Carole Maso  

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 +'''Carole Maso''' is a contemporary [[USA|American]] [[novelist]] and [[essayist]], known for her experimental, poetic and fragmentary narratives often called [[postmodern]]. She received a B.A. in English from [[Vassar College]] in 1977. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, an NEA fellowship, and several other grants. Her first published novel was ''Ghost Dance'', which appeared in 1986. Her best known novel is probably ''Defiance'', published in 1998. She is a professor of literary arts at [[Brown University]], where she has taught since 1995, and has previously held positions as a writer-in-residence at [[Illinois State University]] in 1991–92 and [[George Washington University]] in 1992–93, as well as teaching writing at [[Columbia University]] in 1993. A forthcoming novel, ''The Bay of Angels'', incorporates various narrative types—essay, memoir, prose poems, and even graphics—and represents nearly 15 years of work. Parts of ''The Bay of Angels'' have appeared in journals and anthologies.
-Beginning a narrative ''[[in medias res]]'' (Latin: "into the middle of things") began in ancient times as an oral tradition and was established as a convention of [[epic poetry]] with [[Homer|Homer's]] ''[[Iliad]]'' in the 8th century BC. The technique of narrating most of the story in [[flashback]] also dates back to the [[Indian epic poetry|Indian epic]], the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', around the 5th century BC. Several medieval ''[[One Thousand and One Nights|Arabian Nights]]'' tales such as "[[Sinbad the Sailor]]", "[[The City of Brass]]" and "[[The Three Apples]]" also had nonlinear narratives employing the ''in medias res'' and flashback techniques.+Maso was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1956, the child of her jazz musician father and her emergency room nurse mother.
-From the late 1800s and early 1900s, [[modernist literature|modernist]] novelists [[Joseph Conrad]], [[Virginia Woolf]], [[Ford Madox Ford]], [[Marcel Proust]], and [[William Faulkner]] experimented with narrative chronology and abandoning linear order.+Maso admits she was not an avid reader in childhood. Indeed, she did not write creatively until her senior year at Vassar, when she submitted about 50 pages of prose poems as her senior honors thesis. It is at this point that she knew she wanted to be a writer.
- +
-Examples of nonlinear [[novel]]s are: [[Laurence Sterne|Laurence Sterne's]] ''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]]'' (1759-67), [[Thomas Carlyle|Thomas Carlyle's]] ''[[Sartor Resartus]]'' (ca. 1833), [[Emily Brontë|Emily Brontë's]] ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' (1847), [[James Joyce| James Joyce's]] ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' (1922) and ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' (1939), [[William S. Burroughs|William S. Burroughs']] ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' (1959), [[Joseph Heller|Joseph Heller's]] ''[[Catch-22]]'' (1961), [[Kurt Vonnegut| Kurt Vonnegut's]] ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' (1969), [[Milorad Pavić (writer)|Milorad Pavić's]] ''[[Dictionary of the Khazars]]'' (1988), [[Irvine Welsh|Irvine Welsh's]] ''[[Trainspotting (novel)|Trainspotting]]'' (1993) and [[Carole Maso|Carole Maso's]] ''Ava: a novel'' (1993).+
-[[Scott McCloud]] argues in [[Understanding Comics]] that the narration of comics is nonlinear because it relies on the reader's choices and interactions.+Maso eschewed the traditional path to teaching, having never studied formally beyond the her Vassar B.A., despite having been offered a graduate fellowship at Boston University. Rather, she devoted 9 years to learning the craft by doing, writing while alternately working as a waitress, artist's model, and fencing instructor. She also did some house- and cat-sitting, which afforded her time to write. Maso has referred to this period as her "apprenticeship years."
-All of [[Chuck Palahniuk]]'s work feature nonlinear narratives.+== Publications ==
- +
-==Film==+
-:''[[Timeline of nonlinear films]]''+
-Defining nonlinear structure in film is, at times, difficult. Films may use extensive [[flashback]]s or [[flashforward]]s within a linear storyline, while nonlinear films often contain linear sequences. [[Orson Welles|Orson Welles']] ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941), influenced structurally by ''[[The Power and the Glory (film)|The Power and the Glory]]'' (1933), and [[Akira Kurosawa|Akira Kurosawa's]] ''[[Rashomon (film)|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|D.W. Griffith's]] ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' (1916) and [[Abel Gance|Abel Gance's]] ''[[Napoléon (1927 film)|Napoléon]]'' (1927). Nonlinear film emerged from the French [[avant-garde]] in 1929 with [[Luis Buñuel]] and [[Salvador Dali|Salvador Dali'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 Buñuel and Dali'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 (film)|Strike]]'' (1925) and Dovzhenko's ''[[Earth (1930 film)|Earth]]'' (1930) hint at a nonlinear experience. English director [[Humphrey Jennings]] used a nonlinear approach in his [[World War II]] documentary ''[[Listen to Britain]]'' (1942). +
-===Post-war===+
-[[Jean-Luc Godard|Jean-Luc Godard's]] work since 1959 was 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 (1967 film)|Week End]]'' (French: ''Le weekend'') (1968), as well as [[Andy Warhol|Andy Warhol's]] ''[[Chelsea Girls]]'' (1966), defy linear structure in exchange for a chronology of events that is seemingly random. [[Alain Resnais]] experimented with narrative and time in his films ''[[Hiroshima Mon Amour]]'' (1959), ''[[Last Year at Marienbad]]'' (1961), and ''[[Muriel (film)|Muriel]]'' (1963). [[Federico Fellini]] defined his own nonlinear cinema with the films ''[[La strada (film)|La strada]]'' (1954), ''[[La dolce vita (1960 film)|La dolce vita]]'' (1960), ''[[8½]]'' (1963), ''[[Satyricon (film)|Satyricon]]'' (1969), and ''[[Roma (1972 film)|Roma]]'' (1972). [[Nicolas Roeg|Nicolas Roeg's]] films, including ''[[Performance (film)|Performance]]'' (1968), ''[[Walkabout (film)|Walkabout]]'' (1971), ''[[Don't Look Now]]'' (1973), ''[[The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)|The Man Who Fell to Earth]]'' (1976), and ''[[Bad Timing]]'' (1980) are characterized by a nonlinear approach. Other experimental nonlinear filmmakers include [[Michelangelo Antonioni]], [[Peter Greenaway]], [[Chris Marker]], [[Agnès Varda]], and [[Raúl Ruiz]]. +
- +
-In the United States, [[Robert Altman]] carried the nonlinear motif in his films, including ''[[McCabe & Mrs. Miller]]'' (1971), ''[[Nashville (film)|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 growth in nonlinear films with ''[[Pulp Fiction (film)|Pulp Fiction]]'' (1994). Other important nonlinear films include [[Atom Egoyan|Atom Egoyan's]] ''[[Exotica (film)|Exotica]]'' (1994), [[Terrence Malick|Terrence Malick's]] ''[[The Thin Red Line (1998 film)|The Thin Red Line]]'' (1998), [[Paul Thomas Anderson|Paul Thomas Anderson's]] ''[[Magnolia (film)|Magnolia]]'' (1999), and Karen and [[Jill Sprecher|Jill Sprecher's]] ''[[Thirteen Conversations About One Thing]]'' (2001). [[David Lynch]] experimented with nonlinear narrative and [[surrealism]] in ''[[Lost Highway]]'' (1997), ''[[Mulholland Drive (film)|Mulholland Dr.]]'' (2001), and ''[[Inland Empire (film)|Inland Empire]]'' (2006). +
- +
-Into the 2000s, some filmmakers have returned to the use of nonlinear narrative repeatedly. [[Steven Soderbergh]] in ''[[Schizopolis]]'' (1996), ''[[Out of Sight]]'' (1998), ''[[The Limey]]'' (1999), ''[[Full Frontal (film)|Full Frontal]]'' (2002), ''[[Solaris (2002 film)|Solaris]]'' (2002), and ''[[Che (film)|Che]]'' (2008). [[Christopher Nolan]] in ''[[Following (film)|Following]]'' (1998), ''[[Memento (film)|Memento]]'' (2001), and ''[[The Prestige (film)|The Prestige]]'' (2006). ''Memento'', with its fragmentation and [[reverse chronology]], has been described as characteristic of moving towards [[postmodernism]] in contemporary cinema. [[Richard Linklater]] used nonlinear narrative in ''[[Slacker (film)|Slacker]]'' (1991), ''[[Waking Life]]'' (2001), and ''[[A Scanner Darkly (film)|A Scanner Darkly]]'' (2006); [[Gus Van Sant]] in ''[[Elephant (film)|Elephant]]'' (2003), ''[[Last Days (film)|Last Days]]'' (2005), and ''[[Paranoid Park (film)|Paranoid Park]]'' (2007). Hong Kong auteur [[Wong Kar-wai]] explored nonlinear storylines in the films ''[[Days of Being Wild]]'' (1991), ''[[Ashes of Time]]'' (1994), ''[[Chungking Express]]'' (1994), ''[[In the Mood for Love]]'' (2000), and ''[[2046 (film)|2046]]'' (2004). [[Fernando Meirelles]] in ''[[City of God (film)|City of God]]'' and ''[[The Constant Gardener (film)|The Constant Gardener]]''. All of [[Alejandro González Iñárritu]]'s films to date feature nonlinear narratives. [[Takashi Shimizu|Takashi Shimizu's]] Japanese horror series, ''[[Ju-on]]'', brought to America as ''[[The Grudge]]'', is also nonlinear in its storytelling.+
- +
-==Television==+
-Japanese [[anime]] series sometimes present their plot in nonlinear order, for example, ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime)|The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', ''[[Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito]]'', ''[[Touka Gettan]]'', and (partly) ''[[Boogiepop Phantom]]'', ''[[Ergo Proxy]]'' and ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''.+
- +
-The [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] television series ''[[Lost (TV series)|Lost]]'' makes extensive use of nonlinear story telling, with each episode typically featuring a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life, either past or future.+
- +
-[[FX (TV channel)|FX]]'s [[Emmy Award]] winning legal drama [[Damages]] starring [[Glenn Close]], begins each season with an intensely melodramatic event taking place and then traveling back six months earlier. Throughout the season, each episode shows events both in the past, present, and future that lead up to and follow said event.+
- +
- +
-The English sitcom [[Coupling]] would often utilize non-linear narratives in which groups of men and women would independently discuss an event, after which (or during) the event would be portrayed.+
- +
-==Video games==+
-In [[video games]], the term nonlinear refers to a game that has more than one possible story line and/or ending. This allows the audience to choose from multiple different paths, that may be compatible with their style of play. This increases replay value, as players must often beat the game several times to get the entire story. [[Computer role-playing game]]s, e.g. ''[[Fallout (video game)|Fallout]]'', often contain multiple paths which the player may choose from the beginning of the game. An example of this is Sega's spin-off game, "Shadow the Hedgehog". +
- +
-Some video games mimic film non-linearity by presenting a single plot in chronologically distorted way instead of letting the player determine the story flow themselves. The [[first-person shooter]] ''[[Tribes: Vengeance]]'' is an example of this; another is Sega's "Sonic Adventure".+
- +
-Often times game developers use the idea of character amnesia in games. Character amnesia helps give a game a beginning because the audience only has the understanding that there is a preceding history before the events of the game take place. The characters amnesia allows the developers more leniency with what possibilities or paths the audience can potentially take. This option of choosing paths ultimately results in the development of a non-linear story. Furthermore by creating a nonlinear story line the complexity of game play is greatly expanded. As stated earlier, non-linear game play allows for greater replay value which grants the player to put together the different pieces of a potentially puzzling storyline. This idea of having a complex and deep storyline while the user has little or no prior knowledge of past events is clearly evident in games like Facade. In Facade the player is put into a situation that lasts approximately 10 to 15 minutes in real time yet the events recalled seem to have a basis in years of dramatic history. +
- +
-==HTML Narratives==+
- +
-In contemporary society webpages or to be more correct, hypertexts, have become affluent forms of narratives. Hypertexts have great potential to create non-linear forms of narratives. They allow for individuals to actually interact with the story through links, images, audio and video. An established hypertext narrative is Public Secret. Public Secret illustrates the reality of being incarcerated in California's Criminal Justice System. It brings to light the way inmates are treated. This functions as a non-linear narrative because it allows for its audience to witness through text and audio the reality of being a female inmate. However, there is no exact beginning or end as there are in comic books or video games. This website consists of multiple subtopics that do not force the audience to make their next selection based on what their previous experiences.+
- +
-==See also==+
-* [[Stream of consciousness writing|Stream of consciousness]]+
-* [[Metafiction]]+
-* [[Experimental fiction]]+
-* [[Metacognition]]+
-* [[Time]]+
-* [[Sequence]]+
-* [[Chronology]]+
-* [[Wheel of time]]+
-* [[Time in physics]]+
-* [[Anachronistic]]+
-* [[Change]]+
-* [[List of cycles]]+
-* [[Duration]]+
-* [[Exponential time]]+
-* [[Multilinear]]+
-* [[Sense of time]]+
-* [[Spacetime]]+
-* [[Hyperlink cinema]]+
-* [[Hypertext fiction]]+
 +=== Novels ===
 +* ''Ghost Dance''. New York: Perennial Library, 1986, ISBN 0880014091
 +* ''The Art Lover''. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990, ISBN 0811216292
 +* ''Ava''. Normal, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press, 1993, ISBN 1564780740
 +* ''The American Woman in the Chinese Hat''. Normal, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press, 1994, ISBN 1564780457
 +* ''Defiance''. New York: Dutton, 1998, ISBN 0452278295
 +=== Short Stories ===
 +* Contributor, Tasting Life Twice: Literary Lesbian Fiction by New American Writers, edited by E. J. Levy. New York: Avon Books, 1995.
 +*''Aureole: An Erotic Sequence'', Hopewell, New Jersey: Ecco, 1996, (short fiction collection)ISBN 0872864103
 +=== Other ===
 +* ''Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire''. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000, ISBN 1582430632
 +* ''The Room Lit by Roses: A Journal of Pregnancy and Birth''. Washington, D.C.: 2002, ISBN 1582432120
 +*''Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo'', 2002,ISBN 1582430896
 +* Contributor, ''Tolstoy's Dictaphone: Technology and the Muse'', edited by Sven Birkerts. St. Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1996.
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Carole Maso is a contemporary American novelist and essayist, known for her experimental, poetic and fragmentary narratives often called postmodern. She received a B.A. in English from Vassar College in 1977. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, an NEA fellowship, and several other grants. Her first published novel was Ghost Dance, which appeared in 1986. Her best known novel is probably Defiance, published in 1998. She is a professor of literary arts at Brown University, where she has taught since 1995, and has previously held positions as a writer-in-residence at Illinois State University in 1991–92 and George Washington University in 1992–93, as well as teaching writing at Columbia University in 1993. A forthcoming novel, The Bay of Angels, incorporates various narrative types—essay, memoir, prose poems, and even graphics—and represents nearly 15 years of work. Parts of The Bay of Angels have appeared in journals and anthologies.

Maso was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1956, the child of her jazz musician father and her emergency room nurse mother.

Maso admits she was not an avid reader in childhood. Indeed, she did not write creatively until her senior year at Vassar, when she submitted about 50 pages of prose poems as her senior honors thesis. It is at this point that she knew she wanted to be a writer.

Maso eschewed the traditional path to teaching, having never studied formally beyond the her Vassar B.A., despite having been offered a graduate fellowship at Boston University. Rather, she devoted 9 years to learning the craft by doing, writing while alternately working as a waitress, artist's model, and fencing instructor. She also did some house- and cat-sitting, which afforded her time to write. Maso has referred to this period as her "apprenticeship years."

Contents

[edit]

Publications

[edit]

Novels

[edit]

Short Stories

  • Contributor, Tasting Life Twice: Literary Lesbian Fiction by New American Writers, edited by E. J. Levy. New York: Avon Books, 1995.
  • Aureole: An Erotic Sequence, Hopewell, New Jersey: Ecco, 1996, (short fiction collection)ISBN 0872864103
[edit]

Other

  • Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000, ISBN 1582430632
  • The Room Lit by Roses: A Journal of Pregnancy and Birth. Washington, D.C.: 2002, ISBN 1582432120
  • Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo, 2002,ISBN 1582430896
  • Contributor, Tolstoy's Dictaphone: Technology and the Muse, edited by Sven Birkerts. St. Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1996.


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