Narrativity in User Action: Emotion and Temporal Configurations of Narrative

One of the core problems in Narrative Intelligence is maintaining the narrative nature of event sequences that emerge owing to user participation. This paper challenges the common premises and assumptions about the nature of human action and experience that underlie common approaches to finding a solution to the problem of narrative structuration. An in-depth analysis of the temporality of human action and experience provides important indicators on how the problem can be approached. It is argued that user emotion is not just a by-product of narrative structure, but a critical factor in maintaining narrativity. Finally, it is indicated as to how patterning of emotions can regulate user action and the creation of a subjective experience.