ABSTRACT
This chapter models narrative as a complex adaptive system in which the temporal sequence of events constituting a story emerges out of cascading local interactions between nodes in a social network. The approach is not intended as a general theory of narrative, but rather as a particular generative mechanism relevant to several academic communities: (1) literary critics and narrative theorists interested in new models for narrative analysis, (2) artificial intelligence researchers and video game designers interested in new mechanisms for narrative generation, and (3) complex systems theorists interested in novel applications of agent-based modeling and network theory. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part offers examples of research by literary critics on the relationship between social networks of fictional characters and the structure of long-form narratives, particularly novels. The second part provides an example of schematic story generation
based on a simulation of the structural balance network model. I will argue that if literary critics can better understand sophisticated narratives by extracting networks from them, then narrative intelligence researchers can benefit by inverting the process, that is, by generating narratives from networks. 4.1 IntroductionThroughout this chapter, I will make extensive use of concepts from social network analysis and structural balance theory. The basic unit of analysis in structural balance theory is the triad, defined as a triangular configuration of friendship and enmity ties between three mutually connected nodes. Some triad configurations are socially unstable and, when embedded in networks with many interdependencies, may trigger cascading social events. These cascades, I will argue below, can be treated as a proto-narrative-the skeleton of a story from which complex social dramas may be constructed.My approach to narrative is loosely inspired by a variety of sources.In Deceit, Desire, and the Novel (1961), literary critic Rene Girard argues that a defining feature of the novel as a modern story-telling form is the way characters’ desires are embedded in and mediated by indirect social relations. Taking Cervantes’ Don Quixote as the prototype for the modern novel, Girard asserts that Quixote’s desire is “triangular”:The straight line is present in the desire of Don Quixote, but it is not essential. The mediator is there, above that line, radiating toward both the subject and the object. The spatial metaphor that expresses this triple relationship is obviously the triangle [10].Girard argues that in novels such as Don Quixote, the subject desires the object not because of its inherent qualities, but because some third character, the mediator, also desires the object. The mediator may be a role model who the subject intentionally imitates, or he may be a character against whom the subject competes for the desired object, as with a rival in polite society, romance, or commerce. In either case, the dyadic relationship between subject and object cannot be understood without reference to the mediator. While I will not use the concept of “triangular desire” directly, I will adapt Girard’s
general interpretive framework by drawing a parallel between the idea that triads of characters are the basic unit of narrative analysis and structural balance theory’s assumption that triads of nodes are the basic unit of network analysis.
