Brian McHale on narative in literary history

[Derek C. Maus]

Quoted from the introduction to Brian McHale's CONSTRUCTING POSTMODERNISM
(1992), this snippet represents a pretty good summary of the role I also
see for the postmodern teacher of literature, as written by one of the
foremost (and in my mind, most skillful) elaborators of postmodern theory: 

"Moreover, I have in recent years bcome increasingly aware of the degree
to which I am also a storyteller in my 'other' profession, that of
university lecturer. A lecture, particularly if it is about literary
history (my usual subject), is a story; an entire course of lectures is a
long complicated story with many episodes and sub-plots. Reflecting on the
role of narrative in the organization and transmission of
literary-historical knowledge, I have come more and more to emphasize the
narrativity, the story-telling character, of my own pedagocial practice. I
begin most courses by reminding my students that literary history is, by
definition, a narrative discipline, and that we are here to tell
cooperatively...what we hope will be a 'good' story about (say) the
relations between British and American literary systems during a specified
period. I often invite my students to reflect on 'the story so far'--its
intelligibility, its persuasiveness; and I insist on the multiplicity of
possible alternative or competing stories, and seek to develop criteria
for distinguishing better literary-historical narratives from les good
ones." 

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Derek C. Maus               | "What am I opposed to tell my customers?"
dmaus at email.unc.edu         | Swearingen said. "'Sorry, Washington says
UNC-CH, Dept. of English    | no more fanny packs for you; time to spend
http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  | your money on great works of literature'?
                            | It doesn't work that way."   --THE ONION
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