This book is about the implications of novels for young readers that tell their stories by alternating between different narrative lines focused on different characters. It asks: if you make sense of fiction by identifying with one main character, how do you handle two or more of them? Do novels with alternating narratives diverge from longstanding conventions and represent a significant change in literature for young readers? If not, how do these novels manage to operate within the parameters of those conventions? This book considers answers to these questions by means of a series of close readings that explore the structural, educational and ideological implications of a variety of American, British, Canadian and Australian novels for children and for young adults.

Offers a new perspective on narrative theory from a world-class expert in the field of Children's Literature Takes alternative narration as its sole subject - the first book to do so Covers a wide range of novels from several continents

Autorentext
Perry Nodelman is Professor Emeritus at the University of Winnipeg, Canada, and the author of three previous books and around 150 essays in academic journals on various aspects of children's literature. He is the 2015 recipient of International Grimm Award for Research in Children's Literature.

Inhalt

Alternating Narratives: An Introduction.- 2 Alternating Narratives as Puzzles.- 3. Alternating Narratives and Represented Writing.- 4. Fictional Collage as Alternating Narratives.- 5. Distance Education: The Readerly Effects of Alternating Narratives.- 6. Alternating Narratives as Variations of Each Other.- 7. Structural Ideologies in Alternating Narratives: Individuality.- 8. Structural Ideologies in Alternating Narratives: Connection and Community.- 9. Structural Ideologies in Alternating Narratives: Indigeneity.-