Stories Within Stories: An Ecosystemic Theory of Metadiegetic Narrative

Stories Within Stories focuses on a seminal aspect of recent narrative theory. The book first negotiates between French Structuralists and Russian Formalists, isolating the notion of narrative framing. Then the book incorporates the work on cybernetics of Gregory Bateson. With its own framework established, the book confronts the work of Cervantes, Laurence Sterne and Julio Cortázar. The consequent picture of embedded narrative, enhanced by a lucid consideration of a central tenet of Artificial Intelligence, Frame Theory, recalls the classical dilemma of how to represent knowledge. The result is a convincing demonstration of the epistemological implications of all forms of representation.