Object-Oriented Narratology explores the representation of objects from a narratological point of view, combining an object-centered approach with specific text studies and arguing for the cultural meanings of objects and their power and influence on the behavior of characters, while acknowledging the independence of their existence from human perception.
 

Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar. She is the author or editor of many books, including Narrative across Media: The Language of Storytelling (Nebraska, 2004) and Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. Tang Weisheng is chair professor in the College of Foreign Studies at Jiangxi Normal University, in Jiangxi, China. He is the author of two books in Mandarin on narratology, A Study on Narrative of Thingness and Text, Context, and Reader: Study on Contemporary American Narratology.
 

List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Representing Objects: The Mimetic Function
2. Designing Stories with Objects: The Thematic, Strategic and Structural Functions
3. Experiencing Otherness: Rick Bass’s Deep Ecology Narratives
4. The Horror of Sentient Things: Edgar Allan Poe
5. Ordinary Objects, Accumulation, and Design: Karl Ove Knausgaard and Nicholson Baker
6. Overhumanized versus Radically Alien Objects: Orhan Pamuk and Jean-Paul Sartre
7. Consumerism, Hoarding, and Liberation from Possession: Georges Perec and Ruth Ozeki
8. Enchantment of Things: Objects in Classic Chinese Literature
9. Telling Stories with Objects: Multimodal Manifestations
Conclusion
Source Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index