In his book, Aspects of The Novel (1927), E.M. Forster formulated the structure of plot as “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” (87). The formulation caught on with the later theorists and writers interested in theories of narrative. It is still with us, often cited and widely used. Upon closer examination, in this formulation, among other things, Queen's death happens due to the 'grief' of the death of the King. What happens if one reformulates Forster's sentence that 'The king died'' but the Queen did not die; rather she lived on? This paper argues, with reference to the feminist narratology and discourse theories that the models of storytelling vary with gender and ethnicity. In fact, text-building strategies, macro-level or micro-level configuration, cultural patterns of representation, certain narrative strategies, and narrative models or styles are factors which ought to be considered in investigating different models of reading novels by male and female writers.
