Experimental narrative nonlinearity

Here too there is a clue to the nature of experimental narrative. It follows a nonlinear pattern as opposed to a linear time or character-arc frame. The usual elements that shape a story—a goal-directed main character, a plot— and a traditional genre all tend to be subverted in the experimental narrative. We are left with the powerful stylistic elements of the experience. 

The key to experimental narrative is the desire to avoid conventional narrative. Conventional narrative is essentially a character-driven or plot-driven story with a beginning, middle, and end. In conventional narrative, the main character may or may not achieve his or her goal, but the drive to achieve the goal carries us through the story to a resolution. A nonlinear story may eschew a single main character, or a plot, or a resolution, or all of the above. In the experimental narrative, the energy of the story comes from the style the writer-director chooses to use to compensate the audience for the loss of linear direction through the story. Many experimental narratives have no plot some have no defined character. Consequently, the conventional dramatic tools—conflict, polarities—are less at play. In experimental narrative, form or style is as important as, and often more important than, content. Thus, a nonlinear form is more able to capture the essence of experimental narrative than is the usual set of dramatic tools deployed in more conventional or linear narrative. 

Unconventional stories are the first source for experimental narrative. Generally, the stories tend to be exploratory—stories of identity, stories of alienation, meditations on a time or place. Vincent Ward s film The Navigator looks at a medieval period Clara Law s Autumn Moon looks at Hong Kong— a place where change and tradition meet and, in the 1990s, conflict. Because experimental narrative sidesteps plot, stories of character dominate. Because the genre favors open-ended or nonlinear stories, the preference is for tone, to make up for the absence of resolution. 

One observable aspect of the experimental narrative is that no two structures are alike. We can say the story tends to be nonlinear, but beyond that, few structures resemble one another. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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