Modular Narratives

Allan Cameron

Cameron published his idea that contemporary cinema uses a cycle of complex narratives to operate. Modular Narratives "articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation"

He has identified 4 different types of modular narrative; 

• Anachronic
• Forking - Paths 
• Episodic
• Split Screens  

Anachronic modular narratives involve the use of flashbacks and flashforwards, and use no clear dominance between any of the narrative threads. These threads tend to repeat scenes directly or via a different perspective. 

E.g. Pulp Fiction and Memento

Forking - Path narratives juxtapose alternative versions of a story, showing the possible outsomes from changes that occur in events. The narratives also introduce a number of plotlines that often contradict one another.

E.g. Groundhog Day and Run Lola Run 

Episodic narratives are organised as an abstract series or narrative anthology. 

Abstract series type is characterised by the operation of a non - narrative formal system which appears to overlay the organisation of narrative elements. 

Anthology consists of a series of shorter tales which are apparently disconnected but share a random similarity. 

Split Screen narratives are different from the other types of modular narrative, because their modularity is formed along spatial rather than temporal lines. Films that use this divide the screen into seperate frames that juxtapose eachother, but are within the same visual field.

E.g. Carrie