Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Hispanic Studies

Supervisor

Juan Luis Suarez

Abstract

Recently we have seen the proliferation of narratives developing in media convergence: simultaneously on websites, blogs, multimedia platforms, books, magazines, etc. In this thesis, I propose the term interstory to characterize this narrative tendency. Interstory is a narrative constituted by a network of story pieces published in different media and compiled by readers. To illustrate the concept of interstory I take as a study case Hernán Casciari’s and Christian Basilis’ Orsai, which in two years has incorporated into its narrative three blogs, a print magazine, and a web magazine. Orsai has been a successful project thanks to the formation of a solid online/offline community of readers around it. Because of the media characteristics and large-scale of the object under examination, I propose a methodology for the study of narrative as a network composed of authors, texts, media of publication, readers, and readers’ input. This has allowed the exploration of which narrative contents are encompassed by the project, where they are published, when and where, as well as how the readers’ respond to them. A methodology for the study of readers’ practices in Orsai’s different media was also developed. I propose that narrative is by no means in crisis in the digital age. As a matter of fact, readers are avid participants of narrative enterprises building a highly prosocial environment of interaction. Nonetheless, as I show in this thesis, the expectations of readers and the media currently available are having an impact on how narrative is created, distributed and consumed.

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