1. Narrative and life : the universality of narrative ; Narrative and time ; Narrative perception
2. Defining narrative : The bare minimum ; Story and narrative discourse ; The mediation (construction) of story ; Constituent and supplementary events ; Narrativity
3. The borders of narrative : Framing narratives ; Paratexts ; The outer limits of narrative ; Hypertext narrative ; Is it narrative or is it life itself?
4. The rhetoric of narrative : The rhetoric of narrative ; Causation ; Normalization ; Masterplots ; Narrative rhetoric at work
5. Closure : Conflict: the agon ; Closure and endings ; Closure, suspense, and surprise ; Closure at the level of expectations; Closure at the level of questions ; The absence of closure
6. Narration : A few words on interpretation ; The narrator ; Does the narrator narrate everything? ; Voice ; Focalization ; Distance ; Reliability ; Free indirect style ; Narration on stage and screen
7. Interpreting narrative : The implied author ; Underreading ; Gaps ; Cruxes ; Repetition: themes and motifs
8. Three ways to interpret narrative : The question of wholeness in narrative ; Intentional readings ; Symptomatic readings ; Adaptive readings
9. Adaptation across media : Adaptation as creative destruction ; Duration and pace ; Character; Figurative language ; Gaps ; Focalization ; Constraints of the marketplace
10. Character and self in narrative : Character vs. action ; Flat and round characters ; Can characters be real? ; Types ; Autobiography ; Life writing as performative
11. Narrative and truth : Fiction and nonfiction ; How do we know if it's fiction or nonfiction ; Historical fact in fiction ; The truth of fiction
12. Narrative worlds : Narrative space ; The mind of the storyworld ; Multiple worlds: forking-path narratives ; Multiple worlds: narrative metalepsis
13. Narrative contestation : A contest of narratives ; A narrative lattice-work ; Shadow stories ; Motivation and personality ; Masterplots and types ; Revising cultural masterplots ; Battling narratives are everywhere
14. Narrative negotiation : Narrative negotiation ; Critical reading as narrative negotiation ; Closure, one more time ; The end of closure?
