H. Porter Abbott

It's a good introductory book for critical theory. It's got a lot of good vocabulary and basic concepts; however, if you've read a fair bit of theory, then it's probably too basic for you. It's written explicitly for undergraduates. I'm an undergraduate, and I got impatient with it numerous times. However, it's still a very interesting book, and has many parts that make you really think about the way we treat life, the universe, and everything. Everything like books. 6/10

What is narrative? How does it work and how does it shape our lives? H. Porter Abbott emphasizes that narrative is found not just in literature, film, and theatre, but everywhere in the ordinary course of people's lives. This widely used introduction, now revised and expanded in its third edition, is informed throughout by recent developments in the field and includes one new chapter. The glossary and bibliography have been expanded, and new sections explore unnatural narrative, retrograde show more narrative, reader-resistant narratives, intermedial narrative, narrativity, and multiple interpretation. With its lucid exposition of concepts, and suggestions for further reading, this book is not only an excellent introduction for courses focused on narrative but also an invaluable resource for students and scholars across a wide range of fields, including literature and drama, film and media, society and politics, journalism, autobiography, history, and still others throughout the arts, humanities, and social sciences. show less