Contemporary Feminist Fiction and a Case for Expanding Rhetorical Narratology

<div>In <i>Contemporary Feminist Fiction and a Case for Expanding Rhetorical Narratology</i> Katherine J. Weese explores intersections among rhetorical unnatural and feminist narrative theories and post-postmodern theory to argue that an expanded rhetorical poetics offers the most comprehensive model for illuminating recent works that employ unnatural devices for feminist purposes. This pluralist narratological framework is a vital counterpoint to theorists' tendency to read twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels through a post-postmodernist or metamodernist lens that overlooks unnatural feminist and rhetorical narrative theories.<br> <br> Examining Ali Smith's <i>The Accidental</i> and <i>Hotel World</i> Barbara Kingsolver's <i>The Poisonwood Bible</i> Toni Morrison's <i>Beloved</i> Kate Atkinson's <i>A God in Ruins</i> and <i>Life After Life</i> and Ruth Ozeki's <i>A Tale for the Time Being</i> Weese demonstrates how various narratological theories inform rather than compete with one another. Through an expanded rhetorical poetics including a refined version of James Phelan's MTS (mimetic thematic synthetic) model she reframes post-postmodern theorists' concerns with communicative function through a narratological lens to make the case that exploring the rhetorical function of unnatural devices challenges and extends the claims of narrow metamodern readings.</div>