Narrative Theory and Criticism: Rhetorical Sources

This page includes references on narrative theory relevant to public narrative in rhetorical theory and criticism.

Selected Narrative Theory

These titles are the result of sifting through the jungle of narrative theory to spotlight concepts specifically applicable to public narrative as a form of audience knowledge and collective memory. Since there are many research tools available to track new publications, this bibliography favors the "firsts": the old and original.

Apthonius. "The Progymnasmata of Apthonius in Translation." Trans and with an introduction by Ray Nadeau. Speech Monographs 19/4 (1952): 264-285.

Booth, Wayne. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1983.

Budarick, John. "Media Narratives and Social Events: The Story of the Redfern Riot." Journal of Communication Inquiry 35/1 (2011): 37-52.

Franzosi, Roberto. (1998). "Narrative Analysis—Or Why, and How, Sociologists Should Be Interested in Narrative." Annual Review of Sociology 24: 517-554.

Friedman, Norman. "Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a Critical Concept." PMLA 70/5 (1955): 1160-1184.

Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1957.

Kermode, Frank. "Secrets and Narrative Sequence." Critical Inquiry 7/1 On Narrative (1980): 83-101.

Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folk Tale. Ed. Louis A. Wagner. Trans. Laurence Scott. 2nd. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968.

Reagan, Andrew J. et al. "The Emotional Arcs of Stories Are Dominated by Six Basic Shapes." EPJ Data Science 5/31 (2016). [https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0093-1].

Turner, Victor. "Social Dramas and Stories about Them." Critical Inquiry 7/1 On Narrative (1980): 141-168.

White, Hayden. "The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality." Critical Inquiry 7/1 On Narrative (1980): 5-27.

Rhetorical Narrative Theory and Criticism

These titles are comprehensive on narrative criticism in rhetoric and communication. Bass, Jeff. "The Appeal to Efficiency as Narrative Closure: Lyndon Johnson and the Dominican Crisis, 1965. Southern Speech Communication Journal 50 (1985): 103-120.

Carlson, A. Cheree. "Narrative as the Philosopher's Stone: How Russell H. Conwell Changed Lead into Diamonds." Western Journal of Communication 58 (1994): 85-97.

Carpenter, Ronald H. "Admiral Mahan, 'Narrative Fidelity,' and the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor." Quarterly Journal of Speech 72 (1986): 290-305.

Dobkin, Bethami A. "Paper Tigers and Video Postcards: The Rhetorical Dimensions of Narrative Form in ABC News Coverage of Terrorism." Western Journal of Communication 56 (1992): 143-160.

Farrell, Thomas B. "Narrative in Natural Discourse: On Conversation and Rhetoric." Journal of Communication 36 (1985): 109-127.

Fisher, Walter R. Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1987.

Fisher, Walter R. "A Motive View of Human Communication." Quarterly Journal of Speech 56 (1970): 131-139.

Fisher, Walter R. "Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of Public Moral Argument." Communication Monographs 51 (1984): 1-22.

Fisher, Walter R. "The Narrative Paradigm: An Elaboration." Communication Monographs 52 (1985): 347-367.

Griffin, Charles J. G. "The Rhetoric of Form in Conversation Narratives." Quarterly Journal of Speech 76 (1990): 152-163.

Gross, Alan G., "Rhetoric, Narrative, and the Lifeworld: The Construction of Collective Identity." Philosophy & Rhetoric 43/2 (2010): 118-138.

Guerrero, Laura K., and George N. Dionisopoulos. "Enthymematic Solutions to the Lockshin Defection Story: A Case Study in the Repair of a Problematic Narrative." Communication Studies 41 (1990): 299-310.

Jacobs, Ronald N. (2001). "The Problem with Tragic Narratives: Lessons from the Los Angeles Uprising." Qualitative Sociology 24/2: 221-243.

Jasinski, James. "[Re]constituting Community through Narrative Argument: Eros and Philia in The Big Chill." Quarterly Journal of Speech 79 (1993): 467-486.

Kirkwood, William G. "Storytelling and Self-Confrontation: Parables as Communication Strategies." Quarterly Journal of Speech69 (1983): 58-74.

Lewis, William F. "Telling America's Story: Narrative Form and the Reagan Presidency." Quarterly Journal of Speech 73 (1987): 267-279.

Lucaites, John, and Celeste M. Condit. "Re-constructing Narrative Theory: A Functional Perspective." Journal of Communication 35 (1985): 90-108.

McGee, Michael Calvin, and John S. Nelson. "Narrative Reason in Public Argument." Journal of Communication 35 (1985): 139-155.

McNamara, Kim, and Donald McNeill. “The City Personified: The Geopolitical Narratives of Rudy Giuliani.” Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 9, no. 3 (September 2012): 259–78. doi:10.1080/14791420.2012.699683.

Mumby, Dennis K. Narrative and Social Control. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993.

Mumby, Dennis K. "The Political Function of Narrative in Organizations." Communication Monographs 54 (1987): 113-127.

Redick, Kip, and Lori Underwood. "Rationality and Narrative: A Relationship of Priority." Philosophy & Rhetoric 40/4 (2007): 394-405.

Rosteck, Thomas. "Narrative in Martin Luther King's 'I've Been to the Mountaintop'." Southern Communication Journal 58 (1992): 22-32.

Salvador, Michael. "The Rhetorical Genesis of Ralph Nader: A Functional Exploration of Narrative and Argument in Public Discourse." Southern Communication Journal 59 (1984): 227-239.

Schmid, Ulrich. 2010. “Constitution and Narrative: Peculiarities of Rhetoric and Genre in the Foundational Laws of the USSR and the Russian Federation.” Studies in East European Thought 62 (3/4): 431–51. doi:10.1007/s11212-010-9122-y.

Scott, Robert L. "Narrative Theory and Communication Research." Quarterly Journal of Speech 70 (1984): 197-221.

Somers, Margaret R. "The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach." Theory and society (1994): 605-649.

Stroud, Scott R. "Narrative as Argument in Indian Philosophy: The Astāvakra Gītā as Multivalent Narrative." Philosophy & Rhetoric 37/1 (2004): 42-71.

Stuckey, Mary E. "Anecdotes and Conversations: The Narrational and Dialogic Styles of Modern Presidential Communication." Communication Quarterly 40 (1992): 45-55.

Warnick, Barbara. "The Narrative Paradigm: Another Story." Quarterly Journal of Speech 73 (1987): 172-182.

Zelizer, Barbie. "Achieving Journalistic Authority through Narrative." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 7 (1990): 366-376.

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