Narrative theory in the West has been novel-centred—it has often taken, as its assumed norm of narrative practice, the modern European novel of the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. However, a novel-centred theory that focuses on what Northrop Frye calls the ‘lower-mimetic’ level of representation cannot account for the peculiar power of those higher narratives that were dominant in earlier periods in the West, such as the ancient Greek and Roman epic poems, the Old English Beowulf, the Middle High German Niebelungenlied, or Milton’s Paradise Lost. Nor is a European, novel-centred narrative theory an appropriate lens through which we might view narrative from a global perspective that would include, for example, the Japanese Tale of the Heiki and The Tale of Genji; the principal pre-modern Korean narrative, The Nine-Cloud Dream (Kuunmong); the Chinese Journey to the West and The Dream of the Red Chamber; the great Indian epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; or oral epics from Africa, such as the Sunjata.

This volume, consisting of twelve essays, has been dedicated to the memory of Earl Miner, the distinguished comparatist and pioneering scholar in the field of intercultural comparative literature. It begins with a discussion on the theoretical foundations of narrative and moves on to the nature of narrative in relation to higher narratives. It also draws our attention to the oral epics of Africa as examples of higher narrative and the role of the media in stirring unsettling passions through the Ramayana, the higher narrative of India. It discusses questions of higher narrative in early China, and goes on to analyse the elevated style of modern Italian fiction.

Through these analyses, the essays in this volume attempt to define a form of narrative that is distinguished by elevation, dignity and grandeur, engaging in a truly cross-cultural phenomenon. This volume will be of extreme value to students of international studies and world literature, especially intercultural comparative literature, at all levels.