nonlinear narrative

Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the events featured, such as parallel distinctive plot lines, dream immersions or narrating another story inside the main plot-line. Most of the time, it is used to mimic the structure and recall of a character, but has been used for other reasons as well.

Literature

Beginning a non-linear narrative '' in medias res'' (Latin: "into the middle of things") began in ancient times and was used as a convention of epic poetry, including Homer's ''Iliad'' in the 8th century BC. The technique of narrating most of the story in flashback is also seen in epic poetry, like the Indian epic the ''Mahabharata''. Several medieval ''Arabian Nights'' tales such as " The City of Brass" and "The Three Apples" also had nonlinear narratives employing the ''in medias res'' and flashback techniques. The medieval English poem ''Beowulf'' also utilizes a non-linear structure, focusing on events throughout the life of the titular character rather than describing them in a linear narrative.

From the late 19th century and early 20th century, modernist novelists Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, Ford Madox Ford, Marcel Proust, and William Faulkner experimented with narrative chronology and abandoning linear order.

Examples of nonlinear novels are:
* Laurence Sterne's ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' (1759–67)
* Thomas Carlyle's ''Sartor Resartus'' (ca. 1833)
* Emily Brontë's ''Wuthering Heights'' (1847)
* Ford Madox Ford's '' The Good Soldier'' (1915)
* William Faulkner's ''The Sound and the Fury'' (1929)
* Sadeq Hedayat's '' The Blind Owl'' (1937)
* James Joyce's '' Ulysses'' (1922) and ''Finnegans Wake'' (1939)
* Flann O'Brien (pseudonym for Brian O'Nolan)'s '' At Swim-Two-Birds'' (1939)
* William S. Burroughs' '' Naked Lunch'' (1959)
* Joseph Heller's ''Catch-22'' (1961)
* Muriel Spark's '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1961)
* Julio Cortázar's ''Hopscotch'' (1963)
* N. Scott Momaday's ''House Made of Dawn'' (1968)
* Kurt Vonnegut's '' Slaughterhouse-Five'' (1969)
* Tim O'Brien's '' Going After Cacciato'' (1979).
* Stephen King's '' It'' (1986)
* Milorad Pavić's ''Dictionary of the Khazars'' (1988)
* Michael Ondaatje's ''The English Patient'' (1992)
* Irvine Welsh's '' Trainspotting'' (1993)
* Arundhati Roy's '' The God of Small Things'' (1997)
* Michael Ondaatje's '' Anil's Ghost'' (2000)
* David Mitchell's '' Cloud Atlas (2004)
* Erin Morgenstern's '' The Night Circus'' (2011)
* Will Self's ''Umbrella'' (2012)
* Anthony Doerr's '' All the Light We Cannot See'' (2014)
* Emily St. John Mandel's '' Station Eleven'' (2014)
Several of Michael Moorcock's novels, particularly those in the Jerry Cornelius series, in particular '' The English Assassin: A Romance of Entropy'' (1972) and '' The Condition of Muzak'' (1977) are notable for extending the nonlinear narrative form in order to explore the complex nature of identity within a multiversal universe.

Scott McCloud argues in ''Understanding Comics'' that the narration of comics is nonlinear because it relies on the reader's choices and interactions.

Film

Defining nonlinear structure in film is, at times, difficult. Films may use extensive flashbacks or flashforwards within a linear storyline, while nonlinear films often contain linear sequences.Blum, Richard A. (2001). ''Television and Screen Writing: From Concept to Contract''. Focal Press. p. 125. . Orson Welles' ''Citizen Kane'' (1941)—influenced structurally by '' The Power and the Glory'' (1933)—and Akira Kurosawa's ''Rashomon'' (1950) use a non-chronological flashback narrative that is often labeled nonlinear.

Silent and early era

Experimentation with nonlinear structure in film dates back to the silent film era, including D. W. Griffith's '' Intolerance'' (1916) and Abel Gance's '' Napoléon'' (1927).Debruge, Peter (December 7, 2007).
More scripts take nonlinear route
. '' Variety''. Retrieved on February 3, 2008. Nonlinear film emerged from the French avant-garde in 1924 with René Clair’s '' Entr'acte'', Dadaïst film and then in 1929 with Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's '' Un Chien Andalou'' (English: ''An Andalusian Dog''). The surrealist film jumps into fantasy and juxtaposes images, granting the filmmakers an ability to create statements about the Church, art, and society that are left open to interpretation.Dancyger, Ken & Rush, Jeff. (2006). ''Alternative Scriptwriting: Successfully Breaking the Rules''. Focal Press. pp 154-163. . Buñuel and Dalí's '' L'Âge d'Or'' (1930) (English: ''The Golden Age'') also uses nonlinear concepts. The revolutionary Russian filmmakers Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Alexander Dovzhenko also experimented with the possibilities of nonlinearity. Eisenstein's '' Strike'' (1925) and Dovzhenko's ''Earth'' (1930) hint at a nonlinear experience. Dancyger, Ken (2002). ''The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice''. Focal Press. pp. 393-394. English director Humphrey Jennings used a nonlinear approach in his World War II documentary ''Listen to Britain'' (1942).

Post-World War II

Jean-Luc Godard's works since 1959 were also important in the evolution of nonlinear film. Godard famously stated, "I agree that a film should have a beginning, a middle and an end but not necessarily in that order". Godard's '' Week End'' (French: ''Le weekend'') (1968), as well as Andy Warhol's ''Chelsea Girls'' (1966), defy linear structure in exchange for a chronology of events that is seemingly random.Dethridge, Lisa (2003). ''Writing Your Screenplay''. Allen & Unwin. pp. 114-117. Alain Resnais experimented with narrative and time in his films '' Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959), '' L'Année dernière à Marienbad'' (1961), and '' Muriel'' (1963). Federico Fellini defined his own nonlinear cinema with the films '' La Strada'' (1954), ''La Dolce Vita'' (1960), '' 8½'' (1963), '' Fellini Satyricon'' (1969), and ''Roma'' (1972), as did Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky with his modernist films '' The Mirror'' (1975) and '' Nostalghia'' (1983). Nicolas Roeg's films, including ''Performance'' (1970), '' Walkabout'' (1971), '' Don't Look Now'' (1973), '' The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976), and '' Bad Timing'' (1980) are characterized by a nonlinear approach. Other mainstream nonlinear filmmakers include Michelangelo Antonioni, Peter Greenaway, Chris Marker, Theo Angelopoulos, Agnès Varda, Raúl Ruiz, Carlos Saura, Alain Robbe-Grillet.Kinder, Marsha
Hot Spots, Avatars, and Narrative Fields Forever
". '' Film Quarterly''. Vol. 55, No. 54. Retrieved on February 9, 2008.

In the United States, Robert Altman carried the nonlinear motif in his films, including '' McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' (1971), ''Nashville'' (1975), '' The Player'' (1992), '' Short Cuts'' (1993), and '' Gosford Park'' (2001). Woody Allen embraced the experimental nature of nonlinear narrative in ''Annie Hall'' (1977), '' Interiors'' (1978), and '' Stardust Memories'' (1980).

1990s and 2000s

In the 1990s, Quentin Tarantino influenced a tremendous increase in the popularity of nonlinear films most notably '' Pulp Fiction'' (1994). He also used non linear narrative in ''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992), ''Kill Bill'' (2003 and 2004) and '' The Hateful Eight'' (2015). Critics have referred shifting of timeline as Tarantino effect. Other important nonlinear films include Atom Egoyan's '' Exotica'' (1994), Terrence Malick's '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), and Karen and Jill Sprecher's '' Thirteen Conversations About One Thing'' (2001). David Lynch experimented with nonlinear narrative and surrealism in '' Lost Highway'' (1997), '' Mulholland Drive'' (2001), and ''Inland Empire'' (2006).

In the years leading into and the beginning of the 21st century, some filmmakers have returned to the use of nonlinear narrative repeatedly, including Steven Soderbergh in '' Schizopolis'' (1996), ''Out of Sight'' (1998), '' The Limey'' (1999), '' Full Frontal'' (2002), '' Solaris'' (2002), and '' Che'' (2008); and Christopher Nolan in '' Following'' (1998), '' Memento'' (2000), ''Batman Begins'' (2005), '' The Prestige'' (2006), ''Inception'' (2010), ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012) and ''Dunkirk