#narrative-structure

#narrative-structure

Excellent descriptions of trauma abound, including memoirs, but they are logical and descriptive, constrained by the conventions of straightforward narrative. But trauma itself upends the usual modes of narrative by which we think about our lives: out of sequence and unintegrated, traumatic memories defy the logic that guides our sense of our lives as stories with a past, present, and future. Literary tools such as symbol, allegory, and narrative structure can embody a visceral sense of the ways that trauma can disrupt and diminish a life.

She constructed "Early Earth," the setting of two of her graphic novels, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth (2013) and The One Hundred Nights of Hero (2016). The former is a collection of creation myths for Early Earth, while the other is modeled on One Thousand and One Nights and its frame story of a woman delaying a man's predation by distracting him with storytelling.

In recent years, some of the most talked-about literary novels have not given their readers much to talk about, at least when it comes to plot. In the late 2010s, authors such as Rachel Cusk, Ben Lerner, and Sheila Heti wrote books that are heavy on interiority and light on events; they have few of the markers of a traditional rise-and-fall story structure, and instead prioritize voice and close description.

Kinga, the protagonist in "A New New Me," is a forty-year-old corporate employee who struggles with the grind of everyday life, facing exhaustion and self-optimizing pressures.

In this atmospheric horror title, you'll spend your time as a character stuck in a loop within their home, trying desperately to figure out, well, why.

The Last of Us Part 2's narrative presents moral ambiguity through the intertwined fates of Ellie and Abby, challenging players to engage with complex themes of revenge and consequence.

In its most recent episode, And Just Like That shrugged off its tired old premise to become something new, focusing on the miracle of human reanimation.

Erskine's stories display a capaciousness, a willingness to wander beyond the single epiphanic moment that is the traditional preserve of the short story.

Does the character with a plate in her skull and an erotic obsession with automobiles also have to be a serial killer?

It's a shame because all the mandate-tinged filler doesn't do justice to the stuff in "Innocent People" that still rips.