Eventfulness in British Fiction

An event, defined as the decisive turn, the surprising point in the plot of a narrative, constitutes its tellability, the motivation for reading it. This book describes a framework for a narratological definition of eventfulness and its dependence on the historical, socio-cultural and literary context. A series of fifteen analyses of British novels and tales, from late medieval and early modern times to the late 20th century, demonstrates how this concept can be put into practice for a new, specifically contextual interpretation of the central relevance of these texts. The examples include Chaucers Millers Tale, Behns Oroonoko, Defoes Moll Flanders, Richardsons Pamela, Fieldings Tom Jones, Dickenss Great Expectations, Hardy's On the Western Circuit, Jamess The Beast in the Jungle, Joyces Grace, Conrads Shadow-Line, Woolfs Unwritten Novel, Lawrences Fanny and Annie, Mansfields At the Bay, Fowless Enigma and Swifts Last Orders. This selection is focused on the transitional period from 19th-century realism to 20th-century modernism because during these decades traditional concepts of what counts as an event were variously problematized; therefore, these texts provide a particularly interesting field for testing the analytical capacity of the term of eventfulness.