La presente obra aspira a convertirse en un instrumento imprescindible para quienes desean profundizar en el estudio y análisis de los textos narrativos. Como punto de partida, se distinguen tres conceptos: el «texto», en el que un agente narra una historia; la «historia», determinada presentación de una fábula; la «fábula»: secuencia lógica y cronológica de acontecimientos. Las leyes internas de cada uno de estos niveles, y su relación mutua, se ilustran con numerosos casos prácticos. La gran claridad de la autora y la rigurosa articulación de la exposición hacen de este breve pero denso estudio una pieza clave en la moderna aproximación a la narrativa: la «narratología».

Mieke Bal analysis is focused in the eerie sense of very real and very unreal that the paintings emanate. She considers this the heart of Balthus work. It invites viewers in and repels them at the same time. We get access to a world all his own, but are not told what is there to see.Thus, the works labor against assumptions of representation and appropriation. The means of this labor figuration is indispensable for the effet.Although figurativity is supposedly the royal road to realism, in Balthus s case it is not at all. Bal argues that the paintings draw the viewer into a world we honw not to exist.This canny fictionality makes allegations of erotic appropriation naive and censoring.Reducing Balthus s work to the paintings of nude adolescent girls is, moreover, ignoring his many works that are not in the least focused on this theme. Color, space, genres or history are some of the key concepts that the author put in the center of Balthus work.