Abstract
This chapter explores the dimension of disnarration and counterfactual divergence as unconventional storytelling modes in three fictional texts for insights of what did not happen and what might have been. The three fictional texts presented for analysis are two literary works of fiction: John Fowles’s novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman; Tobias Wolff’s (1996) short story Bullet in the Brain; and the 2016 film La La Land directed by Damien Chazelle. The texts are analysed for their innovative narratological, literary and stylistic strategies, including plot divergences and forked pathways that generate alternative scenarios and unexpected plot twists. Marked uses of negation where absences simultaneously convey the less satisfactory version of a state of affairs at the same time as revealing the preferred version is also discussed for their linguistic form and purpose. There are also insights into how characters, through their own volition, trigger counterfactual scenarios to show that in their storyworld they are able to make choices when presented with a network of plot options.
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Lambrou, M. (2019). Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fiction. In: Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50778-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50778-5_5
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