Somebody Telling Somebody Else

In Somebody Telling Somebody Else, James Phelan proposes a paradigm shift for narrative theory, a turn from viewing narrative as a structure to viewing it as a rhetorical action in which a teller selectively deploys the resources of storytelling in order to accomplish particular purposes in relation to particular audiences. Phelan explores the consequences of this shift for an understanding of various elements of narrative, including reliable and unreliable narration, character-character dialogue, and occasions of narration. In doing so, he offers new readings of a wide range of narratives from Jane Austen''s Pride and Prejudice to Joan Didion''s The Year of Magical Thinking, from Joseph Conrad''s Lord Jim to George V. Higgins''s The Friends of Eddie Coyle, from Franz Kafka''s "Das Urteil" to Toni Morrison''s "Recitatif," from David Small''s Stitches to Jhumpa Lahiri''s "Third