Description
Book SynopsisAn expansion of Cohn's Christian Gauss lectures at Princeton and the product of many years of labor and thought, The Distinction of Fiction builds on narratological and phenomenological theories to show that boundaries between fiction and history can be firmly and systematically explored.
Trade ReviewOffers some very fine analysis of a range of narratives from Freud's case histories to Tolstoy's War and Peace... An important contribution to narrative theory and a salutary intervention in the debate about the relation between fiction and nonfiction... Cohn argues with clarity, learning, and patient logic. -- James Phelan Modern Fiction Studies The first chapter, which anatomizes the various meanings of the term 'fiction' in critical discourse, shows Cohn at her best, scrupulously and methodically distinguishing between shifting and rival senses of the term 'fiction.'. -- Brian Richardson Novel [T]his collection offers a convenient way of sampling the ideas of a well respected critic who has had substantial and lasting impact on narratological studies. -- Hollie Markland Harder French Review Dorrit Cohn demolishes, with remorseless and elegant clarity, the view, fashionable among some literary theorists, that there is ultimately no distinction between historical and fictional narrative. -- Michael Bell Yearbook of English Studies Elegantly written and demonstrates an impressive knowledge of scholarship in the theoretical field of narratology. -- Amy J. Elias Journal of English and Germanic Philology The Distinction of Fiction will [become] required reading for all those interested in the formal workings of narrative... Readers willing to trace and retrace the rigorous intricacies of Cohn's presentation will find that the effort leads to ample and even exhilarating rewards. -- Patrick O'Neill Seminar Careful and lucid theoretical work in narratology. -- Ursula Mahlendorf Colloquia Germanica
