Out of Line: Introduction to Narrative and Media

3.0 credits · Undergraduate

Why don’t we tell it straight? Narratives and media today are “out of line.” No longer primarily sequential or episodic, stories branch out, jump back and forth, tie themselves into loops, provide alternative versions. What was once the terrain of the experimental is now true for many popular culture texts. In this course, we will explore a range of texts, films, and TV shows that are “out of line.” While our focus will be on popular culture—from TV shows like Westworld to films like Nolan’s Inception or Kwan and Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once—we will also build a framework of narrative theory and take our inspiration from experimental literary texts such as those by Calvino, Perec, or Borges.