Multimodal Poetics in Contemporary Fiction

Design and Experimentation in North and Central American Texts

verfasst von: Thomas Mantzaris

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Über dieses Buch

This book explores the growing body of multimodal literary texts: books that creatively experiment with the potential of design to represent narrative content. Examining five North and Central American novels from the first two decades of the twenty-first century, this study draws attention to texts that combine verbal text (writing) with non-verbal elements (photographic images, varied typography, maps, color, etc.) as integral parts of their narratives. Their experimentation both reconfigures the potential for print-based (and born-digital) fiction in the future, and holds a mirror to past practices of design and typography that were rendered invisible, or which received limited attention by authors, publishers, and readers. By placing the five case studies and related texts within a broader history of experimentation in literature, this book demonstrates how multimodal novels have changed the conceptualization of narrative content in literary texts and ushered in a new era for fiction.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

Literature has changed. Clearly, crucial changes have been brought about by the growing influence of non-print formats such as e-books and podcasts, which have gained significant popularity fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, or the rise of digital platforms where literature is produced and disseminated. These developments have been registered, and their impact on literature has not been over-emphasized during the past decade. However, the landscape of literary production has been subtly but definitively affected (early signs of it are already emergent) by a body of literary texts that embrace multimodality in their core conceptual structure and creatively experiment with the potential of design to represent narrative content. This group of literary texts combines verbal (regular text) and non-verbal (photographic images, varied typography, maps, color, and so on) modes of representation as integral parts of their narratives, forming the genre of multimodal fiction. In doing so, they challenge conventions as regards the production and visual display of literature upon the page, and they interrogate years of practices in the publishing and literary industries.

Thomas Mantzaris

Chapter 2. Relaunching the Print Novel: Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves

Abstract

Since its publication in 2000, Mark Z. Danielewski’s (2000a) House of Leaves has attracted significant attention from critics, fans, and academics to the point that the novel is now canonized in contemporary literature although it retains its cult status. Within the bounds of the print book medium, House of Leaves has reconceptualized narrative possibilities for literary texts at the turn of the century, and has inspired authors and artists to explore uncharted avenues in literary writing ever since. Brimming with elaborate typography and inventive page layout, Danielewski’s magnum opus novel interrogated established practices of book design and typesetting and refocused them to narrative ends. In Multimodal Poetics in Contemporary Fiction, I approach House of Leaves as the literary text that inaugurated the genre of multimodal fiction, and view Danielewski’s experimentation as an indicator of fresh dynamics for print-based writing in the digital age which paved the way for more experiments with multimodality to emerge in literary narratives.

Thomas Mantzaris

Chapter 3. Enhancing the Print Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Abstract

As Mark Z. Danielewski’s (2000) House of Leaves gained recognition and literary experimentation was starting to be seen as more than a gimmick, the release of Jonathan Safran Foer’s (2005a) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close demonstrated the novel’s reflexivity in response to the 9/11 events and its capacity for adaptability in the changing media landscape of the early twenty-first century. The creative integration of photography in Safran Foer’s text allowed the literary form of the novel to creatively engage with the rising dominance of visual culture while the print format in which the text was conceptualized and released, emphasized the key position of the printed book as a contemporary cultural product. In the context of multimodal fiction, I consider Safran Foer’s novel to have marked a critical juncture toward the development of the genre, as Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close consolidates the opening of literary possibilities articulated by House of Leaves, forms a second stepping stone for the subsequent development of the field, and allows a lineage of multimodal literary texts to be recognized. This chapter situates Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close in the early stages of the genre’s chronological unfolding and focuses on how Safran Foer’s novel interrogates established textual borders in literary fiction and manipulates photography as a strategy of building narrative content.

Thomas Mantzaris

Chapter 4. Layering the Print Novel: Handwriting and Material Artifacts in J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s S.

Abstract

In August 2013, the American film production company Bad Robot released a cryptic video trailer of a strange man arriving in a shore in the dark, “knowing nothing of himself.” This was enough to create hype for the unidentified project that film producer and director J.J. Abrams had in the pipeline. The obscurity was unveiled a few weeks later by a second trailer, where it becomes clear that Abrams and author Doug Dorst are collaborating on a book project, S. (Abrams and Dorst 2013), with a typewriter figuring prominently in the trailer’s frames.

Thomas Mantzaris

Chapter 5. Crafting the Print Novel: Book Design and Narrative Content in Zachary Thomas Dodson’s Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel

Abstract

The journey across multimodal novels continues with a stop at Bats of the Republic (Dodson 2015), a text that not only experiments with multimodality but represents a more complete authorial vision in terms of its narrative content, as Zachary Thomas Dodson has both written and designed it. Unbound by dependency on designers and artists to fulfill the rendering of his envisaged print-based text, a regular collaboration in multimodal fiction which comes with its own opportunities and constraints, Dodson approached the printed book as a blank canvas, deploying his combined skillset to craft Bats of the Republic. Dodson’s novel may seem less revolutionary than S. (Abrams and Dorst 2013) as regards its print output, remaining faithful to the typical format of a bound book, for the most part. But the ways in which Dodson wields the instrument of color throughout the text, as a device of structuring narrative content and representing storyworld properties, produce an extraordinary outcome on the page surface.

Thomas Mantzaris

Chapter 6. Archiving the Print Novel: Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive

Abstract

Valeria Luiselli’s (2019b) Lost Children Archive concludes my investigation of multimodal fiction in the early twenty-first century, with this chapter focusing my attention on a novel that is clearly multimodal in its composition though less overtly experimental in its spirit. The multimodality of Luiselli’s novel does not seem to derive primarily from her conviction in breaking down design barriers in literary writing or from her commitment to fierce experimentation with narrative content. Rather, I consider this novel to be symptomatic of three parameters: the emergence of multimodal fiction, the characteristics and affordances of the contemporary framework in which it has been released, and the author’s documentary-based writing practices. In this regard, Lost Children Archive exemplifies a crucial step in the development of multimodal fiction, that of the genre’s practices extending their reach and informing the production of less experimental literary texts, a process that can already be observed in recent publications of fiction.

Thomas Mantzaris

Chapter 7. Epilogue

Abstract

Between the pronounced end of books at the end of the twentieth century and the current rise of generative AI, print-based literature has witnessed significant transformations heralded by the digital age, COVID-19, and increased media cross-fertilization. As the first quarter of the twenty-first century is drawing to a close, literary texts are positioned amid an expanding landscape of storytelling practices and devices, ranging from audiobooks and podcasts to mobile applications and digital storytelling platforms. Multimodal fiction has emerged in this historical context, opening fresh pathways for conceptualizing narrative content and re-defining the literary affordances of the print book medium.

Thomas Mantzaris

Backmatter

Titel: Multimodal Poetics in Contemporary Fiction
verfasst von: Thomas Mantzaris
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-68873-7
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-68872-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68873-7