Annotated Bibliography
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Harper Collins 1993.
A wonderful novel to teach in the high school classroom. It introduces students to a new way of seeing America and does so without being self-pitying. Structured as a series of vignettes concerning contemporary Native American life it provides ample room for discussion of the nature of narrative.
Boggs, Joseph M. and Dennis Petrie. The Art of Watching Films Sixth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2004.
A very useful and accessible guide to the study of film. Very helpful in the classroom, especially for the relatively new teacher of film. It covers the fundamental elements of film and even recommends movies to go along with each chapter. Especially useful are the "Video Exercises" that tell you exactly where to go in specific films to show clips that demonstrate the concepts discussed.
Booth, Wayne. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 1961. 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1983.
One of the foundational texts for the examination of the rhetorical nature of narrative. He argues persuasively for the application of rhetorical questions to a given text. A great place to go for the English teacher to acquire background on this issue, though at times it is a bit dense.
Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
Thorough and detailed, at times painstakingly so. However once he gets to examining actual films he is brilliant and worth the trouble. A text that provides excellent background into the narrative concerns of film.
Bordwell, David. ""Neo-Structuralist Narratology and the Functions of Filmic Storytelling." In Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling. Edited by Marie-Laure Ryan, 203-219. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press. 2004.
He updates some of his thinking from Narration in the Fiction Film. His emphasis on the function of narrative is crucial and valuable for the teacher to think about. His functionalist approach of not forcing filmic devices to have one meaning or effect but rather making them open-ended repertories of possible meanings and effects provides a valuable link to thinking rhetorically about literature.
Casetti, Franco. Inside the Gaze: The Fiction Film and Its Spectator. Translated by Nell Andrew with Charles O'Brien. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1998.
Very readable and useful at times though he tends to favor the conceptual over actual examples. He is one of the few who recognizes the role of the spectator in the understanding of film and for that he is a valuable resource.
Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. 1978.
One of the first books to examine the nature of narrative in both film and fiction. He elicits parallels and differences though he tends to favor literature a bit more than film. Very readable and probably the best place for a high school teacher to start to enter into the discussion. Just remember that it is a discussion and Chatman does not have the last word. Many out there disagree with him.
Chatman, Seymour. Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film.
Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. 1990.
Chatman's follow-up book to the previous title. He attempts to extend his earlier ideas and answer his critics. Much of this is helpful and fairly accessible; best of all is that he attempts to incorporate more on film in this book. He works at making his ideas applicable to film and in doing so he raises many interesting and profitable questions. Very helpful.
Corrigan, Timothy and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2004.
Another film study textbook. Written more for the collegiate classroom than high school classroom but it also provides more depth and background than some other texts. Many useful explanations and good attention paid to foreign and experimental film. A good resource for the instructor but Boggs and Petrie are probably better suited for the high school classroom.
Kearns, Michael. Rhetorical Narratology. . Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press. 1999.
A theoretical approach to the subject of rhetoric and narrative, bringing to bear much of the theory of the 1980's and 1990's. While it is more theoretical than practical, it is more accessible than most, though at times a bit slow going. He concerns himself mainly with literature though it is easy to see that many of his ideas can be applied to film as well.
Meyers, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 7th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2005.
The latest edition of the Bedford/St. Martin's collegiate literature text. Thorough and expansive, it features a very balanced combination of old and new along with a nice mixture of American, British, and world literature. It also features a good section on critical approaches to literature, several of which focus on narrative structure.
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books. 1990.
The novel that put Tim O'Brien on the literary map. Winner of several awards when it was published, its success in the classroom justifies all of them. This novel appeals to nearly all of my students, in large part because it is not simply a war novel. By mirroring much of O'Brien's early adult life it appeals to the high school juniors who are nearly the same age. It also helps that while it is overarchingly about the Vietnam war, it really is about a young man facing the difficult journey to adulthood.
Roskelly, Hephzibah and David A. Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing (AP Teacher's Annotated Edition). New York: Pearson Longman. 2005.
A brand new book geared towards the AP English Language classroom. Written by a pair who have worked for a number of years with the College Board in developing test materials it makes a strong and useful argument that a study of rhetoric belongs in the literature classroom as well as the composition. Short and very accessible for both teachers and students, it is a great addition the English classroom.
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