Paul Cobley is Professor in Language and Media at Middlesex University. He is the author of a number of books including The American Thriller (2000) as well as editor of a number of volumes including The Routledge Companion to Semiotics (2010).

This fully updated second edition traces the ways in which centuries of human beings have used narrative to make sense of time, space and identity.

Chapter 1. In the beginning: the end Chapter 2. Early narrative Chapter 3. The rise and rise of the novel Chapter 4. Realist representation Chapter 5. Beyond realism Chapter 6. Modernism and the cinema Chapter 7. Postmodernism Chapter 8. In the end: the beginning Chapter 9. What is narrative?