H. P. Dannenberg, Coincidence and Counterfactuality. Plotting Time and Space in Narrative Fiction

Hilary P. DANNENBERG

Coincidence and Counterfactuality. Plotting Time and Space in Narrative Fiction

Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press (Frontiers of Narrative Series), 2008, 304 p.
978-0-8032-1093-6

RÉSUMÉ

In Coincidence and Counterfactuality, a groundbreakinganalysis of plot, Hilary P. Dannenberg sets out to answer the perennialquestion of how to tell a good story. While plot is among the mostintegral aspects of storytelling, it is perhaps the least studiedaspect of narrative. Using plot theory to chart the development ofnarrative fiction from the Renaissance to the present, Dannenbergdemonstrates how the novel has evolved over time and how writers havedeveloped increasingly complex narrative strategies that tap into keycognitive parameters familiar to the reader from real-life experience.

Dannenbergproposes a new, multidimensional theory for analyzing time and space innarrative fiction, then uses this theory to trace the historicalevolution of narrative fiction by focusing on coincidence andcounterfactuality. These two key plot strategies are constructed aroundpivotal moments when characters' life trajectories, or sometimes thepaths of history, converge or diverge. The study's rich historical andtextual scope reveals how narrative traditions and genres such asromance and realism or science fiction and historiographic metafiction,rather than being separated by clear boundaries are in fact in acontinual process of interaction and cross-fertilization. Inhighlighting critical stages in the historical development of narrativefiction, the study produces new readings of works by pinpointing theinnovative role played by particular authors in this evolutionaryprocess. Dannenberg's original investigation of plot patterns isinterdisciplinary, incorporating research from narrative theory,cognitive approaches to literature, social psychology, possible worldstheory, and feminist approaches to narrative.

BIOGRAPHIE

Hilary P. Dannenberg is a professor of English studies and Anglophone literatures at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.