Blog

Collins began his talk by arguing that case studies of transmediaphilia have yet to explore broader theoretical implications. Beyond the enumeration of the ways in which fans engage with transmedia content and in the process build worlds, what exactly are they exploring? Furthermore, what effects are digital devices such as cellphones, smart-tablets and kindles having on the way fans maintain and construct worlds?

De Certeau is often appealed to as a forerunner of the appreciation and validation of popular consumption practices, often against the institutionally sanctioned, hierarchically established forms of authority (e.g. popular reading). Bourdieu is another figure who is brought forward in support of fan participatory culture with, for instance, his accentuation of affective immediacy, immersion, and the desire to emotionally engage with works.

Mark Wolf provided a lucid overview of four key terms - Immersion, Absorption, Saturation and Overflow - so as to develop an account of the manner in which worlds are built, sustained, and developed by both producers and consumers.

Marie Laure Ryan's talk, entitled 'Texts, Worlds, Stories: On the Aesthetics of Narrative Proliferation' was a particularly appropriate opening to this year's conference. Ryan began by sketching a recent history of the story world in the academy: from socio-linguistics' and structuralism's interest in the signifier through to the narrative turn in the 80s, in which the focus returned to the signified, she explained that we have shifted our focus away from the world of the author and/or genre, to the world of the story.