230371 Internet - Storyteller of the Digital Age (S) (WiSe 2015/2016)

In the preface to their 2010 book Intermediality and Storytelling, Marina Grishakova and Marie-Laure Ryan point to the difficulty of coming to terms with the “terminological fuzziness” that has penetrated recent media-oriented studies of narrative (3):

“While the concept of medium has become very prominent in narratology, there are so many candidates available to the relations between narrative and media that terminology has become a true nightmare: what, if any, are the differences between transmediality, intermediality, plurimediality, and multi-mediality (not to mention multimodality)?” (ibid)

Shortly introducing the mentioned concepts and their approaches to the new media narrative in literary studies, this seminar is dedicated to the investigation of new/broadened/different narrative genres on the Internet. Who are the ‘Internet’s New Storytellers’ and how do they narrate their stories? It is particularly important to critically question the actual ‘newness’ of New Media and the incorporation, combination, or transfer of ‘old’ media in/to digital form as a means for storytelling. On the other hand, this seminar also treats new (narrative) developments as a challenge to seemingly ‘old’ concepts in the field.
Analyzing narrative genres on the Internet, and practically interpreting samples of storytelling on YouTube, the genre of Digital Storytelling, as well as storytelling on weblogs or social media such as FaceBook, this class intends to offer students the opportunity to think outside the box when it comes to narrative in literary studies and critically apply their theoretical understanding of narrative to newer formats.

Works Cited:
Grishakova, Marina, and Marie-Laure Ryan. “Editors’ preface.” Intermediality and Storytelling. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010. 1-7.

Requirements for participation, required level

I strongly advise students to complete at least one of the "Analyzing and Interpreting" - classes in BM2.

Bibliography

All material will be online and announced in the first session.