Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Robyn Warhol and Susan S. Lanser -- Part I: Narrative discourse unbound. Toward (a queerer and) more (feminist) narratology / Susan S. Lanser ; Out of the bind : from structure to system in popular narratives / Judith Roof ; Giving an account of themselves : metanarration and the structure of address in The office and The real housewives / Robyn Warhol ; Hypothetical focalization and queer grief / Peggy Phelan -- Part II: Intersectional narrative theories. Religion, intersectionality, and queer/feminist narrative theory : the Bildungsromane of Ahdaf Soueif, Leila Aboulela, and Randa Jarrar / Susan Stanford Friedman ; Intersectional narratology in the study of narrative empathy / Suzanne Keen ; Empathy and 1970s novels by Third World women / Sue J. Kim -- Part III: Lifewriting, gender, sex. Screenshots in the Longue dur©♭e : feminist narratology, digital humanities, and collective biographies of women / Alison Booth ; The space of graphic narrative : mapping bodies, feminism, and form / Hillary Chute ; The narrative case for queer biography / Wendy Moffat ; "No future" vs. "it gets better" : queer prospects for narrative temporality / Jesse Matz -- Part IV: Emplotment, or the shapes of stories. Maurice, or coming out straight / Paul Morrison ; Strange influence : queer etiology in The picture of Dorian Gray / Valerie Rohy ; Gendered narratives in animal studies / Susan Fraiman ; Sex-text-cortex / Kay Young -- Part V: Challenges : un/doing narrative theory. Towards a queer feminism; or, feminist theories and/as queer narrative studies / Abby Coykendall ; Queer/feminist/narrative : on the limits of reciprocal engagement / Martin Joseph Ponce ; Critically affirmative reconfigurations / Claudia Breger ; Narrative causes : inside and out / Ellen Peel ; The human problem / Shalyn Claggett -- Afterword / Irene Kacandes.

"Under the bold banner of Narrative Theory Unbound: Queer and Feminist Interventions, editors Robyn Warhol and Susan S. Lanser gather a diverse spectrum of queer and feminist challenges to the theory and interpretation of narrative. The first edited collection to bring feminist, queer, and narrative theories into direct conversation with one another, this anthology places gender and sexuality at the center of contemporary theorizing about the production, reception, forms, and functions of narrative texts. Through twenty-one essays prefaced by a cogent history of the field, Narrative Theory Unbound offers new perspectives on narrative discourse and its constituent elements; on intersectional approaches that recognize race, religion, and national culture as integral to understanding sexuality and gender; on queer temporalities; on cognitive research; and on lifewriting in graphic, print, and digital constellations. Exploring genres ranging from reality TV to fairy tales to classical fiction, contributors explore the thorny, contested relationships between feminist and queer theory, on the one hand, and between feminist/queer theory and contemporary narratologies, on the other. Rather than aiming for cohesiveness or conclusiveness, the collection stages open-ended debates designed to unbind the assumptions that have kept gender and sexuality on the periphery of narrative theory."--Publisher's description.

ED: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. COLLECTION OF NEW ESSAYS.