Computational Literary Studies and Korean Literature: A Case Study on The Journey to the West

Beskrivelse

Transmedia storytelling is often promoted as the future of storytelling. By Henry Jenkins’ definition of transmedia storytelling, though, we can also find transmedia stories in the past. Taking The Journey to the West as a case study, I show how it is a transmedia story that started to unfold hundreds of years ago. While The Journey is conventionally identified with a Chinese novel, most people are familiar with The Journey universe through TV series, comics, or computer games. Although Jenkins argues that transmedia stories are too broad and deep to be grasped, I suggest that by approaching them as what Roland Barthes calls dynamic texts we can develop tools for comprehension and analysis. By applying Barthes’ concept to Korean variations of The Journey to the West I visualize the story’s universe by mapping it with the help of radial tree diagrams. I argue that dynamic texts function as a hotbed for transmedia storytelling due to their variability.

Periode	14 dec. 2018
Sted for afholdelse	SOAS, Storbritannien
Grad af anerkendelse	International