Understanding Fiction

The book offers linguistic and stylistic procedures for studying a literary text. The present volume examines the linguistic tools that fiction uses to convey meaning. This narrative meaning emerges in the process of interpretation by the reader who is guided by linguistic forms toward a dynamic perception of the work. It also contains the approaches towards the narrative method, the types of characters, plot structure, atmosphere and tone, etc. This book seeks to develop students' abilities to think critically arousing curiosity about works of (post)modern fiction by famous names of the XX-XXI centuries, namely James Joyce, Susan Hill, Donald Barthelme, Bret Easton Ellis, and the translated version of Hryhir Tyutyunnyk's short story as an example of cross-cultural interpretation of a literary text.