How is it possible to think new thoughts? What is creativity and can science explain it? And just how did Coleridge dream up the creatures of The Ancient Mariner? When The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms was first published, Margaret A. Boden's bold and provocative exploration of creativity broke new ground. Boden uses examples such as jazz improvisation, chess, story writing, physics, and the music of Mozart together with computing models from the field of artificial intelligence to uncover the nature of human creativity in the arts, science and everyday life. The second edition of The Creative Mind has been updated to include recent developments in artificial intelligence, with a new preface, introduction and conclusion by the author. It is an essential work for anyone interested in the creativity of the human mind.

The creative mind: myths and mechanisms

To raise the question of the nature of narrative is to invite reflection on the very nature of culture and, possibly, even on the nature of humanity itself. So natural is the impulse to narrate, so inevitable is the form of narrative for any report of the way things really happened, that narrativity could appear problematical only in a culture in which it was absent-absent or, as in some domains of contemporary Western intellectual and artistic culture, programmatically refused. As a panglobal fact of culture, narrative and narration are less problems than simply data. As the late (and already profoundly missed) Roland Barthes remarked, narrative "is simply there like life itself. . international, transhistorical, transcultural."' Far from being a problem, then, narrative might well be considered a solution to a problem of general human concern, namely, the problem of how to translate knowing into telling,2 the problem of fashioning human experience into a form assimilable to structures of meaning that are generally human rather than culture-specific. We may not be able fully to comprehend specific thought patterns of another culture, but we have relatively less difficulty understanding a story coming from another culture, however exotic that

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The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality

but the threat they bring to artistic culture. From his opening mockery of the literary establishment’s tendency to theorize the world in terms of desire or gender to his disapproval of those who venerate art while denying its validity in the same breath, Jonathan Dollimore has created an easily understood, albeit at times too theoretical, synthesis of the literary and the experiential in Sex, Literature and Censorship. His arguments on critical theory do not necessarily reject the concept of theory; rather, he argues that critical theorists should strive to understand the contradictions within our lives and our literature and explore the daemonic power of the subjects that offend our sense of tradition.

Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication:

What is narrative? How does it work and how does it shape our lives? H. Porter Abbott emphasizes that narrative is found not just in literature, film, and theatre, but everywhere in the ordinary course of people's lives. This widely used introduction, now revised and expanded in its third edition, is informed throughout by recent developments in the field and includes one new chapter. The glossary and bibliography have been expanded, and new sections explore unnatural narrative, retrograde narrative, reader-resistant narratives, intermedial narrative, narrativity, and multiple interpretation. With its lucid exposition of concepts, and suggestions for further reading, this book is not only an excellent introduction for courses focused on narrative but also an invaluable resource for students and scholars across a wide range of fields, including literature and drama, film and media, society and politics, journalism, autobiography, history, and still others throughout the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative

Preface Introduction: The Role of the Reader I. Open 1. The Poetics of the Open Work 2. The Semantics of Metaphor 3. On the Possibility of Generating Aesthetic Messages in an Edenic Language II. Closed 4. The Myth of Superman 5. Rhetoric and Ideology in Sue's Les Mysteres de Paris 6. Narrative Structures in Fleming III. Open/Closed 7. Peirce and the Semiotic Foundations of Openness: Signs as Texts and Texts as Signs 8. Lector in Fabula: Pragmatic Strategy in a Metanarrative Text Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Bibliography

The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts

From the Publisher: 
Is there a significant difference in attitude between immersion in a game and immersion in a movie or novel? What are the new possibilities for representation offered by the emerging technology of virtual reality? As Marie-Laure Ryan demonstrates in Narrative as Virtual Reality, the questions raised by new, interactive technologies have their precursors and echoes in pre-electronic literary and artistic traditions. Formerly a culture of immersive idealsgetting lost in a good book, for examplewe are becoming, Ryan claims, a culture more concerned with interactivity. Approaching the idea of virtual reality as a metaphor for total art, Narrative as Virtual Reality applies the concepts of immersion and interactivity to develop a phenomenology of reading. 
Ryan's analysis encompasses both traditional literary narratives and the new textual genres made possible by the electronic revolution of the past few years, such as hypertext, electronic poetry, interactive movies and drama, digital installation art, and computer role-playing games. Interspersed among the book's chapters are several "interludes" that focus exclusively on either key literary texts that foreshadow what we now call "virtual reality," including those of Baudelaire, Huysmans, Ignatius de Loyola, Calvino, and science-fiction author Neal Stephenson, or recent efforts to produce interactive art forms, like the hypertext "novel" Twelve Blue, by Michael Joyce, and I'm Your Man, an interactive movie. As Ryan considers the fate of traditional narrative patterns in digital culture, she revisits one of the central issues in modern literary theorythe opposition between a presumably passive reading that is taken over by the world a text represents and an active, deconstructive reading that imaginatively participates in the text's creation. 
 
About the Author: 
Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar and former software consultant. She is the author of Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory and the editor of Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory.

Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media

From the Publisher:
In this important contribution to narrative theory, Marie-Laure Ryan applies insights from artificial intelligence and the theory of possible worlds to the study of narrative and fiction. For Ryan, the theory of possible worlds provides a more nuanced way of discussing the commonplace notion of a fictional "world," while artificial intelligence contributes to narratology and the theory of fiction directly via its researches into the cognitive processes of texts and automatic story generation. Although Ryan applies exotic theories to the study of narrative and fiction, her book maintains a solid basis in literary theory and makes the formal models developed by AI researchers accessible to the student of literature. The first part of the book seeks a more sophisticated application of the theory of possible worlds to the definition of fictionality. While fiction is a mode of travel into textual space, narrative is a journey within the confines of this space. The second part introduces the idea of a semantic domain consisting of a plurality of alternate possible worlds. This notion is developed into a theory of narrative conflict, which leads to an account of the forward movement of plot. By combining the philosophical back ground of possible world theory with models inspired by AI, the book fulfills a pressing need in narratology for new paradigms and an interdisciplinary perspective.

Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory

From the Publisher:
Is there a significant difference in attitude between immersion in a game and immersion in a movie or novel? What are the new possibilities for representation offered by the emerging technology of virtual reality? As Marie-Laure Ryan demonstrates in Narrative as Virtual Reality, the questions raised by new, interactive technologies have their precursors and echoes in pre-electronic literary and artistic traditions. Formerly a culture of immersive idealsgetting lost in a good book, for examplewe are becoming, Ryan claims, a culture more concerned with interactivity. Approaching the idea of virtual reality as a metaphor for total art, Narrative as Virtual Reality applies the concepts of immersion and interactivity to develop a phenomenology of reading. 
Ryan's analysis encompasses both traditional literary narratives and the new textual genres made possible by the electronic revolution of the past few years, such as hypertext, electronic poetry, interactive movies and drama, digital installation art, and computer role-playing games. Interspersed among the book's chapters are several "interludes" that focus exclusively on either key literary texts that foreshadow what we now call "virtual reality," including those of Baudelaire, Huysmans, Ignatius de Loyola, Calvino, and science-fiction author Neal Stephenson, or recent efforts to produce interactive art forms, like the hypertext "novel" Twelve Blue, by Michael Joyce, and I'm Your Man, an interactive movie. As Ryan considers the fate of traditional narrative patterns in digital culture, she revisits one of the central issues in modern literary theorythe opposition between a presumably passive reading that is taken over by the world a text represents and an active, deconstructive reading that imaginatively participates in the text's creation. 

About the Author:
Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar and former software consultant. She is the author of Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory and the editor of Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory.

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actant action theory adaptation address addresser and addressee adolescent narrative advertisements African narrative agency allegory alteration alterity anachrony analepsis ancient theories of narrative (Western) ancient theories of narrative (non-Western) anecdote animated film annals anti-narrative apology archetypal patterns architext Artificial Intelligence and narrative atomic and molecular narratives attributive discourse audience Australian Aboriginal narrative authentication author authorial narrative situation autobiography autodiegetic narration autofiction backstory ballad Biblical narrative Bildungsroman biography biological foundations of narrative blog (weblog) catachresis catharsis causality character Chicago school children's stories (narratives written for children) children's storytelling Chinese narrative chronicle chronotope cineroman closure codes for reading cognitive narratology coincidence comics and graphic novel coming-out story commentary communication in narrative communication studies and narrative composite novel computational approaches to narrative computer games and narrative concretisation confessional narrative conflict Constance school contextualism (in historiography) conversational storytelling counterfactual history courtroom narrative cultural-studies approaches to narrative cyberpunk fiction dance and narrative deconstructive approaches to narrative defamiliarisation deixis denarration description desire detective fiction dialogism dialogue in the novel diary didactic narrative diegesis digital narrative discourse analysis (Foucault) discourse analysis (linguistics) disnarrated, the distance drama and narrative dramatic irony dramatic monologue dramatic situations dream narrative dual-voice hypothesis dystopian fiction eco-narratives ecriture feminine education and narrative ekphrasis embedding emic and etic emotion and narrative emplotment encyclopedic novel epic epiphany episode epistolary novel ergodic literature ethical turn ethnographic approaches to narrative events and event-types evolution of narrative forms existent experiencing-I experientiality exposition extradiegetic narrator fable fabula fairy tale family chronicle fantastic, the fantasy feminist narratology fiction, theories of Figura (Auerbach) figural narration film narrative first-person narration focalization folklore folktale foregrounding formalism frame theory framed narrative free indirect discourse frequency Freytag's triangle function (Jakobson) function (Propp) gapping gaze gender studies genealogy genre fiction genre theory in film studies genre theory in narrative studies gesture gossip Gothic novel grand recit graphic presentation as expressive device hagiography hermeneutics hero heterodiegetic narration heteroglossia historical novel historical present historicis historiographic metafiction historiographic narratology historiography Holocaust narrative homodiegetic narration horizon of expectations horror narrative humour studies and narrative hybrid genres hybridity hypertext hypertext and hypotext (Genette) hypodiegetic narrative identity and narrative ideology and narrative image and narrative immersion implied author implied reader in medias res indeterminacy institutional narrative intentionality interactive fiction interactivity interdisciplinary approaches to narrative interior monologue intermediality intertextuality intradiegetic narrator irony isotopy Japanese narrative joke journalism law and narrative legal fiction legend leitmotif letters as narrative life story linguistic approaches to narrative logic of narrative magical realism Marxist approaches to narrative master narrative media and narrative mediacy medicine and narrative medieval narrative memory mental mapping of narrative metafiction metahistory metalepsis metanarrative comment metaphor metonymy micro-storie mimesis mindscreen mind-style minimal narrative mise en abyme modality mode modernist narrative molecular narratives montage mood (Genette) motif multi-path narrative multi-plot narrative music and narrative myth: thematic approaches myth: theoretical approaches mytheme naming in narrative narratee narrating (Genette) narrating-I narration narrative narrative as argument narrative as cognitive instrument narrative comprehension narrative disorders narrative dynamics narrative explanation narrative in poetry narrative intelligence narrative levels narrative progression narrative psychology narrative semantics narrative situations narrative speed narrative structure narrative techniques narrative therapy narrative transformation narrative transmission narrative turn in the humanities narrative units narrative universals narrative versions narrative, games, and play narrativisation narrativity narrator Native American narrative natural narratology naturalisation Neo-Aristotelianism no-narrator theory nonfiction novel nouveau roman novel, the novella nursery rhyme obituary opera oral cultures and narrative oral history oral-formulaic theory orality organisations and narrative Oulipo palimpsest panfictionality parable paralepsis and paralipsis paratext parody participatory narrative pastiche performance performativity person perspective phenomenology of narrative philosophy and narrative philosophical novel photographs picaresque novel pictorial narrativity plot plot types point point of attack point of view (cinematic) point of view (literary) polyphony pornographic narrative positioning possible-worlds theory postclassical narratology post-colonialism and narrative postmodern narrative postmodern rewrites poststructuralist approaches to narrative pragmatics prison narrative prolepsis prospective narration psychoanalysis and narrative psychological approaches to narrative psychological novel psychonarration queer theory Quixotic novel quotation theory radio narrative reader address reader constructs readerly text, writerly text (Barthes) reader-response theory realeme realism, theories of realist novel reality effect reception theory reference reflector reflexivity reliability remediation repurposing retardatory devices retrospective narration rhetorical approaches to narrative riddle ring-composition roman a clef roman a these romance romance novel Russian Formalism Sanskrit narrative satiric narrative scene (cinematic) schemata science and narrative science fiction screenplay scripts and schemata secondary orality second-person narration semiotics serial form sermon short story shot showing versus telling simple forms simulation and narrative simultaneous narration situation model sjuzhet skaz slash fiction slave narrative soap opera sociolinguistic approaches to narrative sociological approaches to literary narrative sociology and narrative soundtrack space in narrative spatial form spectacle speech act theory speech representation sports broadcast story arc story grammars story schemata and causal structure story-discourse distinction storyworld stream of consciousness and interior monologue structuralist narratology summary and scene surfiction surrealist narrative suspense and surprise syllepsis tabloid narrative tall tale Tel Aviv School of narrative poetics Tel Quel television tellability temporal ordering tense and narrative testimonio text text-world approach to narrative thematic approaches to narrative thematisation theology and narrative third-person narration thought and consciousness representation (film) thought and consciousness representation (literature) thriller time in narrative transfictionality transfocalization and transvocalization transgressive fictions trauma theory travel narrative trebling/triplication truth unnarratable, the unreliable narration urban legend utopian and dystopian fiction verisimilitude virtuality visual narrativity visualisation voice voice-over narration writerly text

Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory

Narratology has been conceived from its earliest days as a project that transcends disciplines and media. The essays gathered here address the question of how narrative migrates, mutates, and creates meaning as it is expressed across various media. Dividing the inquiry into five areas: face-to-face narrative, still pictures, moving pictures, music, and digital media, Narrative across Media investigates how the intrinsic properties of the supporting medium shape the form of narrative and affect the narrative experience. Unlike other interdisciplinary approaches to narrative studies, all of which have tended to concentrate on narrative across language-supported fields, this unique collection provides a much-needed analysis of how narrative operates when expressed through visual, gestural, electronic, and musical means. In doing so, the collection redefines the act of storytelling. Although the fields of media and narrative studies have been invigorated by a variety of theoretical approaches, this volume seeks to avoid a dominant theoretical bias by providing instead a collection of concrete studies that inspire a direct look at texts rather than relying on a particular theory of interpretation. A contribution to both narrative and media studies, Narrative across Media is the first attempt to bridge the two disciplines.

Marie-Laure Ryan

Papers

Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media

Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory

Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media

Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory

Narrative across media : the languages of storytelling