Unnatural narratology: core issues and critical debates

Taking anti-mimetic narratives as its primary object of investigation, unnatural narratology aspires to establish its status as a discipline of unnatural poetics. In recent years, it has rapidly developed into one of the most prominent sub-branches of postclassical narratology, standing in direct parallel to feminist narratology, rhetorical narratology, and cognitive narratology. This paper begins by delineating various definitions of unnatural narrative and proceeds to discuss unnaturalness, interpretative strategies, heuristic values, and the interrelations between unnatural narratology and other schools of narratological thought, so as to investigate the core issues of unnatural narratology and the critical debates on it. The paper ends with an outline set of directions for future explorations in this field.