Narrativity and Double Logics

Abstract The most significant challenge to the concept of a logic of narrativity arises from those theoretical movements which emphasize the absence of self-consistency in narratives. This approach to narrative has been part of conventional wisdom for a considerable time now, and the time seems ripe to redress the balance. The wisdom in question has arisen from two main sources. First, from a certain brand of Marxist criticism as practised by critics such as Pierre Macherey and Terry Eagleton, who claim to detect the presence of contradiction in all manner of texts. Secondly, from the exponents of deconstruction, a practice which in Jonathan Culler's words ‘undertakes a double reading, describing the ways in which lines of argument in the texts it is analysing call their premises into question’. This chapter focuses on contesting the deconstructive argument.