Nonlinear Narrative

The interdisciplinary field of Comics Studies has developed since the late 20 th Century, in response to the increasing, popular reach of comics as a mass phenomenon capable of addressing a wide range of subject matter and approaches, including journalism, (auto)biography, and academical papers. Still, these apparent innovations and, in turn, their scholarly dissemination are predicated upon genre conventions and commercial dictates dating back to the period between World Wars I and II. In a word, as popular comics has thrived, its form has congealed around it. In the periphery of the comics field, however, experimenting practitioners have extended the boundaries of comics away from traditional, linear narrative, towards abstract visuals and poetic textual modes, essentially pushing comics into modernism a century later than other arts.
Challenging sequential narrative, text-image integration, and even representational art, these peripheral expressions are so deliberately contrary to the general perception of comics that they are herein considered ‘uncomics’, requiring a reassessment of the way comics are conceptualized as a phenomenon. In examining formal definitions of the art form formerly known as comics; selected works of this outlier comics avant garde; and the related visual phenomena they converge upon, this thesis proposes an expansion of those definitions, and of the analytical tools available to the scholarly study of the form.

ABSTRACT. This contribution intends to show in which way non-linearity affects the mental model build by educative narratives readers. Based on Bremond's logic of narrative possibilities, we assume that consciousness of non-actualized narrative branches may affect the way readers figure the narrative referent (in a mental model). This text presents results of an empirical research carried on comprehension oflinear and non-linear educative science popularization narrative by 11 years old children. These results show dimensions of the mental model that non-linearity seems to affect, and these on which non-linearity seems to have no significant effect.


KEY WORDS : Storyworld, Non-linearity, Mental model, Hypermedia, Education, Vulgarization,
Comprehension, Cognition, Quasi-experimentation


RÉSUMÉ. L'objectif de cette contribution est de voir dans quelle mesure le modèle mental de situation est affecté par l'introduction de non-linéarité dans le déroulement d'un récit dans le cas de récits de vulgarisation scientifique. Cette hypothèse s'appuie sur la théorie des possibles narratifs de Bremond, et postule que la possibilité offerte par le dispositif
d'actualisation d'une branche du récit différente que celle lue est susceptible d'affecter la manière dont le récepteur se représente le référent du discours narratif. Ce texte présente des résultats issus d'une recherche empirique sur la compréhension d'un récit interactif éducatif de vulgarisation scientifique auprès d'enfants de 11 ans, mettant en évidence les dimensions sur lesquelles le récit semble avoir un effet et celles sur lesquelles il n'en a pas.

MOTS-CLÉS : Storyworld, Non-linéarité, Modèle mental, Hypermédia, Education, Vulgarisation, Compréhension, Cognition, Quasi-expérimentatio

This article analyzes various contemporary Spanish films as part of one of the most experimental trends within the paradigm of narrative complexity of contemporary visual culture: the so-called puzzle or mind-game films. To solve the question of what lies beneath these narrative disruptions in the Spanish case, we developed four sequence microanalysis based on a semiotic approach to one of the prevailing conflicts in the films Abre los ojos (1996), Los otros (2001), La mala educación (2004) y La piel que habito (2010). We conclude that the main discomforts which emerge are the fear of not distinguishing reality from fiction, the distrust against the technologies that determine human subjectivity and the oblivion of one's own guilt.

Este artículo analiza diversas obras del cine español contemporáneo como integrantes de una tendencia experimental de la complejidad audiovisual contemporánea: las llamadas puzzle films o mind-game films. Para resolver qué discurso subyace a su desestructuración en el caso español, analizamos fragmentos clave de Abre los ojos (1996), Los otros (2001), La mala educación (2004) y La piel que habito (2010). Concluimos que los principales malestares que emergen son el terror a no distinguir entre realidad y ficción, la desconfianza hacia la tecnología que condiciona la subjetividad y el olvido de la propia culpa. Palabras clave: análisis textual; cine postclásico; puzzle films; mind-game films; no linealidad narrativa, narrativas complejas; cine español.

Este artigo analisa várias obras do cinema espanhol contemporâneo como parte de uma tendência experimental da complexidade audiovisual contemporânea: os chamados filmes de quebra-cabeça ou filmes de jogos mentais. Para resolver o discurso subjacente à sua desestruturação no caso espanhol, analisamos fragmentos-chave de Abre los ojos (1996), Los otros (2001), La mala educación (2004) e La piel que habito (2010). Concluímos que os principais desconfortos que surgem são o terror de não distinguir entre realidade e ficção, a desconfiança da tecnologia que condiciona a subjetividade e o esquecimento da própria culpa. Palavras-chave: análise textual; cinema pós-clássico; puzzle films; mind-game films; não linearidade narrativa, narrativas complexas; cinema espanhol. CUADERNOS.INFO Nº 40

What is the difference between ‘house’ and ‘home’? This thesis grounds itself upon on that distinction. As proposed, ‘house’ refers to simply the pure physical attributes of the structure. ‘Home’, however, refers to the subjective perception and meaning placed upon these physical attributes. If a ‘house’ is how the architecture really is, a ‘home’ is how we talk and write about it.

Home is the place where self and built form collide, into an architectural representation of identity. In a way, the house is architecturally telling a narrative the same way you use the house to tell a narrative about yourself.

This thesis is a multi-part exploration of identity and home, story and perception, and the relationship between written narrative and built form in residential architecture.

Within the contents of this thesis, one will find a written parable of a fictional home, which is directly linked to the physical manifestation of the project: the exhibition. The parable examines change and evolution in the home, moralistic and material concerns, and value judgements on architectural form. It explores the way spaces, material design and detailing, and values have transformed in the suburban residential landscape, and their formal architectural implications.

The corresponding exhibition is a fractured view of this same parable: in each model, material study, or moment, one can see traces of evolution and association with each residential space, as well as the link between the narrative and formal architectural expression. The Tale of Two Houses attempts to synthesize the ideas of narrative to form, advertising, home and identity, alternative narrative structure, and suburban norms and tropes.

This thesis is a methodological exploration of identity and home, story and perception, and the relationship between written narrative and built form in residential architecture.

This essay presents a theoretical framework for studying the
educative effects of hypertext narratives. We thus will not present experimental results but theoretical bases for forthcoming experimentations. ‘Educative effects’ are defined as comprehension of narrative related-world. This framework is based on mental model theory and classic structural narratology, mixed with Herman’s cognitive narratology. The concepts of ‘storyworld’ and ‘shadow narrative’ are used to define operational hypotheses for an empiric inquiry into the effects of narratives in two directions : construction of an integrative mental model, and effect of hypertext consciousness on the so-built representation.

"Cette contribution se structure en trois étapes. Dans un premier temps, nous posons la question des changements apportés à la structure du récit par les «nouveaux» médias, nous basant notamment sur une relecture des travaux de Claude Bremond. Notre hypothèse est que se crée, parallèlement au récit actualisé, un «récit fantôme» sous forme de réservoir de possibles. Dans un second temps, partant des travaux de Jean Mandler et évoquant la cognitive narratology de David Herman, nous rappellons brièvement comment le récit constitue un outil cognitif. Enfin, dans un dernier temps nous avançons quelques hypothèses sur les conséquences de ces «nouvelles» formes de récit sur les représentations du monde construites et véhiculées.

This article is structured in three steps. First, we will see changes brought by «new» medias and interactivity to narrative structure, focusing on hypertext narratives. We will propose following Bremond's works a «phantom» (or «shadow») narrative corresponding to non-actualized branches of a story. Second, following Mandler and Herman's cognitive narratology, we will briefly consider narrative as a cognitive tool. Third we will consider the consequences of these «new» forms of narration on world representations through operationnal hypothesis."

The interdisciplinary field of Comics Studies has developed since the late 20th Century, in response to the increasing, popular reach of comics as a mass phenomenon capable of addressing a wide range of subject matter and approaches, including journalism, (auto)biography, and academical papers. Still, these apparent innovations and, in turn, their scholarly dissemination are predicated upon genre conventions and commercial dictates dating back to the period between World Wars I and II. In a word, as popular comics has thrived, its form has congealed around it. In the periphery of the comics field, however, experimenting practitioners have extended the boundaries of comics away from traditional, linear narrative, towards abstract visuals and poetic textual modes, essentially pushing comics into modernism a century later than other arts. Challenging sequential narrative, text-image integration, and even representational art, these peripheral expressions are so deliberately contrary to...

The book contains five chapters, and each of them deals with a specific subject, like nonlinear narrative in contemporary cinema, the beginning of Serbian cinematography, Serbian film criticism after WW1, and the documentary style of Leni Riefenstahl.

ABSTRACT: Poststructuralism has influenced novelistic creations along the last forty years, in such a way that novels are changing their linear structure. I would like to describe the importance of some fundamental points of poststructuralism in the structure of three different novels from diverse spanish and international authors who wrote between the 60s and 80s. I will describe the important role played on each by the plot, the author and narrator, and also the reader, whose importance has grown after the apparition of the reader-oriented theories.
RESUMEN: El postestructuralismo como conjunto de ideas teóricas de pensamiento ha forjado algunas creaciones novelísticas a lo largo de los últimos cuarenta años de tal forma que la novela en su conjunto, si bien paso a paso, está modificando su anterior estructura lineal, aunque el cambio no se haya generalizado aún, salvo en la literatura hipertextual propiamente dicha, gracias a la difusión y experimentación de las nuevas tecnologías. Me gustaría repasar la importancia que algunos de los principios del postestructuralismo han tenido sobre la estructura de tres novelas diferentes de autores, países, literaturas y décadas distintas, como ejemplos clave de una evolución. Es más, querría reflejar cómo en su conjunto el postestructuralismo se ha infiltrado determinantemente entre los protagonistas tradicionales del análisis estructuralista, como es la trama, el autor y el narrador, y especialmente el lector, cuya importancia manifiesta crece tras la aparición en los sesenta de la teoría de la recepción. Con ello, y buscando alcanzar el lugar en el que quedó la novela como estructura, y su lector como restructurador de la misma en los albores del siglo veintiuno, pretendo mostrar lo que de camino deconstructivo hacia la futura hipertextualidad representan estos textos en dicho aspecto.

The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in March 2018 in Bristol, UK, where we jointly convened a discussion on the potential engagement of the interactive documentary (i-doc) form with Mikhail Bakthin's expanded concept of polyphony. As part of this, we presented a series of provocations with a view to generating a new theoretical framework for i-docs. 1 These provocations were inspired by all aspects of Bakthin's polyphony, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. Much like Giulio Camillo's " Memory Theatre " (Yates xi), which brings order into the complexity of the universe (of the media, in our case), we argue that i-docs can be considered as a method that facilitates intervention in our societies, cultures and knowledge. Hence, this contemporary digital form can be also described and defined as a complexity of methods that find their space of action, dialogue and completion within the concept of polyphony. This issue's general focus, indeed, is on i-docs as often complex projects that embrace, within their structures and production processes, multiple voices that interact together in the creation of content. This brings us to what Bakhtin has written about the polyphonic and multivocal novel, which, he claims, " is constructed not as the whole of a single consciousness, absorbing other consciousnesses as objects into itself, but as a whole formed by the interaction of several consciousnesses, none of which entirely becomes an object for the other " (18). We believe that Bakhtin's theory, which gives account of this plurality, is well suited to i-docs and, although his work has been mentioned before in the literature (Daniel; Aston, " Direct " ; Aston and Matthews; Zimmermann and De Michiel), it still has a lot to offer to the field, especially due to its multifaceted nature. This special issue, accordingly, aims to analyse, reflect and raise questions on approaches to polyphony and complexity within i-docs. It also aims to begin to critically theorise this within the wider context of how media research methods can influence knowledge generation across different disciplines. We are interested in the use of i-docs as an interventionist form in any area of research, whether it is part of a participatory process, a tool for data analysis or activism, a reflexive exploration of new and creative methodologies or a dialogical machine. Furthermore, we are interested in how the creation of a theoretical tool within a Bakthinian framework of analysis

Studying educative interactive narrative, we define the deep level as characterized by a conjunction between the storyworld and comprehension macrostructure ; we define the surface level as characterized by a disjunction between the storyworld and comprehension macrostructure. Both are often used in interactive designed for children. The goal of this contribution is to present work in progress that intend to evaluate educative effects of both levels. First, we will present the whole research and its theoretical bases ; second we will present what it is set up for empirical evaluation.

The analysis of João César Monteiro's work, as a plural textual unity, implies an investigation based on the search for loci similes, which are dialogic segments in which the reverberation  from other  textual collections can be heard. The search  for  the “texts within texts”  chain  in  Monteiro's  work,  along  with  the typologic  analysis  of  both  transtextual relationships and  the point where  they unfold, enables us  to demonstrate  the “palimpsest” aspect,  which  defines  his  filmography.  For  these  very  relationships  to  be  possible  the presence  of  a  “strange”  element  is  necessary,  that  is  to  say,  the  presence  of  another  text and/or reader that, in turn, is nothing but another text, as defined by Jurij Lotman. Therefore, our  aim  is also  to  examine  the  relationships  established  between  the person(s) and  textual excerpts,  which  require  someone  in  order  to  be  acknowledged.  For  this  reason,  we  use Umberto  Eco's  concepts  of  "empirical  reader"  and  "model  reader"  in  order  to  justify  the regressive  philological  research  whose  purpose  is  individuation  and  interpretation  of  the elements  in  the monteirian  dialogical  universe.  A  fresh  exegetic  perspective  of Monteiro's work  is  eventually  made  possible  due  to  linguistic  syncretism  and  the  coexistence  of heterogeneous elements. The theoretical content of such movies is related to the concepts of nonlinearity and vertical reading, both of them capable of explaining the profound nature of the  independent  narrative  unities which create  the  film  narrative  and  disengage  the  artist from the constriction of verisimilitude.