Following the more recent development of cultural studies, narratology is currently enjoying a kind of comeback due to its long history of engaging non-literary objects. In the 1990s and up to the present, the increasing attention to visual culture has opened up a dialogue between narratology and visual art, which has been made indispensable by the flourishing development of film studies courses. Narrative theory therefore has relevance for a wide number of academic disciplines, including: anthropology; communication; cultural and media studies; history; organization studies; philosophy; post-colonial studies; religious studies and women's/gender studies.

This set of volumes reprints essential papers on the history, breadth, and applicability of narrative theory. The collection includes articles from the leading names of narrative theory, such as Roland Barthes, Mikhail Bakhtin, Tzvetan Todorov and Jean-Françoise Lyotard, as well as lesser-known, though equally important, contributions.