Open AccessProto-Transmedial Narrative Structures: Lewis Carroll’s A Tangled Tale
Author(s) -
Asunción LópezVarela Azcárate
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of transmedia literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2465-227X
pISSN - 2465-2261
DOI - 10.7358/ijtl-2019-002-lope
Subject(s) - foregrounding , narrative , storytelling , narrative structure , intersection (aeronautics) , computer science , epistemology , aesthetics , sociology , literature , art , philosophy , engineering , aerospace engineering
This paper explores A Tangled Tale, a collection of mathematical puzzles that Charles Ludwick Dodgson serialized in The Monthly Packet between 1880 and 1885. The hybrid narrative patterns that present mathematical questions by means of fictional storytelling are a unique form of scientific knowledge dissemination that anticipates the breakdown of narrative linearity and the emergence of multiform formats present in transmedia. An inquiry into the Rule of Three and infinite regress tie the knots of a tale that highlights crucial insights on the algorithmic foregrounding of the strategies of transmedia design. Such strategies can be seen as the intersection of narrative as well as mathematical expertise that turn the media galaxy into a cosmic affair.