Construction of Spatial Narratives in M. D. Coverley's Califia
MIT4: Work of Stories, 2005
Stories & Identities 4
The developments that emerged in digital era instigated a transformation in how the text is perceived in New Media. The malleability of the digital platform afforded the text with structural flexibility that necessitated a revised outlook on established narrative forms. More specifically, digital narrative came to embody a fragmented, non-linear structure that lacks beginning and closure.
I would like to suggest that these structural changes require an alternative approach to storytelling in which spatial exploration of the text acquires precedence over plot development. Foregrounding the spatiality of the narrative allows the digital platform to transform the text into an open environment in which the user can enter and explore at her leisure. Ultimately, the temporal progress of the digital narrative is contingent upon how the reader/user decides to proceed spatially through the text. This model allows for the construction of the variations of the same narrative by different users at the same time or by the same user at different times.
To make the case for spatial narrative, I would like to examine how spatiality affects narrative development in M.D. Coverley's hypertext story Califia. Califia is about the hunt for the treasure of California, narrated by Augusta, Kaye and Calvin. Each of the narrators follows a different road which offers different clues to the reader. But the reader is encouraged to leave the footsteps of the narrators and follow her own lead. The hypertext story takes a topological approach to narrative in which the words bear close relationship to the world that is being narrated. In addition, the narrative is also layered with images, music, and fake documents that include family trees of the narrators, maps of California (both ancient and recent) and chronology of events.
conference site >>
