purpose of study

My research focuses on the structure and process of narrative in various mediums and explores the potential applications of combining multiple media to tell stories differently. In other words, I will look at how a story is told and received in a given medium in comparison, contrast and combination with other mediums. It is my belief that the process of the narrative will change because the structure has changed. The narrative phenomenon of Myst, my main object of study, occurs in books, comics and hypermedia. Similarly, I will be talking about these three mediums as I see what, if anything, about narrative is being changed by the technological advances connected to the computer.

This blending of old and new media will be accompanied by a blending of old and new narrative theories - meta-stories about how stories are shared and understood. Since Plato, scholars and philosophers have explored and debated how meaning occurs between artists and audiences. As new mediums are developed, new theories have been formed as well. The scholars proposing these newer theories are exploring whether a new medium raises new questions, or if the questions of narrative that prior scholars have posed are still pertinent. Richard Lanham argues that literary study must come to terms with how technology changes the face of narrative (through digital reproduction and replication) in order to truly comprehend contemporary stories (26). And Janet Murray believes that immersive simulations are the most problematic and promising issue of narrative in hypermedia, allowing us completely into worlds which may, or may not, be worth visiting (280). The computer allows us to have almost infinite worlds in which we virtually enter and act.

In this study, I will incorporate a range of theoretical viewpoints from Plato to post-modern to represent how the nature of narrative has changed with the development of hypermedia. And hypermedia itself has several layers to consider. While Myst and MitterNachtSpiel are stories captured on CD-ROM, the hypermedia story of Ultima OnLine, another of my objects of study, takes place on the internet. The internet is a vast network of connected computers and it is a new and different arena for a story to be related and experienced, one that is highly flexible and ephemeral. By analyzing the new, hyper-hybridity of hypermedia, the older hybridity of sequential art, and single texts, I will explore and express the structure and process of narrative. In other words, I will hypertextually show and tell you a good story.