ABSTRACT

In many fictional narratives, the progression of the plot exists in tension with a very different and powerful dynamic that runs, at a hidden and deeper level, throughout the text. In this volume, Dan Shen systematically investigates how stylistic analysis is indispensable for uncovering this covert progression through rhetorical narrative criticism. The book brings to light the covert progressions in works by the American writers Edgar Allan Poe, Stephan Crane and Kate Chopin and British writer Katherine Mansfield.

chapter |26 pages

Introduction

part |66 pages

Style and Covert Progressions in American Short Fiction

chapter |21 pages

Style, Unreliability, and Hidden Dramatic Irony

Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart”

chapter |20 pages

Style and Unobtrusive Emasculating Satire

Crane's “An Episode of War”

chapter |23 pages

Style, Surprise Ending, and Covert Mythologization

Chopin's “Désirée's Baby”

part |52 pages

Style and Different Forms of Covert Progression in Mansfield's Fiction

chapter |16 pages

Style, Changing Distance, and Doubling Irony

Mansfield's “Revelations”

chapter |14 pages

Style and Concealed Social Protest

Mansfield's “The Singing Lesson”

chapter |20 pages

Style and Secretly Unifying the Digressive

Mansfield's “The Fly”

chapter |5 pages

Coda