literary theory, anyone? ;)

[Poutine]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a theory that examines the effectiveness of positioning narrative events in certain places in a novel.

For instance, say the author places two events side by side in order to show how one caused the other... Would there be a term for that?

If anybody has any recommendations for where I can look into this further, please let me know.

This is kind of urgent, so I'd appreciate any responses as soon as possible :)

Thanks all!

[LitNetIsGreat]

Maybe you are thinking about narratology, which is a branch of structuralism, or indeed structuralism itself? Postmodernism would also fit your description (as would modernism) in relation to fragmentation of the text, but based on what you gave I would go with the former.

[JBI]

Check into narratology - not a specialty of mine, so I can't point you toward texts. The term you are looking for is "contrasting" though - I don't know if there is a fancy term, but that is what it is - either juxtaposition, or contrasting - either way, if you search narratological texts, you'll find all the terminology.