Narrative exchanges
By: Ian Reid.
Publisher: New York; Routledge
Published: 1992
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
Subjects: Narration (Rhetoric); Fiction -- Technique.
Description: Narrative Exchanges shows how a general model of communicative exchanges can be refined in order to deal with the complexities of narrative fiction. Going beyond the two-way structure of reciprocity, it gives particular attention to the processes of framing, substitution and dispossession by which written texts generate meaning. It provides a new way of combining narrative theory and exchange theory, bringing the two areas of thought into a mutually critical relationship. The argument engages critically with linguistic and other theories of exchange. Each stage of the discussion develops through a detailed reading of narrative texts drawn from a range of periods, generic affiliations and cultural situations, and including the uncanonical as well as the canonical. Among authors represented are Flaubert, Achebe, Mansfield, Boccaccio, Duras, Daudet, Moorhouse, DeLillo and Wordsworth.

Drawing on perspectives from anthropology, linguistics and education, and combining accessible readings with theoretical debate, Ian Reid makes a significant new contribution to the debate about narrative theory.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-260) and index.