The Narrative Shaping of Meaning in Gail Godwin’s A Southern Family Why Fiction?

Authors

  • Elaine Lux Nyack College

Abstract

In her novel A Southern Family (1987), Gail Godwin fictionalized a real-life incident concerning a suicide-murder in her family. Interweaving narrative theory and literary analysis, this paper asks “why fiction?” for the telling of this story. In the context of narrative’s capacity to “make present” our experiences (Schiff, 2012, p.36), the paper explores some of the ways in which Godwin makes this fictional work an effective narrative tool for shaping meaning, and it suggests that the novel’s narrativity transforms this traumatic background story into both a work of art and a form of “story repair” (Howard, 1991, p. 149).

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Published

2013-09-30

How to Cite

Lux, E. (2013). The Narrative Shaping of Meaning in Gail Godwin’s A Southern Family Why Fiction?. Narrative Works, 3(2). Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/article/view/21466

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright for articles published in Narrative Works is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to Narrative Works. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.