The Contemporary Fruition of Literature between Media Representation and Transmediation: A Comparative Analysis in the Anglophone Context

Abstract

The materiality of the text (Hayles 2001) in contemporary literature is becoming increasingly complex, partly reflecting both the ‘pervasiveness’ and the ‘instantaneousness’ of digital culture. The form of the contemporary novel, especially in its experimental patterns, is gaining ‘concrete’ and ‘multimodal’ traits (McHale 1987, Hallett 2009, Bray & Gibbons 2012) that display further paratextual affordances in literary texts. Using Elleström’s theoretical framework, the aim of this contribution is not only to analyse the ways in which digital culture is represented on the printed page enacting different media relations, but also to highlight the effects of the digitisation of an experimental book in paper form. Moreover, the use of digital tools can enable multimodal literary experiences in which the page of a book and the screen of a mobile phone are combined to both create and join the narrative. In this presentation, I particularly refer to Rebecca Watson’s Little Scratch, Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Fifty Year Sword enhanced e-book and the Wonderland Cross-Media Escape Room I designed in 2021. In the latter case, I used augmented reality technologies in a mixed environment that features both analog and digital elements, transmediating Carroll’s storyworlds (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass). Since different media characteristics also affect the way in which readers get involved in the process of storytelling, Elleström’s media modalities are crucial for this analysis (2010, 2020, 2021).