New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age

Just as the explosive growth of digital media has led to ever-expanding narrative possibilities and practices, so these new electronic modes of storytelling have, in their own turn, demanded a rapid and radical rethinking of narrative theory. This timely volume takes up the challenge, deeply and broadly considering the relationship between digital technology and narrative theory in the face of the changing landscape of computer-mediated communication. New Narratives reflects the diversity of its subject by bringing together some of the foremost practitioners and theorists of digital narratives. It extends the range of digital subgenres examined by narrative theorists to include forms that have become increasingly prominent, new examples of experimental hypertext, and contemporary video games. The collection also explicitly draws connections between the development of narrative theory, technological innovation, and the use of narratives in particular social and cultural contexts. Finally, New Narratives focuses on how the tools provided by new technologies may be harnessed to provide new ways of both producing and theorizing narrative. Truly interdisciplinary, the book offers broad coverage of contemporary narrative theory, including frameworks that draw from classical and postclassical narratology, linguistics, and media studies. Ruth Page is a lecturer in English language at the University of Leicester. She is the author of Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology and Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction. Bronwen Thomas is a senior lecturer in linguistics and literature at the Media School, Bournemouth University, and is the author of Fictional Dialogue: Speech and Conversation in the Modern and Postmodern Novel (forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press).