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Transmedia Storytelling: The Many Faces of Video Games, Fluid Narratives and Winding Seriality

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Body and Text: Cultural Transformations in New Media Environments

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((ILC))

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Abstract

Seriality in popular culture has its own specific pedigree that has evolved over time. Currently, this is characterized by a cross-media bridge formed in the popular culture of the twentieth century. Contemporary narratives now serve as an intertextual, transmedia, anchor while formerly autonomous media become attached under the umbrella of a single narrative. This phenomenon is one of the prime characteristics of one of the youngest media, video games. The usually diadic model of internal (intrinsic/inherent) seriality and external seriality stemming from substance (a string of stand-alone games genetically related by a narrative as prequels, sequels, midquels, spin-off, mash-up etc.) and form (several versions of the same game as enhanced version, collectors version, modded version, reboot, port etc.) has been transformed into a triad after transmedia storytelling became established due to a technological, economic, and social paradigm shift and the development of convergence culture. This chapter investigates both paradigm shifts of convergence and synergy and their effect on the expansion of storytelling forms that have been adapted not only by popular culture but also by the art world, marking the transformation process from seriality to a single hybrid supertext (narrative/storytelling) form.

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Funding

This article was supported by grant VEGA 1/0461/16 Re-interpretácia obrazov kultúrnej pamäti v súčasnej estetickej a umeleckej reflexii (Re-interpretation of images of cultural memory in the contemporary reflection of aesthetics and art).

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Correspondence to Martin Kudláč .

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Kudláč, M. (2019). Transmedia Storytelling: The Many Faces of Video Games, Fluid Narratives and Winding Seriality. In: Callahan, D., Barker, A. (eds) Body and Text: Cultural Transformations in New Media Environments. Second Language Learning and Teaching(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25189-5_13

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