Stories by all available means: a transmedia turn?

Abstract

Studies on Transmedia Storytelling have been a very active area of research in the last ten years. This paper tries to clear up the matter by providing an overwiew of the evolution of the concept, to account for its specificity and to show some examples. In conclusion I will point the difficulties and challenges posed in narratological studies, but also in the margins between these and other domains of both Semiotic and Media Studies: A history of transmedia storytelling, the economic explanations of its current strength, the desire to build complex narrative universes and the commitment of fans, the crucial role of seriality, the promotional and paratextual dimension of many transmedia narratives, and finally the extent of the phenomenon, crossing over into fiction and nonfiction territories. The “narrative turn” in Social Sciences and many social discourses, in vogue since a few decades ago, should be complemented with a “transmedia turn”.