Storyworlds: media-conscious

narratives

Carles Hidalgo Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Ferry Ploegerstraat 15 Faculty of Arts
1063AT Amsterdam Comparative Arts and Media Studies
TeL: 063366246 Transmedia Storytelling
Student number: 2625590 Dr. J.I.L. Veugen
E-mail address: c.hidalgogomez@vu.nl
carleshidalgo90@gmail.com 3 November 2017
Table of contents

Introduction 1

Transmedia Narratology and Transmedia Stortytelling 2

Narratives vs. Storyworlds 3

Building Storyworlds 3

Storyworlds and narrative complexity 4

Core findings 6

Bibliography 7
Abstract

The proliferation of the Transmedia Storytelling phenomena has raised many

difficulties in finding an appropriate narratological approach. Differentiating narratives
from storyworlds can help us enlighten this issue. In doing so, we will be able to define
storyworlds and follow their path embodied in a transmedia storytelling process.
The theoretical framework used in this essay will be mostly a media-conscious
narratology perspective designed by the literary scholar Marie-Laurie Ryan. To
accompany my argumentation, I will refer to different North-American media examples
of transmedia storytelling.

Key words

Media-conscious narratology, narrative, storyworld, transmedia storytelling, adaptation,

transfictionality, complex narrative.
Introduction

We find narratives in every single medium out there. Watching a movie, looking at a
series of photographs, reading a novel, playing a videogame, are just some of the
examples in which we acknowledge this ubiquity that characterizes narratives. What if
we consider a narrative that includes different media as recipients? First of all, we need
to bear in mind that we are living in a world of media convergence, as the American
media analyst Henry Jenkins points out, a period in which multiple media systems
coexist and where media content flows fluidly across them. 1 This is not to be
understood as a fixed relationship, but as an ongoing process. Second, media content
often implies narrative, and thus narratives can get enclosed in a process of what
Jenkins calls Transmedia Storytelling. We should consider his most often quoted
definition:

Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction

get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of
creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium
makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. 2

This sort of narrative will become the object of this essays research. I have used the
term narrative as a trick, since a more appropriate term to denominate a narrative in
a transmedia storytelling context would be storyworld. My main interest here will
revolve around this very idea of distinguishing narratives from storyworlds. For this
reason, the first two parts of this essay will closely follow this issue. In order to do so,
I will mostly use literary scholar Marie-Laurie Ryans approach on media-consious
narratology and Henry Jenkins ideas of Transmedia Storytelling, considering the
latter as a medium. The last two chapters could be understood as a way to dissect
possible storyworlds. The first draws attention from their departure points, discussing
terms such as adaptation or transfictionality, and the second relates to how
storyworlds can develop into complex narratives, adhering to media scholar Jason
Mittels theories on this issue.
A leading question arises: which elements problematize the distinction between
narratives and storyworlds in a Transmedia Storytelling phenomenon, and how can

1
Jenkins 2006, p. 282.
2
Jenkins 2007, n.p.
1
detecting them help us understand the world building process?

Transmedia Narratology and Transmedia Stortytelling

The study of narrative constitutes what we understand as Narratology. This field is

normally associated with written and oral language, considering language as the most
ancient and powerful recipient of narrative creation. In the last few decades, a new
field of study has emerged known as Transmedia Narratology, which tries to study
the enormous stream of non-verbal and non-written forms of narration.
Numerous scholars such as Marie-Laurie Ryan have devoted their work to
understanding the way in which Narratology should apply its approaches and
incorporate a media conscious perspective. She postulates that in order to fully
understand narratives across media, we need to be aware of the fact that the choice
of the medium makes a difference as to what stories can be told, how they are told,
and why they are told. By shaping narrative, media shape nothing less than human
experience. 3
What about transmedia storytelling itself, then? One narrative is
expanded across multiple delivery channels with the aim of creating an immersive
entertainment experience. The main problem for a narratologist would be to discuss
the notion of medium and its essential need with regards to transmedia storytelling.
Ryan, concerning this problem, provides us with a possible definition of medium in
relation to transmedia storytelling:

if by using documents belonging to various media it is possible to create experiences

that cannot be achieved with a single medium, then transmedia could very well be
regarded as a novel means of expression and, thereby, as a medium in its own right. 4

We need to be aware that the transmedia storytelling model we are dealing with here
is what Brian Clark, an East Coast developer, proposed as the West Coast model in an
open discussion on Facebook.5 This is a commercial-franchise based way of transmedia
storytelling. This Hollywood approach deals with examples such as STAR WARS, THE LORD
OF THE RINGS, HARRY POTTER and THE MATRIX. This extensive model (too long for a normal
narratologists approach) is what most theorists such as Jenkins would consider as

3
Ryan 2013, p. 25.
4
Ryan 2016, p. 8.
5
Clark 2011, n.p.

2
real, top-up distribution across media.

Narratives vs. Storyworlds

The core element of this Transmedia Storytelling model is the story, or more
commonly known as a storyworld. Lisbeth Klastrup and Susana Tosca, scholars in
Computer Game Resarch at the University of Copenhagen, started using the term
Transmedial worlds as abstract content systems from which a repertoire of fictional
stories and characters can be actualized or derived across a variety of media forms.6
For them, all storyworlds should share a mental idea of worldness, these are features
that characterize a given universe. Unfortunately, this definition is not enough to
distinguish between a narrative and a storyworld. However, it serves as a starting
point.
The media scholar Jan-Nol Thon dedicates a chapter of his book, Transmedial
Narratology and Contemporary Media Culture, discussing this issue. I will try here to
summarize his findings, since I believe they are relevant in relation to what is being
discussed in this essay. He distinguishes three different points that separate
storyworlds from narratives (or narrative representations, as he calls them): first, while
narratives depend on their distinct media recipient, the concept of storyworld can be
considered transmedial; second, storyworlds are always incomplete, using their world
knowledge to fill the gaps by means of the aspects that are represented implicitly;
and third and last, storyworlds consist not only of existents, events and characters but
also of spatial, temporal and causal relations betweem them. These are essential to
understanding the concept of a global storyworld.7

Building Storyworlds

One of the possible departure points of a storyworld is adaptation. Since the

introduction of transmedia storytelling, it has been harder to identify whether a text is
an adaptation or whether it is a media text in a transmedia storytelling context.
However, it is clear that transmedia storytelling and adaptation are two different
phenomena as most scholars point out. As the scholar and creative projects director
Christy Dena points out in her PhD dissertation, adaptations are redundant. In this

6
Klastrup Tosca 2004. n.p.
7
Thon 2016, p.46.
3
sense, any repeating of a story adds no value to the experience or meaning-making
process. 8 Therefore, any mere adaptation lacks distinction from its primary source.
We could think of the Bible, the Greek mythology, the abundant adaptations of Jane
Austens novels, even the incredibly large number of biopics in the film industry that
use biographies or autobiographies as a primary source.
We should not exclude retellings of the same material in different media from
transmedia storyworlds, as Ryan points out, retellings are the backbone of
transmedia, and audiences love them because they enable people to relive stories and
revisit their world in a different way.9 We could think about THE LORD OF THE RINGS or
HARRY POTTER and make a distinction between them and a simple adaptation, such as
one SENSE AND SENSIBILITY movie or TV production. Transmedia Storytelling franchises,
such as the ones that draw Jenkins attention will present lots of overlap between
documents, but all these overlaps will move in a similar direction; what Richard Saint-
Gelais, a literary scholar, calls transfictionality. This is a concept that crosses
historical periods as well as boundaries between national literatures or literary genres,
it affects literature as well as other media (film, television, comics, etc.), and it
penetrates mainstream or experimental literature as well as popular culture. 10

Storyworlds in Transmedia Storytelling, in this sense, could be categorized as

transfictional. They function following an operation of extension, always respecting the
facts given in the original text (by Jenkins, the Mother Ship). Once again, Ryan thinks
that a storyworld remains constant because it functions as the container that keeps
the various stories and their media together.11

Storyworlds and narrative complexity

A great example of storyworlds in action, within transmedia storytelling processes

would be numerous current American TV Series. One feature that characterizes them
would be what media scholar Jason Mittel calls narrative complexity:

narrative complexity is a redefinition of episodic forms under the in influence of serial

narrationnot necessarily a complete merger of episodic and serial forms but a shifting
balance. Rejecting the need for plot closure within every episode that typifies

8
Dena 2009, p. 146.
9
Ryan 2016, p. 4.
10
Ryan 2008, p. 386.
11
Ryan 2016, p. 5.
4
 conventional episodic form, narrative complexity foregrounds ongoing stories across a
range of genres.12

In this regard, storyworlds in American TV embrace the notion of expansion and

incompleteness with the aim of immersing us in a universe that will often create a fan
cult. Mittel makes distinctions between two different complex narratives. The first
would respond to the question What is?; transmedia seeks to extend the action
canonically, explaining the universe with coordinated precision and hopefully
expanding viewers understanding and appreciation of the storyworld13. He associates
this theory with the TV Series LOST, which would be a great example of Jenkins ideal
storyworld in a transmedia storytelling process. The second kind responds to What
if?, and differs from the former in how transmedia poses hypothetical possibilities
rather than canonical certainties, imagining viewers to imagine alternative stories14,
which he wants to link with a TV Series such as BREAKING BAD. What draws my
attention in this distinction is the fact that the first approach normally is embodied in
genres such as Science Fiction or Fantasy, whereas the second responds to more
realistic TV series.
Possible-worlds theory is based in this very fact. In the book Star Trek and
American Television written by Roberta Pearson and Mire Messenger Davies, the
authors discern between the way in which world building depends on its genre:
Possible worlds easily accessible from the actual world tend to be more realist in
nature, whereas those less easily accessible tend to be more fantastic.15 Accordingly,
this distinction also responds to Mittels two approaches. On one hand, in a telefantasy
TV Series alternate possible worlds can arise from numerous factors alien
intervention, rogu technology, time travel () and so on.16 On the other hand, in a
more realistic TV Series possible worlds can relate mostly to some alteration of a
characters consciousness (dreams, intoxication, hallucinations).17
As a final remark, it is interesting to consider the strange specimen THE
LEFTOVERS, created by Tom Perrotta and Damon Lindelof for HBO, the latter also being
a producer of LOST. In this TV Series, both approaches can be disseminated. The

12
Mittel 2006, p.32.
13 Mittel 2013, p. 273
14 Idem.
15 Pearson and Messenger 2014, p. 82.
16 Ibid., p. 83
17 Idem.
5
storyworld follows the life of different characters right after the inexplicable
disappearance of 2% of the worlds population. Following this event, main religions
declined, giving room to numerous new cults to emerge. In a sense, the storyworld is
based in our actual world, but at the same time fantasy and inexplicable events
develop making the viewer confused. The developing of the storyworld constantly tries
to play with this binary opposition. What is? and What if? play a constant dialog in
the development of the storyworld, but it is almost impossible to respond to any of
them. On the official series fan website, we can read: The more of this story that
unfolds, the further we seem to venture into uncharted territory. 18 Assuming that
there is nothing like this TV Series would be a bit hyperbolic, but its uniqueness makes
it hard to categorize.

Conclusion

To conclude, an attempt to summarize my findings is provided: first, Transmedia

narratology is the study of transmedia storytelling, but the size of most common
commercial franchises and the use of distinct media problematize most narratological
approaches. The most legitimate would be Ryans media conscious narratology. Ryan
finds it more appropriate to denominate the transmedia storytelling process as a
medium per se. Following this approach, storyworld would be a better term to
denominate a narrative embodied in different media at the same time. Second, A
combination of adaptation and transfictionality proves how transmedia storytelling has
its roots in the past. The first should not exclude the second. Third, some storyworlds
have developed in the last decades into complex narrative processes. Making
distinctions in the genre they belong to (whether fantasy or more realistic) would help
to unfold complexity. However, recent examples prove that there is a proliferation of
products in which an overlapping of genres prevents us from finding a distinction.
This paper should serve as a survey that provides sufficient theoretical
framework if you intend to understand transmedia storytelling from a media-conscious,
narratologic point of view, trying to liberate transmedia storytelling from issues
concerning more commercial-industry related issues. It has the aim to open new
possibilities of study, never considering the ones here as definitive.

18 Bucher 2015, n.p.

6
Bibliography

Primary sources

THE LEFTOVERS,
Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta (directors, creators), 2014, 29
June 2014, HBO.

Secondary sources

Bucher, J., 10 Reasons Season 3 is Needed (15 December 2015), w.p.

Retrieved 3 November 2017 from
http://www.watchingtheleftovers.com/blog/2015/12/14/10-reasons-
season-3-is-needed/

Clark, B., Reclaiming Transmedia Storyteller (2 May 2011), [Facebook post]

Retrieved 3 November 2017 from
https://www.facebook.com/notes/brian-clark/reclaiming-transmedia-
storyteller/10150246236508993/

Dena, C., Transmedia Practice: Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional

World across Distinct Media and Environments, Sidney (Unpublished PhD
dissertation) 2009.

Jenkins, H., Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York
and London (New York University Press) 2006.

Klastrup, L., & Tosca, S., Transmedial Worlds - Rethinking Cyberworld Design.
Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Cyberworlds (2004)
Retrieved 3 November 2017 from
http://www.itu.dk/people/klastrup/klastruptosca_transworlds.pdf

Mittel, J., Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television. The

Velvet Light Trap, 58 (Fall), 2006, pp. 29-40.

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Mittel, J., Strategies of Storytelling on Transmedia Television In M.-L. Ryan, &
J.- N. Thon (Eds.), Storyworlds across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious
Narratology, Lincoln and London (University of Nebraska Press) 2004,
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Pearson, R., Davies, M. M., Star Trek and American Television, Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London (University of California Press) 2014.

Ryan, M.-L., Narratologia transmdia i transmedia storytelling. Artnodes (2016)

18, <http://doi.org/10.7238/a.v0i18.3049>

Ryan, M.-L., Story/Worlds/Media: Tuning the Instruments of a Media-Conscious

Narratology. In M.-L. Ryan, & J.-N. Thon (Eds.), Storyworlds across
Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology, Lincoln and London
(University of Nebraska Press) 2013, pp. 25-49.

Ryan, M.-L., Transfictionality Across Media. In J. Pier & J. A. Garca Landa

(Eds.), Theorizing Narrativity, Berlin (De Gruyter) 2008, pp. 384-419.

Thon, J.-N., Transmedial Narratology and Contemporary Media Culture, Lincoln

and London (University of Nebraska Press) 2016.