What line should the critic follow in explicating, unfolding, or unknotting . . . passages How should the critic thread her or his way into the labyrinthine problems of narrative form--from chapter I In this brilliant and engaging book, one of America's leading literary critics explores the intricacies of narrative theory. Using the image of Ariadne's thread, which was given to Theseus to carry into the labyrinth so that he could find his way out, J. Hillis Miller traces out the line so often associated with narrative and writing in general. In the process he illuminates the nature of literature as well as the nature of narrative. Considering a wide range of texts from Western literature over the last two centuries--in particular Meredith's iThe Egoisti, Goethe'si Elective Affinitiesi, and Borges's Death and the Compass--Miller explores the way rhetorical devices and figurative language interrupt, break into, delay, and expand storytelling. He also illustrates these rhetorical disrupti