New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age(Frontiers of Narrative)

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.

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

About the Author :
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.