151 research outputs found

    Jane Austen's pride and prejudice in cyberspace: charting the worldmaking practices of online fandom

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    In this paper, I posit that narrative theories on storyworlds, and particularly on fictional situations, can help us chart the worldmaking practices that shape online fan fiction - that is, the ways in which fan writers use narrative resources to evoke storyworlds. I illustrate this with a discussion of immersion in fan fiction. First, fictional situations are examined through the lens of immersion theory, and redefined as mental constructs that result from the interaction between text and reader. In light of this, fan writing can be reinterpreted as a form of worldmaking. Worldmaking practices are very difficult to chart, however, because fan fiction is radically intertextual, transmedial, and (inter)subjective. A fan writer’s idea of the source world may be based on a whole range of texts, just as readers may rely on a wide range of texts when they work to comprehend a fan fiction text. The communication between fan readers and writers does not break down, however, because fans share a basic idea of the fictional universe. I argue that this is also true for ‘narrative frames,’ or the remembered counterparts of fictional situations. This is supported by Umberto Eco’s work on intertextuality, and Lisbeth Klastrup and Susana Tosca’s research into transmedia storytelling. Finally, I demonstrate one use of the narrative frame concept in a small case study about emotional immersion, for which I will analyse Wendi’s ‘A Lesson Hard Learned.

    Transmedial Museum Experiences: the case of Moesgaard

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    La intenció d'aquest article és dilucidar l'incert estat ontològic de l'experiència museística transmèdia, que defineixo com la trobada estètica d'un usuari amb aquest objecte complex que és la conjunció d'un artefacte històric, una etiqueta informativa i unes històries fictícies en diferents plataformes de mitjans. Combino el mapatge teòric del concepte d'experiència museística transmèdia amb un estudi de casos de tres exposicions transmèdia presentades al museu Moesgaard d'Aarhus, Dinamarca

    Doctor Doom: The Fragmented Supervillain

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    This paper will demonstrate how a unified catalogue of transmedia character components can be used to chart the fragmentation of a fictional character over time and media, taking Doctor Doom as an example. The unified catalogue of transmedia character components was developed as part of a PhD thesis on early transmedia characters, and draws upon the works of Pearson and Uricchio, Klastrup and Tosca, Marie-Laurie Ryan, Paolo Bertetti, Jan-Noel Thon and Matthew Freeman, as well as other conceptualisations from the fields of psychology and film studies. From these sources it identifies thirteen separate components, or dimensions, of fictional characters, which can be placed into four groupings related to the character themselves, their world, their behaviour within that world, and the authors responsible for the creation of their stories. Examining characters using these dimensions provides a practical method for analysing fictional characters and providing empirical evidence of how they change over different texts, time periods, media or nationalities. This will be demonstrated by analysing a selection of appearances by Doctor Doom in different media - including comics, cartoons, games and movies - from his first appearance in Fantastic Four #5 in 1963 up to the present day

    Transmedia Worldbuilding and Mashup Mythology in Penny Dreadful

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    By focusing on the merged and interfigural nature of the characters and mythology in the Penny Dreadful transmedia world, this article seeks to demonstrate that transmedia characters are essential to transmedia worlds; they are anchors from which plots and mythology develop and expand. This is contrary to what is proposed by, for instance, Susana Tosca and Lisbeth Klastrup in earlier versions of their transmedial world theory, where character in their own formulation were “subsumed under the category of mythos” (Tosca & Klastrup 2020, 37). Instead, this article argues for the opposite scenario, that the construction of mythology in Penny Dreadful’s transmedia world is intricately tied to specific mythic plot structures, defining character conflicts, character narrators, and to serialized character development as well as character elaboration across media

    Real game worlds: the emotional reality of fictional worlds.

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    There are two ways to understand play: one is to observe it, the other is to participate in it. Since 2001, game studies has promoted participation as one of the main requirements to understand play. Some play is so performative that while it can be observed, it also must be played. Game worlds, the worlds of online, multi-user games, are delicate constructs of make-believe and technology, which act as support and arenas for immersive, theatrical and/or competitive play. This is a discussion of how far virtual ethnography can take the researcher in understanding game worlds. To explore this, this article will address play, game worlds and transmediality, as well as discuss methods. I will look to Lisbeth Klastrup and Susana Tosca to discuss story worlds, as well as to discussions led by Celia Pearce, Tom Boellstorff and T. L. Taylor (among others) to discuss ethnography in games and virtual ethnographiesThere are two ways to understand play: one is to observe it, the other is to participate in it. Since 2001, game studies has promoted participation as one of the main requirements to understand play. Some play is so performative that while it can be observed, it also must be played. Game worlds, the worlds of online, multi-user games, are delicate constructs of make-believe and technology, which act as support and arenas for immersive, theatrical and/or competitive play. This is a discussion of how far virtual ethnography can take the researcher in understanding game worlds. To explore this, this article will address play, game worlds and transmediality, as well as discuss methods. I will look to Lisbeth Klastrup and Susana Tosca to discuss story worlds, as well as to discussions led by Celia Pearce, Tom Boellstorff and T. L. Taylor (among others) to discuss ethnography in games and virtual ethnographies

    The “Ontological Fibrillation” of Transmedia Storyworlds. Paratexts, Cyberworlds and Augmented Reality

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    In this study we shall be trying to examine in more depth the relationships between the processes of trans-medial world-building and their “ontological fibrillation” via the affordances of recent digital technology. The analysis will be concentrating on the contribution from Augmented Reality in the ontological materialization of The Walking Dead transmedia storyworld. To this end, the dual configuration of a narrative continuum and an attractive-interactive materialization of the make-believe will be taken into consideration. This assumption will be backed up by our endeavouring to update the conceptual contributions of narratological categories, such as para-textuality, and medial categories, such as cyberworlds and the social media; the trend towards materialization of storyworlds, following in the tracks of a historical-archaeological perspective of pre-digital transmediality will be traced with reference to several scholars within transmedia studies

    The Networked Reception of Transmedial Universes – an Experience-Centered Approach

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    Building upon ten years of empirical work, this paper reflects on how to study increasingly complex user engagement with transmedial worlds. We examine our own analytical evolution from an initial aesthetic orientation to our current effort to incorporate the user´s own perspective through qualitative and quantitative studies. We argue that mapping user experience requires a sophisticated and holistic analytical approach - particularly, due to the popularity of social media platforms. We conclude the article by developing the concept of "networked reception" to characterize new kinds of transmedial world experience afforded by social media, which allow users to distribute and communicate not only the content of media texts but also their own experience and reception of transmedial world “texts”
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