Style in Narrative

Abstract Style has often been understood both too broadly and too narrowly. In consequence, it has not defined a psychologically coherent area of study. In the opening chapter, Hogan first defines style so as to make possible a systematic theoretical account through cognitive and affective science. This definition stresses that style varies by both scope and level—thus, the range of text or texts that may share a style (from a single passage to an historical period) and the components of a work that might involve a shared style (including story, narration, and verbalization). Hogan illustrates the main points of this chapter by reference to several works, prominently Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Subsequent chapters in the first part focus on under-researched aspects of literary style. The second chapter explores the level of story construction for the scope of an authorial canon, treating Shakespeare. The third turns to verbal narration in a single work, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Part two, on film style, begins with another theoretical chapter. It turns, in chapter five, to the perceptual interface in the genre of “painterly” films, examining works by Rodriguez, Mehta, Rohmer, and Husain. The sixth chapter treats the level of plot in the postwar films of Ozu. The remaining film chapter turns to visual narration in a single work, Lu’s Nanjing! Nanjing! The third part addresses theoretical and interpretive issues bearing on style in graphic fiction, with a focus on Spiegelman’s Maus. An Afterword touches briefly on implications of stylistic analysis for political critique.