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Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov (Grammaire du Décaméron, 1969). Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp (Morphology of the Folktale, 1928), and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the chronotope first presented in The Dialogic Imagination (1975). Cognitive narratology is a more recent development that allows for a broader understanding of narrative. Rather than focus on the structure of the story, cognitive narratology asks "how humans make sense of stories" and "how humans use stories as sense-making instruments". Narrative and Plot (narrative) Structuralist narratologists like Rimmon-Kenan define narrative fiction as "the narration of a succession of fictional events". Cognitive narratologists focus on how people experience something as narrative rather than on the structure of the text itself. The six-word story "For sale: baby shoes, never worn", is often given as an example that would not qualify as a narrative in the strictly structural approach, but that evokes a sense of narrative. Marie-Laure Ryan distinguishes between "a narrative" as an object that can be clearly defined and the quality of narrativity, which means "being able to inspire a narrative response”. This allows her to understand video games as possessing narrativity without necessarily being conventional narratives. Astrid Ensslin builds upon this, explaining that "games have the potential to evoke multiple, individualized narrative scripts through world-building, causal event design, character development and other elements that players interact with the intention to solve problems and make progress". The origins of narratology lend to it a strong association with the structuralist quest for a formal system of useful description applicable to any narrative content, by analogy with the grammars used as a basis for parsing sentences in some forms of linguistics.

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Nonlinear narrative

Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the events featured, such as parallel distinctive plot lines, dream immersions or narrating another story inside the main plot-line.

Story structure

A story structure is how to unify a story's elements under an expected order, which can include events, theme, tone, character, and so on, which is not always located in the plot. These can be also called Narrative structure which is usually presented in written form or dramatic structure which is presented in audiovisual from. This is more of an overview of how story structure works in a cross-cultural and general sense. Story is a narrative, which can be true or fictitious, which can appear in prose, verse or script, designed to amuse, inform the consumer.

Narratology

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The Function of Fiction in Science Fiction HUM-219: Science and literature C

Explores the role of fiction in shaping human understanding and behavior through an analysis of science fiction narratives.

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Explores the transformative power of Media Art in engaging with fundamental topics like technology's impact on society and the evolving nature of storytelling.