Deconstructing Austen Cybertexts: How Pride and Prejudice became The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (hereafter referred to as LBD) debuted on YouTube in April 2012 with a video featuring a twenty - four - year - old Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet speaking directly to the camera (‘My Name is Lizzie Bennet - Ep. 1’, 2012). That video marked the beginning of Lizzie’s year - long story, which re - imagined and re - worked Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice , by distributing the narrative across multiple media platforms. Originally released as a serial narrative from April 2012 to March 2013, Lizzie’s story started with that first YouTube video before expanding to include four additional video channels (belonging to some of the narrative’s secondary characters), thirteen interconnected Twitter feeds, several Tumblr blogs, Facebook profiles, and numerous interactions betwe en characters on various social media networks. Initially developed for its Internet audience by Hank Green and Bernie Su, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries narrative as a whole was a collaborative effort by a team of writers and editors. Margaret Dunlap, Rachel K iley, Kate Rorick, and Anne Toole joined Su in scripting the YouTube videos, while Jay Bushman and Alexandra Edwards managed and edited LBD’s various social media accounts (‘Team’, 2017). In 2013, the LBD production team won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outs tanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Original Interactive Programme (‘65th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners’)

Deconstructing Austen Cybertexts: How Pride and Prejudice became The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (hereafter referred to as LBD) debuted on YouTube in April 2012 with a video featuring a twenty - four - year - old Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet speaking directly to the camera (‘My Name is Lizzie Bennet - Ep. 1’, 2012). That video marked the beginning of Lizzie’s year - long story, which re - imagined and re - worked Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice , by distributing the narrative across multiple media platforms. Originally released as a serial narrative from April 2012 to March 2013, Lizzie’s story started with that first YouTube video before expanding to include four additional video channels (belonging to some of the narrative’s secondary characters), thirteen interconnected Twitter feeds, several Tumblr blogs, Facebook profiles, and numerous interactions betwe en characters on various social media networks. Initially developed for its Internet audience by Hank Green and Bernie Su, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries narrative as a whole was a collaborative effort by a team of writers and editors. Margaret Dunlap, Rachel K iley, Kate Rorick, and Anne Toole joined Su in scripting the YouTube videos, while Jay Bushman and Alexandra Edwards managed and edited LBD’s various social media accounts (‘Team’, 2017). In 2013, the LBD production team won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outs tanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Original Interactive Programme (‘65th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners’)

“Lizzie’s Story Felt Like Home:” Meaning-Making and Narratively-Constructed Digital Intimacy in Literary Web Series

This thesis explores readers’ experiences with a genre of digital narratives known as literary (inspired) web series. These narratives present updated, digital retellings of classic literature from the Western canon and arise from the rapid development of the convergent media environment and the evolution of social media platforms. Literary web series draw on a variety of storytelling methods to create interactive, immersive, and emotionally resonant narrative experiences for readers. As hybrid media-literary artefacts, these narratives leverage the affordances of social media platforms to encourage reader participation and interaction, generate forms of narrative immersion to convey an authentic and realistic story, and capitalise on the literary resonance of their source texts to foster the development of an engaged community of readers. These methods of meaning-making help create intimate narrative experiences that provide readers with a significant and lasting connection to the text. Using the literary web series, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (LBD), as a case study, this thesis explores LBD’s use of the sociotechnical affordances of YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr; LBD’s creation of narrative immersion for its readers; and the literary resonance of LBD’s source material, Pride and Prejudice. Results from a mixed-methods online survey of LBD readers and follow-up semistructured interviews with select respondents reveal that readers’ experiences with LBD were deeply meaningful and contributed to readers feeling a sense of intimate connection with the narrative and other readers. Consequently, this thesis will propose that literary web series like LBD can help drive the formation of what I have labelled “narratively-constructed digital intimacy,” an affective feeling stemming from the methods of meaning-making in LBD as well as mediated and narrative intimacies, and para-social interactions. Subsequently, reader experiences of literary web series that include narratively-constructed digital intimacy can provide readers with a “a long-lasting and ineffable sense of significance” (Stockwell, 2009a)

New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium for the Humanities - Reflections, Volume 1

This volume features articles written by the postgraduate presenters at Maynooth University's first annual New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium on the Humanities (NPPSH), which took place in October 2016. This conference, which coincided with the annual Dean’s Lecture, strove to highlight scholarship conducted by postgraduates in the Arts & Humanities in Ireland. From explorations of 20th century literature, to contributions in Irish music, to the intersection of STEM and the Humanities, the articles in this volume showcase a breadth of scholarship and a diversity of approaches which highlights the multifaceted nature of an Arts & Humanities education

New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium for the Humanities - Reflections, Volume 1

This volume features articles written by the postgraduate presenters at Maynooth University's first annual New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium on the Humanities (NPPSH), which took place in October 2016. This conference, which coincided with the annual Dean’s Lecture, strove to highlight scholarship conducted by postgraduates in the Arts & Humanities in Ireland. From explorations of 20th century literature, to contributions in Irish music, to the intersection of STEM and the Humanities, the articles in this volume showcase a breadth of scholarship and a diversity of approaches which highlights the multifaceted nature of an Arts & Humanities education

European Survey on Scholarly Practices and Digital Needs in the Arts and Humanities

This report summarizes the statistical analysis of the findings of a web-based survey conducted by the Digital Methods and Practices Observatory (DiMPO), a working group under VCC2 of the DARIAH research infrastructure (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities). In order to provide an evidence-based, up-to-date, and meaningful account of the emerging information practices, needs and attitudes of arts and humanities researchers in the evolving European digital scholarly environment, the web survey involved a transnational team of researchers from more than a dozen countries, and addressed digitally-enabled research practices, attitudes and needs in all areas of Europe and across different arts and humanities disciplines and contexts

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Reader Survey Anonymised Data

A qualitative dataset compiled during fieldwork as part of a structured PhD programme

“Lizzie’s Story Felt Like Home:” Meaning-Making and Narratively-Constructed Digital Intimacy in Literary Web Series

This thesis explores readers’ experiences with a genre of digital narratives known as literary (inspired) web series. These narratives present updated, digital retellings of classic literature from the Western canon and arise from the rapid development of the convergent media environment and the evolution of social media platforms. Literary web series draw on a variety of storytelling methods to create interactive, immersive, and emotionally resonant narrative experiences for readers. As hybrid media-literary artefacts, these narratives leverage the affordances of social media platforms to encourage reader participation and interaction, generate forms of narrative immersion to convey an authentic and realistic story, and capitalise on the literary resonance of their source texts to foster the development of an engaged community of readers. These methods of meaning-making help create intimate narrative experiences that provide readers with a significant and lasting connection to the text. Using the literary web series, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (LBD), as a case study, this thesis explores LBD’s use of the sociotechnical affordances of YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr; LBD’s creation of narrative immersion for its readers; and the literary resonance of LBD’s source material, Pride and Prejudice. Results from a mixed-methods online survey of LBD readers and follow-up semistructured interviews with select respondents reveal that readers’ experiences with LBD were deeply meaningful and contributed to readers feeling a sense of intimate connection with the narrative and other readers. Consequently, this thesis will propose that literary web series like LBD can help drive the formation of what I have labelled “narratively-constructed digital intimacy,” an affective feeling stemming from the methods of meaning-making in LBD as well as mediated and narrative intimacies, and para-social interactions. Subsequently, reader experiences of literary web series that include narratively-constructed digital intimacy can provide readers with a “a long-lasting and ineffable sense of significance” (Stockwell, 2009a)

Deconstructing Austen Cybertexts: How Pride and Prejudice became The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (hereafter referred to as LBD) debuted on YouTube in April 2012 with a video featuring a twenty - four - year - old Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet speaking directly to the camera (‘My Name is Lizzie Bennet - Ep. 1’, 2012). That video marked the beginning of Lizzie’s year - long story, which re - imagined and re - worked Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice , by distributing the narrative across multiple media platforms. Originally released as a serial narrative from April 2012 to March 2013, Lizzie’s story started with that first YouTube video before expanding to include four additional video channels (belonging to some of the narrative’s secondary characters), thirteen interconnected Twitter feeds, several Tumblr blogs, Facebook profiles, and numerous interactions betwe en characters on various social media networks. Initially developed for its Internet audience by Hank Green and Bernie Su, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries narrative as a whole was a collaborative effort by a team of writers and editors. Margaret Dunlap, Rachel K iley, Kate Rorick, and Anne Toole joined Su in scripting the YouTube videos, while Jay Bushman and Alexandra Edwards managed and edited LBD’s various social media accounts (‘Team’, 2017). In 2013, the LBD production team won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outs tanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Original Interactive Programme (‘65th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners’)

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Reader Survey Anonymised Data

A qualitative dataset compiled during fieldwork as part of a structured PhD programme