The Shadow Knows: Negative Plotting and Narrative Politics

This Project Narrative Founders’ Lecture will be given by Professor Emerita Susan Lanser, Brandeis University.

It is a truism that stories are often made from other stories and a narratological truth that stories build their plots through forking paths in which something does, and therefore something else does not, happen.  Drawing on both of these assumptions, my talk explores a more specific kind of plotting in which a text takes meaning from negating or reversing a plot or plot element that has been inscribed in a prior narrative.  In such circumstances, opposing plots effectively operate in tandem, one shadowing the other, to produce the narrative experience. My talk will explain what I mean by negative plotting, outline the multiple forms it can take, and explore its significance for understanding both individual texts and broader cultural landscapes.  I will further argue that negative plotting has been a significant feature of political and literary movements and is thus worthy of deeper probing by both narrative theorists and social activists.

This will be a hybrid event with the following Zoom information:
https://osu.zoom.us/j/92582185611?pwd=MFpGNmU0UWhuQTJya1pDY2c4MUd6dz09
Meeting ID: 925 8218 5611
Password: 838658