Project Narrative Summer Institute
The Project Narrative Summer Institute is a two-week workshop on the campus of Ohio State University that offers faculty and advanced graduate students in any discipline the opportunity for an intensive study of core concepts and issues in narrative theory. The focus for summer 2018 will be Narrative Theory: Foundations and Innovations, and it will be co-directed by Robyn Warhol and James Phelan.
“Foundations and Innovations” may conjure up the terminology of “classical” and “postclassical” narratology, but for PNSI 2018 we have something bigger and more dynamic in mind. Rather than orienting the field of narrative theory around distinct periods, we’ll explore it by setting up feedback loops among strong theories, primary narratives in different media, and their implicit challenges to interpretation. We’ll range from Aristotle’s Poetics to contemporary (serial) television and experimental graphic narrative, from Russian Formalist theorizing to queer and feminist narratologies, from Chicago School theory to innovative fiction and nonfiction in prose. We’ll also examine other contemporary narrative-theoretical approaches, and save time for participants to workshop their own innovative—and newly foundational—projects.