Towards a new history of literary media

This chapter argues that the history of literary media from the early 20th century to today’s immersive fictions should be viewed as three movements. Each movement illustrates a change in the expectations of storytelling within society. Such a history is not a linear timeline of technological development, rather it focuses on the innovative techniques in storytelling. Initially it is a move to increased reciprocation between the author and the reader characterized by a rise of fandom, author celebrity, and the development of audiences who cross-media in the first half of the 20th century. Then in the second movement there is a desire for interaction with the reader with examples from Choose Your Own Adventures stories and analogue games to interactive electronic fictions and gamification of narratives. Thirdly, it discusses the desire for immersion by the reader in the storyworld with examples from trompe-l’oeil architectural illusions to immersive virtual reality. The discussion of each movement references a range of examples which illustrate the key themes and motifs, and discusses the forces within society which have resisted authors’ and readers' attempts to fulfil these aesthetic aspirations. It argues that we need to undertake Christine Gledhill’s ‘micro-analysis of the conditions of historical practice’ to understand the complexity of this history. In two tables, it tabulates the characteristics of each movement and the socio-economic resistances which need to be considered as we trace the origins of literary transmedia storytelling.