Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent literary scholar and critic. She has written several books and articles on

narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical li ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

, and

cyberculture Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...

and has been awarded several times for her work. She attended the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...

to study literature as an undergraduate, before moving to the United States in 1968. attending graduate school at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, where she received her M.A. in

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, alongside a Ph.D in French. She later obtained a Bachelor's degree in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

from the

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

. She has worked as a consultant and software engineer and has published over fifty articles, translated into several languages and dedicated, in particular, to the concept of digital narrative, narrative theory, genre theory, linguistic approaches to literature, and digital culture and given numerous invited lectures. In ''Avatars of Story'', she embraces a transmedial definition of narrative based on cognitive premises. She currently resides in

Bellvue, Colorado Bellvue is an unincorporated community and U.S. Post Office in Larimer County, Colorado. It is a small agricultural community located in Pleasant Valley, a narrow valley just northwest of Fort Collins near the mouth of the Poudre Canyon between ...

where she worked as a Scholar in Residence at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

from 2009 to 2010 before working as a Gutenberg Fellow at

Johannes Gutenberg University The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public university, public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approx ...

, from 2010 to 2011. She edited the ''Johns Hopkins Guide to New Media and Digital Textuality'' with

Lori Emerson Lori Emerson is an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and founder of the Media Archaeology Lab, a museum dedicated to obsolete technologies spanning from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. She is kn ...

and Benjamin Robertson, which was published in 2014.

Awards

* Awarded the 1992 Annual Prize for Independent Scholars by the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

for Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Theory * Awarded the 2002 Jeanne and Aldo Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association for Narrative as Virtual Reality * 2001-2002 Recipient of

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Project: Literary Cartography * Awarded the 2017 Wayne Booth award for lifetime achievement by the International Society for the Study of Narrative

Bibliography

* ''Narrating Space, Spatializing Narrative. Where Narrative Theory and Geography Meet'' (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-8142-1299-8) * ''Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, series Parallax, 2015) * ''Avatars of Story.'' (University of Minnesota Press, series Electronic Mediations, 2006) * ''Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Theory.'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Marie-Laure 1946 births Living people American literary critics American women literary critics Swiss women literary critics 21st-century American women writers Swiss literary critics Swiss women writers Place of birth missing (living people) Video game researchers Women video game critics American women critics Swiss women critics American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Electronic literature critics