GIVE NOW about ocw help & faqs contact us
21W.765J | Spring 2006 | Undergraduate

# Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative: Theory and Practice

#### Course Description

This course covers techniques of creating narratives that take advantage of the flexibility of form offered by the computer. The course studies the structural properties of book-based narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time and of storyline. The class analyzes the …
This course covers techniques of creating narratives that take advantage of the flexibility of form offered by the computer. The course studies the structural properties of book-based narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time and of storyline. The class analyzes the structure and evaluates the literary qualities of computer-based narratives including hypertexts, adventure games, and classic artificial intelligence programs like Eliza. With this base, students use authoring systems to model a variety of narrative techniques and to create their own fictions. Knowledge of programming is helpful but not necessary.

## Course Info

##### Instructor

- Prof. Beth Coleman

##### Departments

- Comparative Media Studies/Writing
- Literature

##### Topics

- Fine Arts
  - Game Design
  - Media Studies
    - Digital Media
- Humanities
  - Literature
    - Creative Writing
    - Criticism
    - Fiction

##### Learning Resource Types

group_work Projects with Examples
Hundreds of agar plates cultured with bioluminescent marine bacteria displayed at Bioglyphs, an art exhibit at Montana State University-Bozeman. (Image ©2002 MSU-Bozeman Bioglyphs Project. Used with permission.)

Browse Resources

# You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

Please be advised that external sites may have terms and conditions, including license rights, that differ from ours. MIT OCW is not responsible for any content on third party sites, nor does a link suggest an endorsement of those sites and/or their content.