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Palgrave Macmillan

Present Tense Narration in Contemporary Fiction

A Narratological Overview

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Irmtraud Huber

    1. English Department, Universität Bern, Berne, Switzerland

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  • Offers a meticulous and unique insight into the sub-categories of present-tense narrative
  • Presents a concise and timely analysis of some of the early twenty-first century's most iconic present-tense fiction
  • Provides new ways of understanding this much marginalised genre

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
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  2. Introduction

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 1-3

  3. Past and Present of Present-tense Narration

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 5-21

  4. Narrative Deictic Narration

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 23-37

  5. Retrospective Narration

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 39-54

  6. Interior Monologue

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 55-67

  7. Simultaneous Narration

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 69-86

  8. Mixed Cases

    • Irmtraud Huber
    Pages 87-100

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 101-123
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Keywords

About this book

In this book, Irmtraud Huber considers a wide range of contemporary novels to explore the variety of possibilities and effects of the use of the present tense, as well as investigating  the reasons for its popularity. By illustrating the complexity and sophistication of four different types of contemporary usage, Huber’s discussion goes some way towards refuting those critical voices which consider present-tense narration a passing fad and stylistic affectation. As a tense of narration, the present can serve to tell different stories than the past tense, or can tell them differently. By no means a passing fad, it is an important characteristic of contemporary literature.

Reviews

“Present-Tense Narration in Contemporary Fiction provides its reader with a comprehensive survey of different usages of the present tense in contemporary narrative fiction which accounts for the diversity of individual narratives by sensibly eschewing any form-to-function mapping. … Huber’s study makes for an inspiring read which gives valuable food for thought to any literary scholar interested not only in concrete manifestations of present-tense narration, but also in major works of contemporary fiction.” (Carolin Gebauer, Diegesis, Vol. 6 (1), 2017)

Authors and Affiliations

  • English Department, Universität Bern, Berne, Switzerland

    Irmtraud Huber

About the author

Irmtraud Huber is a lecturer in English literature at the Universität Bern, Switzerland. Her PhD on the role of fantastical elements in recent literary attempts to go beyond postmodernism received the Helene-Richter Prize from the Deutscher Anglistenverband. Her monograph Literature after Postmodernism: Reconstructive Fantasies was published by Palgrave in 2014.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Present Tense Narration in Contemporary Fiction

  • Book Subtitle: A Narratological Overview

  • Authors: Irmtraud Huber

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56213-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-56212-8Published: 12 October 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-85079-2Due: 01 November 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-56213-5Published: 30 September 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 123

  • Topics: Contemporary Literature, Fiction, Literary Theory

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