Before reading: narrative conventions and the politics of interpretation

(print) xxix, 249 p. ; 23 cmForeword: before reading in its own terms -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: beyond readings/before reading. p.1 -- Starting points -- What is reading? p.15 -- Who is reading? p.20 -- The value(s) of authorial reading. p.29 -- The difficulties of authorial reading. p.36 -- Rules of reading. p.42 -- Trumpets, please!: rules of notice -- The hierarchy of detail. p.47 -- Basic gestures of noticeability. p.52 -- Privileged positions. p.58 -- Rules of rupture. p.65 -- The biggest black eyes I ever saw: rules of signification -- Signification defined. p.76 -- Rules of source. p.79 -- Good guys and bad guys: rules of snap moral judgment. p.84 -- Truth and the narrative audience: the rule of realism. p.93 -- Post hoc and propter hoc: rules of cause. p.104 -- The black cloud on the horizon: rules of configuration -- Configuration vs. coherence. p.110 -- Basic rules of configuration. p.113 -- Rules of undermining. p.119 -- Rules of balance: focus. p.125 -- Rules of balance: action. p.132 -- The austere simplicity of fiction: rules of coherence -- The nature of coherence. p.141 -- License to fill. p.148 -- Rules of surplus. p.154 -- Rules of naming, bundling, and thematizing. p.158 -- Through the glass key darkly: presupposition and misunderstanding -- Presuppositions and the ambiguity of interpretation. p.173 -- Getting to the bottom of things. p.178 -- Popular fiction as a genre. p.183 -- Scapegoating Carmen: reading misreadings. p.193 -- Some have greatness thrust upon them: the politics of canon formation. p.209 -- Selected bibliography. p.233 -- Index. p.24