Narrative theory used to be at the forefront of literary theory, according to the author of this study. He believes that it has now been outstripped by new developments in theory. In this book, he re-examines narrative theory and outlines the consequences for narratology of deconstructive, poststructuralist and more recent theory. The author of this text assesses the extent to which narrative theory might be rethought, drawing on the work of Derrida, Deleuze, Lyotard and Foucault. Relating his critical investigations to critical practice, Gibson analyzes a variety of 20th century texts, including work by Joyce, Fielding, Kundera, Woolf, Beckett and Tarkovsky.