Exploring Narrative Time: A Collection of Collaborative Musings on the Temporal Play found in Contemporary Storytelling

Introduction

Time is one of the most fundamental parameters through which narratives are organized and understood. Because this age is one of unprecedented flourishing for alternative ways of understanding and inhabiting time, it is not surprising that the cultural narratives of the last half century have been obsessed with time itself. Non-linearity, or temporal distortion, is one of the most common features of modern and postmodern fiction. This blog stems from the work produced in a graduate seminar course.  The essays posted here will reflect on the temporal play found within various postmodern and contemporary novels, reading this stylistic device as a way of dealing aesthetically with an altered culture of time. Beyond analyzing a range of fiction (canonical, mainstream bestsellers, and some experimental digital texts), these authors will also analyze media (television and film) and delve into scholarly research (e.g. theories of temporality and narrative study more broadly). Together these writings will consider how certain technological inventions, media influences, and national tragedies may have contributed to these new conceptions of temporality.