The Unexpected: Narrative Temporality and the Philosophy of Surprise

Focusing on surprise, spontaneous eruption and the unforeseeable, The Unexpected argues that stories help us to reconcile what we expect with what we experience. Though narrative is often understood a recapitulation of past events, the book argues that the unexpected and the future anterior, a future that is already complete, are guiding ideas for new understandings of the reading process.

The Unexpected is an important intervention in narratology and a striking general argument about the cultural significance of surprise.