Narrative Form and Chaos Theory in Sterne, Proust, Woolf, and Faulkner - by J Parker (Paperback)

About the Book

This study demonstrates how the insights afforded us by chaos theory can be applied to the analysis of narrative structure and meaning.

Book Synopsis

Drawing on the insights offered by contemporary chaos theory, Narrative Form and Chaos Theory explores how models of turbulent dynamical systems in the physical world parallel structures in certain kinds of narratives. By closely looking at Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, Parker demonstrates how these insights can be applied to the analysis of narrative structure and meaning. This innovative interdisciplinary work will appeal to scholars interested in narratology and in the connection between chaos theory and literature.

Review Quotes

"In this study, Parker posits significant parallels between chaos theory and certain literary narratives that are seemingly chaotic or do not follow accepted structural conventions and whose structure mimics that of chaotic systems. She demonstrates this very effectively with a twofold strategy, first a succinct discussion of scientific concepts, followed by a presentation of four literary examples that support her analysis of narrative structure and meaning by exposing in each of the novels an embedded unique aspect of contemporary chaos science. A solid and well-researched interdisciplinary approach." - Maria L. Assad, Professor Emeritus of French Literature and Language, State University College at Buffalo

About the Author

JO ALYSON PARKER is Associate Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, USA.