The Materiality of Narrative Dynamics

The dynamic nature of storytelling has long been one of the major concerns of narrative research, but relatively little scholarship has engaged with the relationship between storytelling dynamics and the underlying material forms of cultural texts. This volume seeks to remedy this by asking questions such as: How might the affordances of new media guide audience reception in subtle ways? How might the dynamism of legacy media be better recognized when examined through a multimedial lens? How do the physical processes of production define the horizons of both authorial activity and audience response?

The insight that drives these investigations is two-fold: first, that functions and effects of narratives are deeply intertwined with material forces of production, distribution, and reception; and second, that an analysis of any specific narrative must include attention to these material matters and how they affect the unfolding of stories over time.

The chapters in this collection explore interplays between material forces and narrative dynamics across a range of genres and intellectual arenas. In doing so, they both fill gaps in current methodological frameworks and call attention to the many gaps that are yet to be filled.

Stefan Iversen, Aarhus University, Denmark; Evan Van Tassell, Independent Scholar, Columbus OH, USA.