The New Fiction Technologies: Interactivity, Agency and Digital Narratology

The Internet has fundamentally altered our perceptions of narrative and its core components, including authorship, setting, characterization, reader reception and more. With new trends, tropes and conventions emerging at the speed of cyberspace, digital media like web comics, video games and fan fiction have become laboratories for experimentation on the boundaries of contemporary storytelling.

While web comics, video games and fan fiction have received much scholarly study, this book focuses on the common ground they share, and how their processes, motivations and evolution may be more similar than we think. These media are all regarded as unique genres of digital fiction, and this book aims to bridge the gap between them. Understanding these phenomena as expressions of the same principles could be crucial to understanding the future of narrative storytelling.

Shawn Edrei, a teacher at Tel-Aviv University, is a researcher of digital narratology, exploring how new technologies change our perspectives on storytelling and authorship. An avid gamer and observer of online fandom dynamics he has written many essays and chapters on subjects ranging from superhero fiction to contemporary detective stories to interactive transmedia.