Transmedia Storytelling

This seminar will explore the changes in storytelling due to the present-day conglomeration of media resources. Henry Jenkins has coined the term -transmedia storytelling- in order to describe the dispersal of a story over several media enabled through this development. At the example of The Matrix he explains: -[I]n The Matrix franchise, key bits of information are conveyed through three live action films, a series of animated shorts, two collections of comic books and several video games. There is no one single source or ur-text where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend the Matrix universe.- Thus, the story unfolds to become a fictional universe into which the consumer can immerse the more deeply the more of the multimedia resources he consults. The story turns into an -encyclopaedic text- that requires an increasing activity on the side of the consumer in order to decipher it. While the role of the recipient thus becomes more active requiring increased media literacy, Jenkins even goes so far as to suggest that storytelling itself changes as storytellers purposefully try to leave interesting -gaps and excesses- that leave space for the consumer to seek to fill them. In this course we will analyze a selection of contemporary transmedia storytelling projects (e.g., Lost, Heroes, Pottemore, Doctor Who, District 9) by applying questions from the field of narrative theory to these new formats. Students will be asked to critically question Jenkins’ claims by transferring them to other examples than The Matrix. Students will learn about the specific features of different media (prose texts, comics, video games, movies, TV shows, webvideos, webpages) and will be encouraged to explore the new media based on their knowledge of literary studies. Analytical sessions will take turn with creative sessions in which students will design their own transmedia storytelling project. Anglistik - Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft Universität Siegen SoSe 2013 M.A. Peters Maria Verena M.A