The arc and the machine : narrative and new media / Caroline Bassett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bassett, Caroline.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media.

Discourse analysis, Narrative.

Physical Description:

212 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press : distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, [2007]

Summary:

The arc and the machine is a timely and original defence of narrative in an age of information. Stressing interpretation and experience alongside affect and sensation it argues convincingly that the narrative arc is key to contemporary forms of cultural production and to the practice of everyday life in an increasingly mediated world where globalised information networks are pervasive and ubiquitous.

Re-appraising the prospects for narrative in the digital age this book insists on the centrality of narrative to informational culture and demands a re-thinking of innovations in information technology as a material cultural form.

The book offers a careful exploration of narrative theory, a sophisticated critique of techno-cultural writing, and a series of tightly focused case studies exploring narrative space, narrative identity and non-linear narrative. Together they point the way to a restoration of a critical rather than a celebratory approach to new media. The scope and range of this book is broad, its argumentation exacting, and its conclusions exciting. This will be essential reading in new media and media studies, film studies and cultural studies, as well as being of interest to theorists of everyday life and cultural geography, and to literary scholars interested in medium theory.

Contents:

1 Narrative machines 5

2 'Beautiful patterns of bits': cybernetics, interfaces, new media 43

Part 1 The thing itself - technology and determination 47

Part 2 Contemporary technocultures 72

3 Those with whom the archive dwells 103

4 Annihilating all that's made? Legends of virtual community 128

5 'Just because' stories: on Elephant 165.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [187]-207) and index.

ISBN:

9780719073427

0719073421

OCLC:

148906565