Narrative exchanges

Narrative Exchanges shows how a general model of communicative exchanges can be refined in order to deal with the complexities of narrative fiction. Going beyond the two-way structure of reciprocity, it gives particular attention to the processes of framing, substitution and dispossession by which written texts generate meaning. It provides a new way of combining narrative theory and exchange theory, bringing the two areas of thought into a mutually critical relationship. The argument engages critically with linguistic and other theories of exchange. Each stage of the discussion develops through a detailed reading of narrative texts drawn from a range of periods, generic affiliations and cultural situations, and including the uncanonical as well as the canonical. Among authors represented are Flaubert, Achebe, Mansfield, Boccaccio, Duras, Daudet, Moorhouse, DeLillo and Wordsworth. Drawing on perspectives from anthropology, linguistics and education, and combining accessible readings with theoretical debate, Ian Reid makes a significant new contribution to the debate about narrative theory.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.