Publisher's Synopsis
This study reconsiders irony by blending classical and contemporary critical notions. It revamps the notions of authorial perspective, plot, emotional effect and other generic features of fiction by incorporating socio-historical analysis of practice, ideology and discourse. In discussing Chinese texts, it shows how narrative structure breaks down and authoritative dogma and myth fall apart under a critical irony, shifting narrative stances and multi-voiced language.;The second part of the book deals with works by Austen, James, Flaubert, Dickens and Woolf, illustrating how a variable narrative perspective affects plot structure, and how cherished moral assumptions are questioned and debunked.
