‘Using Critics’), while remaining constantly thought-provoking for the more experienced student of fiction. It is appropriately aware of its own imagined reader, and richly furnished with a range of illustrative fictional examples. It is essential reading for anybody setting out to think critically about the novel, and the ‘topics for discussion’ after each chapter make this a very useful teaching tool.

• ContentsIntroduction to the eighth editionChapter 1 Fiction and the novelThe universality and the distinctiveness of fictionFiction, play, fantasyImaginary characters and real lifeProseNarrativeCharacters, action, plotNovel, short story, novellaChapter 2 History, genre, cultureWhen was the novel born?Ancestors and close relationsNovel and romanceLife and patternThe ‘rise of the novel’Chapter 3 Shorter fictionThe short storyThe novellaChapter 4 Realism, modernism, postmodernism – and beyondRealismModernismPostmodernismThe electronic revolutionChapter 5 Popular fictionGenre, the canon, and the popularFiction for childrenThe fiction of horror: ghosts and the gothicScience fictionThe detective storyThe spy thrillerThe comic novelThe graphic novelChapter 6 Analysing fictionProse fiction and formal analysisNarrative techniqueCharacterPlotStructureSettingThemeSymbol and imageSpeech and dialogueChapter 7 Studying the novelStudying the novel in the digital ageReading, responding, criticizingHow to take notesUsing criticsUsing computersRevision / reviewEssays and examinationsChapter 8 Critical approaches to fictionCategorizing criticismNarratology: structuralist and rhetoricalThe literary critical traditionTextual approachesContextual approachesIdeological approachesChapter 9 Versions, adaptations, translationsVersionsAdaptationsTranslationsChapter 10 World literature and fictionWorld literatureFor whom does the novel speak today?Fiction, truth, and (recent) historyThe fiction of disabilityTimeline of the novelGlossary of termsBibliographyIndex