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Turning Points
This chapter is in the book Turning Points
SABRINA KUSCHENew Media and the Novel: A Survey of Generic Trends in Contemporary Literature 1. Introduction “Our society is a media-society, our world is in all its facets mediatized: media determine our perception, channel our communication, entertain and inform us” (Münker and Roesler, “Vorwort” 7; my translation).1 This quote from Stefan Münker and Alexander Roesler emphasises the domi-nant role which media play in contemporary society, the influence they have on how we perceive and archive the world and underlines the idea that without media the notion of a social reality would be impossible (see ibid). The dominance of media such as the internet—with all its commu-nicational devices—television, newspapers as well as film or the fine arts, is not without consequences for literature. In particular, the emergence of new media has had an important and profound impact on the form of literary narratives, and on how they are produced, received and distrib-uted.2 New media and literature converge topically and structurally, thus breeding new forms of literary narration, new questions and research in-terests. The mediatisation of literature,i. e. the reciprocal impact (new) media and literary narrations exceed on each other, suggests two central research questions: firstly, how does narration in the printed novel change when forms of (new) media are imported into it, and, secondly, which new nar-rative formats emerge when narrative forms are exported from the novel into other media, such as the World Wide Web? These two main research questions imply that there are two major ‘settings’ where the mediatisation of literature takes place: either between the traditional book covers or beyond them, where new genres and new narrative forms appear. This 1 “Unsere Gesellschaft ist eine Mediengesellschaft, unsere Welt ist in all ihren Facetten med-ialisiert: Medien bestimmen unsere Wahrnehmung, kanalisieren unsere Kommunikation, unterhalten und informieren uns...”2 According to Heuser the term ‘new media’ refers to those media that involve the internet and that are interconnected with each other (see Heuser 468–69). 

SABRINA KUSCHENew Media and the Novel: A Survey of Generic Trends in Contemporary Literature 1. Introduction “Our society is a media-society, our world is in all its facets mediatized: media determine our perception, channel our communication, entertain and inform us” (Münker and Roesler, “Vorwort” 7; my translation).1 This quote from Stefan Münker and Alexander Roesler emphasises the domi-nant role which media play in contemporary society, the influence they have on how we perceive and archive the world and underlines the idea that without media the notion of a social reality would be impossible (see ibid). The dominance of media such as the internet—with all its commu-nicational devices—television, newspapers as well as film or the fine arts, is not without consequences for literature. In particular, the emergence of new media has had an important and profound impact on the form of literary narratives, and on how they are produced, received and distrib-uted.2 New media and literature converge topically and structurally, thus breeding new forms of literary narration, new questions and research in-terests. The mediatisation of literature,i. e. the reciprocal impact (new) media and literary narrations exceed on each other, suggests two central research questions: firstly, how does narration in the printed novel change when forms of (new) media are imported into it, and, secondly, which new nar-rative formats emerge when narrative forms are exported from the novel into other media, such as the World Wide Web? These two main research questions imply that there are two major ‘settings’ where the mediatisation of literature takes place: either between the traditional book covers or beyond them, where new genres and new narrative forms appear. This 1 “Unsere Gesellschaft ist eine Mediengesellschaft, unsere Welt ist in all ihren Facetten med-ialisiert: Medien bestimmen unsere Wahrnehmung, kanalisieren unsere Kommunikation, unterhalten und informieren uns...”2 According to Heuser the term ‘new media’ refers to those media that involve the internet and that are interconnected with each other (see Heuser 468–69). 

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Acknowledgements v
  3. Table of Contents vii
  4. Turning Points as Metaphors and Mininarrations: Analysing Concepts of Change in Literature and Other Media 1
  5. I. Concepts of Change in Narrative Theory
  6. “With the Benefit of Hindsight”: Features and Functions of Turning Points as a Narratological Concept and as a Way of Self-Making 31
  7. Turning Points in the Nineteenth-Century Novella: Poetic Negotiations and the Representation of Social Rituals 59
  8. Iterative Narration and Other Forms of Resistance to Peripeties in Modernist Writing 73
  9. The Missing Turning Points in the Story: Musil’s Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften Between Ethics and Epistemology 85
  10. “If the Stranger hadn’t been there! … But he was!” Causal, Virtual and Evaluative Dimensions of Turning Points in Alternate Histories, Science-Fiction Stories and Multiverse Narratives 107
  11. II. Narratives of Cultural Change in Literature and Visual Media
  12. On the Threshold: The Brothel and the Literary Salon as Heterotopias in Finnish Urban Novels 125
  13. Long Waves or Vanishing Points? A Cognitive Approach to the Literary Construction of History 145
  14. (Re)Turn to Dystopia: Community Feeling in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village 159
  15. Remediating Turning Points for Conviviality and Englishness in Contemporary Black British Literature 175
  16. This Is (Not) It: Rate, Rattle and Roll in the Struggle for Financial Narratives 191
  17. III. Turning Point Narratives in Literary and Cinematic Life-Writing
  18. Turning a Slave Into a Freeman: Frederick Douglass, Photography and the Formation of African American Fiction 213
  19. Reframing Absence: Masquerade as Turning Point in Du Maurier’s and Hitchcock’s Rebecca 229
  20. Player in the Dark: Mourning the Loss of the Moral Foundation of Art in Woody Allen’s Match Point 245
  21. Roots, Seduction and Mestiçagem in José Eduardo Agualusa’s My Father’s Wives 269
  22. A Middle Passage to Modernity: Reflections on David Dabydeen’s Postmodern Slave Narrative A Harlot’s Progress 285
  23. Becoming the ‘Other’: Metamorphosis and ‘Turning Points’ in Katja Lange-Müller and Yoko Tawada 301
  24. IV. Constructing Turning Points in Literary History
  25. Lay Pamphlets in the Early Reformation: Turning Points in Religious Discourse and the Pamphlet Genre? 319
  26. The King is Dead, Long Live … the Queen: Turning Points in Panegyric Writing – Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) 337
  27. Writing New Worlds: Eberhard Werner Happel and the Invention of a Genre 351
  28. Dickens and The Pickwick Papers: Unstable Signs in a Transmodal Discourse 361
  29. Bridget Jones’s Diary: A Case Study of Austen Fan Fiction 371
  30. New Media and the Novel: A Survey of Generic Trends in Contemporary Literature 387
  31. V. (De)Constructing Turning Points in Literary Theory
  32. On the Linguistic Turns in the Humanities and Their Effect on Literary Studies 407
  33. Turning Points and Mutuality in Literature and Psychoanalysis 425
  34. The Speaking Animal Speaking the Animal: Three Turning Points in Thinking the Animal 437
  35. Notes on Contributors 453
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110297102.387

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Acknowledgements v
  3. Table of Contents vii
  4. Turning Points as Metaphors and Mininarrations: Analysing Concepts of Change in Literature and Other Media 1
  5. I. Concepts of Change in Narrative Theory
  6. “With the Benefit of Hindsight”: Features and Functions of Turning Points as a Narratological Concept and as a Way of Self-Making 31
  7. Turning Points in the Nineteenth-Century Novella: Poetic Negotiations and the Representation of Social Rituals 59
  8. Iterative Narration and Other Forms of Resistance to Peripeties in Modernist Writing 73
  9. The Missing Turning Points in the Story: Musil’s Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften Between Ethics and Epistemology 85
  10. “If the Stranger hadn’t been there! … But he was!” Causal, Virtual and Evaluative Dimensions of Turning Points in Alternate Histories, Science-Fiction Stories and Multiverse Narratives 107
  11. II. Narratives of Cultural Change in Literature and Visual Media
  12. On the Threshold: The Brothel and the Literary Salon as Heterotopias in Finnish Urban Novels 125
  13. Long Waves or Vanishing Points? A Cognitive Approach to the Literary Construction of History 145
  14. (Re)Turn to Dystopia: Community Feeling in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village 159
  15. Remediating Turning Points for Conviviality and Englishness in Contemporary Black British Literature 175
  16. This Is (Not) It: Rate, Rattle and Roll in the Struggle for Financial Narratives 191
  17. III. Turning Point Narratives in Literary and Cinematic Life-Writing
  18. Turning a Slave Into a Freeman: Frederick Douglass, Photography and the Formation of African American Fiction 213
  19. Reframing Absence: Masquerade as Turning Point in Du Maurier’s and Hitchcock’s Rebecca 229
  20. Player in the Dark: Mourning the Loss of the Moral Foundation of Art in Woody Allen’s Match Point 245
  21. Roots, Seduction and Mestiçagem in José Eduardo Agualusa’s My Father’s Wives 269
  22. A Middle Passage to Modernity: Reflections on David Dabydeen’s Postmodern Slave Narrative A Harlot’s Progress 285
  23. Becoming the ‘Other’: Metamorphosis and ‘Turning Points’ in Katja Lange-Müller and Yoko Tawada 301
  24. IV. Constructing Turning Points in Literary History
  25. Lay Pamphlets in the Early Reformation: Turning Points in Religious Discourse and the Pamphlet Genre? 319
  26. The King is Dead, Long Live … the Queen: Turning Points in Panegyric Writing – Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) 337
  27. Writing New Worlds: Eberhard Werner Happel and the Invention of a Genre 351
  28. Dickens and The Pickwick Papers: Unstable Signs in a Transmodal Discourse 361
  29. Bridget Jones’s Diary: A Case Study of Austen Fan Fiction 371
  30. New Media and the Novel: A Survey of Generic Trends in Contemporary Literature 387
  31. V. (De)Constructing Turning Points in Literary Theory
  32. On the Linguistic Turns in the Humanities and Their Effect on Literary Studies 407
  33. Turning Points and Mutuality in Literature and Psychoanalysis 425
  34. The Speaking Animal Speaking the Animal: Three Turning Points in Thinking the Animal 437
  35. Notes on Contributors 453
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