This introductory book presents key concepts of narrative theory (or "narratology") and analyses five prose texts--the parable of the sower in St. Mark's Gospel, Franz Kafka's The Trial, James Joyce's 'The Dead', Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse--by applying the principles of narrative theory. This book also discusses film versions of four of these texts: Orson Welles's The Trial, John Huston's The Dead, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and Colin Gregg's To the Lighthouse. By lucidly presenting the concepts of narrative theory and illustrating and testing these concepts Narrative in Fiction and Film will be an invaluable text for undergraduates studying narrative theory as part of a literature or film studies course.

• Part I


• 1: Introduction


• 2: Narrative Communication


• 3: Narrative Time and Repetition


• 4: Events, Characters, and Characterization


• Part II


• 5: From the parable of the sower to Franz Kafka's The Trial and Orson Welles's The Trial


• 6: James Joyce's 'The Dead' and John Huston's The Dead


• 7: Josep Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now


• 8: Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Colin Gregg's To the Lighthouse


• Bibliography


• Index

Jakob Lothe is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oslo. His books include Conrad's Narrative Method (1989), and he is a contributor to the Cambridge Companions to Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad.