This introductory text has a two-part structure, Part I presents key concepts of narrative theory - for example, author, narrator, time, perspective, event, characterization. Part II analyzes five prose texts, and film versions of four of them, in terms of narrative theory.

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.

'This is a valuable book, not least because of its inter-disciplinary nature; but it will be considered somewhat specialist by most students of film. Its focus on narrative and what this can mean in the broadest sense make it possible to see it as a useful tool within the expanding area of creative writing as an undergraduate discipline, particularly when students are asked to theorise their own narrative strategies or to experiment with different forms of narrative.' THES May 2000