‘I felt like I’d stepped out of a different reality’: possible worlds theory, metalepsis and digital fiction

This chapter offers a possible worlds theory (e.g. Ryan 1991, Bell 2010) approach to metalepsis and, through its application to digital fiction in particular, shows how possible worlds theory can offer as a transmedial approach (Ryan 2005) to this ontologically transgressive fictional device (cf. Bell and Alber 2012). In narrative theory, a metalepsis refers to a point in a text when an entity appears to move between narrative levels such as when a character talks to the narrator of the text s/he is in or when an author becomes a character in the novel s/he is writing (Genette 1980, Fludernik 2003). This chapter argues that conceptualising metalepses as transgressions between worlds as opposed to the more abstract concept of diegetic levels more accurately accounts for what readers are asked to imagine happens when they encounter a metalepsis. It then shows how Possible Worlds Theory - and the concepts of counterparthood and transworld identity in particular - provides a systematic and replicable means of conceptualising and analyzing metalepsis. By combining the Possible-Worlds approach with the stylistic and multimodal analyses of Campbell and Alston's (2010) digital fiction Nightingale's Playground the chapter show how metalepses occur, not just through verbal language as is common in print texts, but also through non-textual elements such as sound, images and interactive interface elements. Further, it shows that digital fiction allows metalepses to take place across the actual-fictional world boundary so as to insert the reader within the fiction in a way that is simply not possible in print. The chapter concludes that possible worlds theory is able to model metalepses more accurately than other theories of narrative that do not have an ontological focus and also that the approach can facilitate both a transmedial and media-specific analysis of metalepses

Interactional Metalepsis and Unnatural Narratology

This article argues that interactional metalepsis is a device that is inherently built into ergodic digital fiction and thus that ergodic digital fiction is necessarily unnatural. Offering a definition and associated typology of interactional metalepsis as it occurs in digital fiction, it explores the ways in which these media-specific and unnatural forms of metalepsis manifest in that medium. It defines interactional metalepsis as a form of metalepsis which takes place across the actual to storyworld boundary and that exploits the interactive nature of digital technology via the hardware through which the reader accesses the text, such as the mouse, keyboard, or other navigational devices, and/or via media-specific interactive modes of expression such as hyperlinks or avatars. It argues that because interactional metalepses are inherently unnatural both in terms of physically and logical impossibility and also because interactional metalepsis is a device that is intrinsically built into ergodic digital fiction, digital fictions are inherently unnatural. Exploring the ways in which these media-specific and unnatural forms of metalepsis manifest in digital fiction, I offer a typology of interactional metalepsis which incorporates the following: metaleptic navigational devices, metaleptic hyperlinks, metaleptic webcams, and metaleptic breath. The article shows that digital fiction allows unnatural narrative to manifest in ways that must be analyzed media-specifically and therefore according to the affordances of a particular medium. I argue further that different forms of metalepsis are likely to be conventionalized by readers of digital fiction to varying degrees which depend upon the wider digital, cultural context to which they belong and also that, unlike most metalepses in print which are typically defamiliarizing, some forms of interactional metalepsis can have the opposite, immersive effect. This article shows that some of the theoretical underpinnings of unnatural narrative need to be reconsidered in light of the unnatural’s manifestation in digital fiction. It thus contributes to the development of unnatural narratology as a transmedial approach

Fifth survey of parents of three and four year old children and their use of early years services (Summer 2000 to Spring 2001)

The main aim of the survey was to establish rates of participation for three and four year olds in all forms of pre-school provision in England... The survey also investigated the characteristics of providers used and parents’ opinions of the quantity and quality of provision in the local area in general as well as of the providers they used, and the influences on their choice of providers

"Click = Kill": textual you in ludic digital fiction

This article offers a close-reading of geniwate's and Deena Larsen’s satirical, ludic Flash fiction The Princess Murderer, with a specific focus on how the text implements second person narration and other forms of the textual "you" in juxtaposition with other narrational stances. We aim to explore the extent to which print-based narratological theories of the textual you apply to the text under investigation, and to outline new directions for research arising from the text's distinct (inter-)medial, literary/reflexive, and ludic qualities. Of particular interest will be the ways in which the reader and his/her role in the cybernetic feedback loop are constructed textually and interactionally. Specifically, we argue that current approaches to the "you" in digital fiction need to be expanded, particularly with respect to its metafictional potential

Introduction: Possible Worlds Theory Revisited

This volume systematically outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the possible worlds approach, provides updated methods for analyzing fictional narrative, and profiles those methods via the analysis of a range of different texts, ..

Science as pantomime : explorations in contemporary children's non-fiction books

Imperial Users onl