Difference is one of the most influential critical concepts of the second half of the 20th century. In this text, Mark Currie offers a comprehensive account of the history of the term and its place in some of the most influential schools of theory since the 1960s. The text encompasses topics such as: post-structuralism; deconstruction; new historicism; psychoanalysis; French feminism; and postcolonialism. Employing literary case studies throughout, the book aims to provide an accessible introduction to a term at the heart of modern critical idiom.

How have developments in literary and cultural theory transformed our understanding of narrative? What has happened to narrative in the wake of poststructuralism? What is the role and function of narrative in the contemporary world?
In this revised, updated and expanded new edition of an established text, Mark Currie explores these central questions and guides students through the complex theories that have shaped the study of narrative in recent decades. Postmodern Narrative Theory, Second Edition:
Establishes direct links between the workings of fictional narratives and...

Why did deconstruction emerge when it did? Why did commentators in literary studies seem to need to look back on it from the earliest moments of its emergence? This book argues that the invention of deconstruction was spread across several decades, conducted by many people, and focused on its two central figures, Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man.

Explores the relationship between unexpected events in narrative and life
Focusing on surprise, spontaneous eruption and the unforeseeable, The Unexpected argues that stories help us to reconcile what we expect with what we experience. Though narrative is often understood a recapitulation of past events, the book argues that the unexpected and the future anterior, a future that is already complete, are guiding ideas for new understandings of the reading process. It also points beyond that to some of the key temporal concepts of our epoch, of unpredictability, the event, the untimely and...