Narrative Complexity

Marina Grishakova is a professor of comparative literature at the University of Tartu in Estonia. She is the author of The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokov’s Fiction: Narrative Strategies and Cultural Frames and the coeditor of Intermediality and Storytelling. Maria Poulaki is a lecturer in film and digital media arts at the University of Surrey and the coeditor of Compact Cinematics: The Moving Image in the Age of Bit-Sized Media.

“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

• List of IllustrationsList of TablesAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Narrative ComplexityMarina Grishakova and Maria PoulakiPart 1. Narrative Complexity and Media1. Narrative as/and Complex System/sMarie-Laure Ryan2. Caution, Simulation Ahead: Complexity and Digital NarrativityDavid Ciccoricco and David Large3. The Wave-crest: Narrative Complexity and Ambient LiteratureEmma Whittaker4. Complexity and the Userly TextNoam Knoller5. The Complexity of Informative AutobiographiesUlrik Ekman2. Cognition and Narrative Comprehension6. Sources of Complexity in Comprehension across Modalities of Narrative ExperienceJoseph P. Magliano, Karyn Higgs, and James Clinton7. Structural Complexity in Visual Narratives: Theory, Brains, and Cross-Cultural DiversityNeil Cohn8. Simplicity, Complexity, and Narration in Popular MoviesJames E. Cutting9. Heteronomy of Narrative: Language Complexity and Computer SimplicityHamid R. Ekbia3. Experience, Subjectivity, and Embodied Complexity10. Narrative Here-NowMieke Bal11. Body Forth in NarrativeEllen J. Esrock12. Between Distancing and Immersion: The Body in Complex NarrativeMaria Poulaki13. Intersubjectivity, Idiosyncrasy, and Narrative Deixis: A Neurocinematic ApproachPia Tikka and Mauri Kaipainen14. Jazz as Narrative: Narrating Cognitive Processes Involved in Jazz ImprovisationMartin Rosenberg4. Narrative Complexity and Cultural Evolution15. Narrative, Attention, and Evolution: A New Perspective on Narrative DynamicsMarina Grishakova16. Necessary Fictions: Supernormal Cues, Complex Cognition, and the Nature of Fictional NarrativeJames Carney17. In Hindsight: Complexity, Contingency, and Narrative MappingJosé Angel García LandaContributorsIndex