Prequels Coquels and Sequels in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

<p>This book offers to delineate a key phenomenon in contemporary Anglophone fiction: novel expansion, when the plot and characters from a finished novel are retrieved to be developed in new adventures set before, after or during the narrative time of the source-text. If autographic and allographic sequels are almost as old as literature, prequels – that imagine the anteriority of a narrative – and coquels – that develop secondary characters in the same story time as the source-text – are more recent. The overall trend for novel expansion spread in the mid-1980s and 1990s and has since shown no sign of abating. </p><p></p><p>This volume is organised following three types of relationships to the source-texts even if these occasionally combine to produce a more complex structure. This book comprises 11 essays, preceded by an introduction, that examine narrative strategies, aesthetic, ethical and political tendencies underlying these novel expansions. Following the overview provided in the introduction, the reader will find case studies of prequels, coquels and sequels before a final chapter that encompasses them all and more.</p> <p>Acknowledgements</p><p></p><p>Introduction: Narrative expansions - The Story So Far... </p><p></p><p>ARMELLE PAREY</p><p></p><p>PART I</p><p></p><p>Prequels </p><p></p><p>1 Prequel Ontology and Temporality: The Thresholds of John Updike’s <i>Gertrude and Claudius</i></p><p></p><p>BEN DAVIES </p><p>2 "<i>Wide Sargasso Sea</i> as a Prequel to <em>Jane Eyre</em>: From Visuality to Iconicity" (1966) </p><p></p><p>ANNE-LAURE FORTIN-TOURNÈS </p><p>3 Literary Filiations and Textual Archeology: Caryl Phillips’s <i>The Lost Child</i></p><p></p><p>FRANÇOISE KRÁL</p><p></p><p>PART II</p><p></p><p>Coquels</p><p></p><p>4 A Coquel Set ‘far away, where the fighting was’: On Geraldine Brooks’ <i>March </i>and Louisa May Alcott’s <i>Little Women</i>" </p><p></p><p>CATHERINE PADMORE</p><p>5 Servants with a Voice in Jo Baker’s <i>Longbourn</i>, a Coquel to <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> </p><p></p><p>ARMELLE PAREY </p><p>6 Sensibly Organized: Filling in Gaps with <i>Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality </i></p><p></p><p>KATHERINE MCCAIN</p><p></p><p>PART III</p><p></p><p>Sequels</p><p></p><p>7 The Neighborly Mr. Ripley: Patricia Highsmith’s Suburban Sequels</p><p></p><p>PAUL THIFAULT</p><p>8 Julian Barnes and the Contemporary English Sequel</p><p></p><p>MERRITT MOSELEY</p><p>9 Messy Multiplicity: Strategies for Serialisation in New Adult Fiction</p><p></p><p>JODI MCALISTER</p><p>10 P. D. James’s <i>Death Comes to Pemberley</i> (2011), a Sequel with Many Twists</p><p></p><p>ISABELLE ROBLIN </p><p></p><p>PART IV</p><p></p><p>Prequels, Coquels, Sequels and Beyond</p><p></p><p>11 Uncanny Repetitions: The Generative Power of the "Reader, I Married Him" Mantra in Tracy Chevalier’s Anthology of Short Stories</p><p></p><p>GEORGES LETISSIER</p><p></p><p>List of Contributors</p><p></p><p>Index</p>