Description
Book SynopsisThe variety in contemporary philosophical and aesthetic thinking as well as in scientific and experimental research on complexity has not yet been fully adopted by narratology. By integrating cutting-edge approaches to complexity, this book takes a step toward establishing the interdisciplinary field of complex narrative studies.
Trade Review"[
Narrative Complexity] is a volume that feels very well curated by its editors in that it achieves a true multi-disciplinarity: not only by addressing a multitude of narrative media, practices, and technologies but also by fostering a truly diverse set of ways to think about complexity."—Steven Willemsen,
Projections"Grishakova . . . and Poulaki . . . bring forward prominent scholars from around the world who offer vision and new theoretical frameworks regarding narrative studies. Contributors investigate narrative complexity from varying interdisciplinary viewpoints, including sense-making via mind-body engagement and social/cultural environments via technology and media. . . . The examinations of narratives in multiple emerging media contexts alone make this a worthy read."—K. L. Majocha,
Choice"Perhaps it is obvious that narrative—a communicative act stretching across potentially every aspect of human experience—is a complex process, but the discussion of the variable nature of that complexity as demonstrated in this volume is worth considering at length."—Daniel Peretti,
Journal of Folklore Research“Encyclopedic in scope,
Narrative Complexity surveys a dazzling variety of genres, media forms, and theories about complexity, including artistic, literary, and scientific examples. Contributions by many eminent narratologists make this an invaluable work and essential reading for anyone interested in how the conjunction of narrative and complexity can be configured and interrogated. Kudos to the editors for introducing and assembling this remarkable collection.”—N. Katherine Hayles, author of
Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious“Challenging the distinction between ‘simplicity’ as primary and primordial and ‘complexity’ as secondary and derived from simplicity, these far-ranging studies make the case that human cultures and minds are inherently complex. They are indeterminate and uncertain. This holds particularly true for narrative discourse, which is at the heart of culture and mind. Understanding
homo narrans means understanding the human being in the world in its most complex forms. As a consequence, narrative studies have to refine their intellectual instruments—conceptually, empirically, hermeneutically—in the ways impressively explored in this volume.”—Jens Brockmeier, professor of psychology at the American University of Paris
“This volume opens a new window on the emergence of narratology within the context of complexity theory. In contrast to its phase of pluralization in the form of diverse models and paradigms, narratology, by turning to complex phenomena such as self-organization, nonlinearity, recursion, and nonhierarchical relations in various media, is exploring new domains where the interactions between embodied cognition and social and cultural embeddedness are redefining the contours of narrative.
Narrative Complexity bears witness to the repositioning of the ‘conditions of possibility’ of narratology.”—John Pier, University of Tours and CRAL (CNRS), Paris
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Narrative Complexity
Marina Grishakova and Maria Poulaki
Part 1. Narrative Complexity and Media
1. Narrative as/and Complex System/s
Marie-Laure Ryan
2. Caution, Simulation Ahead: Complexity and Digital Narrativity
David Ciccoricco and David Large
3. The Wave-Crest: Narrative Complexity and Locative Narrative
Emma Whittaker
4. Complexity and the Userly Text
Noam Knoller
5. The Complexity of Informative Autobiographies
Ulrik Ekman
Part 2. Cognition and Narrative Comprehension
6. Sources of Complexity in Narrative Comprehension across Media
Joseph P. Magliano, Karyn Higgs, and James Clinton
7. Structural Complexity in Visual Narratives: Theory, Brains, and Cross-Cultural Diversity
Neil Cohn
8. Simplicity, Complexity, and Narration in Popular Movies
James E. Cutting
9. Heteronomy of Narrative: Language Complexity and Computer Simplicity
Hamid R. Ekbia
Part 3. Experience, Subjectivity, and Embodied Complexity
10. Narrative Here-Now
Mieke Bal
11. Body Forth in Narrative
Ellen J. Esrock
12. Between Distancing and Immersion: The Body in Complex Narrative
Maria Poulaki
13. Intersubjectivity, Idiosyncrasy, and Narrative Deixis: A Neurocinematic Approach
Pia Tikka and Mauri Kaipainen
14. Jazz as Narrative: Narrating Cognitive Processes Involved in Jazz Improvisation
Martin E. Rosenberg
Part 4. Narrative Complexity and Cultural Evolution
15. The Predictive Mind, Attention, and Cultural Evolution: A New Perspective on Narrative Dynamics
Marina Grishakova
16. Necessary Fictions: Supernormal Cues, Complex Cognition, and the Nature of Fictional Narrative
James Carney
17. In Hindsight: Complexity, Contingency, and Narrative Mapping
José Angel García Landa
Contributors
Index
