David Herman teaches in the Department of English at Ohio State University. He has published several studies in the field, including The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences, Story Logic, and Narratologies. Manfred Jahn is based at the University of Cologne in Germany and has published articles on focalization, represented speech and thought, and cognitive narratology in venues such as the Journal of Pragmatics, Poetics Today, Style, and Narratologies. He has also authored a widely used online guide to narratology and narrative theory, freely available at . Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar and a former recipient of NEH and Guggenheim Fellowships. She has published widely in the areas of narrative theory, electronic textuality, and media studies. Her most recent studies include Narrative across Media and Avatars of Story.

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'Potentially daunting, this complex subject is made a snap by clever arrangements for entries: five different types, from mini-essay to thumbnail definition, all cross-indexed. The helpful navigational aids include coded typeface, a thematically-organized reader's guide, and an excellent comprehensive index. Thorough, accessible, and remarkably free of obfuscating language. Highly recommended.' - Choice"[T]his impressive reference demonstrates the broad application and meanings associated with the notion of narrative from its first theoretical use by French structuralists in the 1960s to contemporary cross-disciplinary uses, as in narrative medicine. None of the entries [is] devoted to a theorist, rather, they grapple with concepts, approaches, genres, technical terms, and ideas. Longer entries are included for major concepts, as for example, action theory, Biblical narrative, cognitive narratology, mimesis, queer theory, science fiction, and time in narrative. Shorter entries feature other terms and genres such as nouveau roman, Quixotic novel, screenplay, and verisimilitude. Each entry is signed and includes cross references and a list of bibliography. Care was taken in producing a very full (77-page) index. This will be a valuable resource for students and researchers in many fields, including sociolinguistics, communication studies, literary theory, and philosophy." - Reference and Research Book News, February 2006