Comparing stories: how textual structure shapes affective experience in new media

Abstract

Stories told through different media forms feel very distinctive from each other, to such an extent that there are stories which can only be told through one media form -- at least, if preserving the distinctive affective quality of the experience is a priority. Is this due to something innate to the story which makes it hard to translate outside of its context, or is it the context itself that sets the experience apart? Phenomenology provides a way of understanding how the media-specific structures of textual storytelling can shape the experience of negotiating that text, through altering the affective processes associated with its navigation. This project argues that it is possible to distinguish amongst storytelling in multiple media forms by analysing how differences in textual structure (and the processes required to engage with them) shape the phenomenological experience of those texts. I apply an analytical framework of affective phenomenology to case-study forms of textual storytelling, including videogames, hypertext fiction, webcomics, and Alternate Reality Games. All of these case studies share a new media context, and so their outward similarities will highlight the differences in the experiences they present. I argue that hypertext fictions provide environments for readers to engage with, either as explorers negotiating unfamiliar territory, or detectives seeking connections between disparate material. The webcomic is distinguished from other forms of mediated storytelling by the amount of time spent engaging with characters within the text, which leads to a perception of intimacy as part of the experience. Videogames are set apart by the sense of responsibility felt by the player for events and their consequences within the Heideggerian world-of-concern established with the text and its characters. Alternate Reality Games are texts which function at the level of the community rather than the individual, are experienced as phenomenologically real, and are further distinguished by their textual boundaries functioning at the level of affective investment rather than the specific processes involved in negotiating the text. I argue that the definition of media texts should include how we engage with their textual structures, rather than focus purely on the textual structures themselves. Affective phenomenology and the process of analytical juxtaposition presented in this project provide the beginnings of a map for negotiating this new conceptual territory, and will become particularly relevant as texts and textual forms migrate across platforms.