New Narratives

`

New Narratives

Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age

Edited by Ruth Page and Bronwen Thomas

Frontiers of Narrative Series

296 pages
25 illustrations, 5 tables, 1 glossary

Paperback

December 2011

978-0-8032-1786-7

$40.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

December 2011

978-0-8032-3836-7

$40.00 Add to Cart
about author bio praise table of contents media awards

About the Book

Just as the explosive growth of digital media has led to ever-expanding narrative possibilities and practices, so these new electronic modes of storytelling have, in their own turn, demanded a rapid and radical rethinking of narrative theory. This timely volume takes up the challenge, deeply and broadly considering the relationship between digital technology and narrative theory in the face of the changing landscape of computer-mediated communication.

New Narratives reflects the diversity of its subject by bringing together some of the foremost practitioners and theorists of digital narratives. It extends the range of digital subgenres examined by narrative theorists to include forms that have become increasingly prominent, new examples of experimental hypertext, and contemporary video games. The collection also explicitly draws connections between the development of narrative theory, technological innovation, and the use of narratives in particular social and cultural contexts.

Finally, New Narratives focuses on how the tools provided by new technologies may be harnessed to provide new ways of both producing and theorizing narrative. Truly interdisciplinary, the book offers broad coverage of contemporary narrative theory, including frameworks that draw from classical and postclassical narratology, linguistics, and media studies.

Author Bio

Ruth Page is a lecturer in English language at the University of Leicester. She is the author of Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology and Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction. Bronwen Thomas is a senior lecturer in linguistics and literature at the Media School, Bournemouth University, and is the author of Fictional Dialogue: Speech and Conversation in the Modern and Postmodern Novel (forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press).
 
Contributors include Alice Bell, Paul Cobley, Astrid Ensslin, Brian Greenspan, Nick Haeffner, David Herman, Michael Joyce, Heather Diane Lotherington, Nick Montfort, James Newman, Daniel Punday, Scott Rettberg, Marie-Laure Ryan, Andrew Salway, and Iain Simons.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations  

List of Tables   

Introduction     

      Ruth Page and Bronwen Thomas

Part 1. New Foundations

1. From Synesthesia to Multimedia: How to Talk about New Media Narrative     

      Daniel Punday

2. The Interactive Onion: Layers of User Participation in Digital Narrative Texts  

      Marie-Laure Ryan

3. Ontological Boundaries and Methodological Leaps: The Importance of Possible Worlds Theory for Hypertext Fiction (and Beyond)  

      Alice Bell

4. Seeing through the Blue Nowhere: On Narrative Transparency and New Media

      Michael Joyce

Part 2. New Architectures

5. Curveship: An Interactive Fiction System for Narrative Variation    

      Nick Montfort

6. Digitized Corpora as Theory-Building Resource: New Methods for Narrative Inquiry

      Andrew Salway and David Herman

7. From (W)reader to Breather: Cybertextual De-intentionalization and Kate Pullinger's Breathing Wall   

      Astrid Ensslin

8. Songlines in the Streets: Story Mapping with Itinerant Hypernarrative     

      Brian Greenspan

9. Narrative Supplements: DVD and the Idea of the "Text"

      Paul Cobley and Nick Haeffner

Part 3. New Practices

10. All Together Now: Hypertext, Collective Narratives, and Online Collective Knowledge Communities   

      Scott Rettberg

11. "Update Soon!" Harry Potter Fanfiction and Narrative as a Participatory Process  

      Bronwen Thomas

12. Blogging on the Body: Gender and Narrative 

      Ruth Page

13. Using the Force: LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game, Intertextuality, Narrative, and Play     

      James Newman and Iain Simons

14. Digital Narratives, Cultural Inclusion, and Educational Possibility: Going New Places with Old Stories in Elementary School     

      Heather Lotherington

Glossary

Contributors

Also of Interest

Fictional Dialogue

Bronwen Thomas

Narrative across Media

Edited by Marie-Laure Ryan

Narrative across Media

Edited by Marie-Laure Ryan

Story Logic

David Herman

Story Logic

David Herman

Handbook of Narrative Analysis

Written and translated by Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck

Handbook of Narrative Analysis

Written and translated by Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck

The Imagined Moment

Inderjeet Mani