Judgments, Progressions, and Rhetorical Experience in Narrative

Abstract

This article presents the foundations of James Phelan’s rhetorical theory of narrative, focusing on the relationship between narrative judgments, textual progression, and reader experience. Drawing on literary examples such as Cinderella, Ring Lardner’s “Haircut,” and Ambrose Bierce’s “The Crimson Candle,” the study argues that narrative experience does not primarily depend on conflict but on rhetorical interaction among author, narrator, text, and audience. Central to the analysis is the concept of narrative judgment, understood as the set of interpretive, ethical, and aesthetic evaluations readers make about characters, narrators, and implied authors throughout the reading process. The article contends that these judgments form the intersection of narrative form, ethics, and aesthetics, unfolding progressively as the narrative advances. It also proposes a rhetorical model of narrative progression that distinguishes beginnings, middles, and endings, considering both textual dynamics (exposition, instability, and resolution) and reader-response dynamics. The article concludes that rhetorical narrative theory offers a robust framework for understanding reading as an active, evaluative, and ethical practice in which readers participate in constructing meaning and literary value.