The chase experience: narrative speed and rhythm in contemporary forking-path narratives

The article examines the issues of narrative speed and rhythm in contemporary forking-path narratives and narrative devices that enable to create a fastpaced experience for the reader. Forking-path narratives represent events that could only have happened to the hero, but did not happen within the narrative world. They are becoming increasingly common in contemporary fiction (P. Auster, P. Roth, K. Atkinson, B. Giraud). Despite the differences in plot, these narratives are unique in that they offer the reader a sense of high-speed movement through the story. Such an experience can be shaped by the representation of physical movement in the narrative, by the predominance of “summaries” and “ellipses” over “pauses” and “scenes” (in terms of G. Genette), by the alternation of "showing" and "telling", by an increase in the number of “turning points” and their predominance over “fillers” (according to Fr. Moretti), by reducing the “virtual” events and increasing the “actual” ones (according to M.-L. Ryan), as well as by using the “multiplication” and “subtraction” modes (according to K. Hume). But narrative speed can also be considered in an enactivist perspective – such an attempt (in addition to the previous tradition) is also made in the article. In this case, a fast-paced experience is formed by creating an indirect contact of the reader with the events taking place in the narrative: this experience is only enhanced and complemented by rhythmic techniques. If the creation of speed is based on the principle of difference (change), then the creation of rhythm is based on the principle of repetition. Their simultaneous impact enables the reader to establish bodily-mimetic relationships with the narrative, which characterize his/her experience when interacting with this type of narratives. At the same time, the specificity of this type of narratives becomes the predominance of the virtual over the actual: and in this case, the virtual, slowing down the narrative speed, paradoxically forms a high-speed experience for the reader.