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Scattered story

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A narrative distributed across non-contiguous sections or fragments

Detailed Definition
Scattered story refers to narrative elements distributed non-sequentially throughout a poem. Rather than linear plot development, story pieces appear in various locations, requiring readers to assemble meaning from dispersed fragments, creating effects of memory, multiple perspectives, or deliberate narrative complexity.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “Citizen,” Rankine’s scattered story weaves tennis, therapy, and street encounters into racial narrative; In “The Waste Land,” Eliot’s scattered story jumps from Thames to Thebes; Contemporary poet Ocean Vuong’s “Time Is a Mother” uses scattered story of grief across continents; Student exercise: poem linking childhood memory, news headline, and dream as scattered story; Another: fragmented family history told through objects.
Additional Notes
Narrative distributed across non-adjacent sections. Common in experimental and postmodern poetry. Requires reader to construct story from fragments.
Also Known As
Fragmented narrative Broken tale Dispersed story Interrupted narrative Distributed narrative
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