Between Media Convergence and Transmedia Storytelling

Abstract

This introductory chapter presents the research question, relevance, and subject matter of the dissertation. Starting from the observation that stories in contemporary media landscapes are increasingly told across multiple media platforms, giving rise to complex transmedial storyworlds, the chapter develops the study’s research interest. Two central questions guide the inquiry: How are biographical narratives represented in comics and video games? And what learning and educational potentials can be derived from them in the sense of Structural Media Education? To delineate the field of study, the media forms of comics and video games are conceptually defined and their respective medial logics explained. The concepts of media convergence, transmedia storytelling, and storyworld are then theoretically introduced and differentiated, with particular reference to the work of Henry Jenkins and Marie-Laure Ryan. The Tomb Raider franchise is introduced as the object of analysis: a long-standing, character-centered media universe revolving around the protagonist Lara Croft, encompassing video games, comics, and films since 1996. The study focuses on the so-called Survivor Storyworld (2013 – 2019), which represents the first sustained attempt at a coherent transmedial narrative spanning both video games and comics. The chapter concludes with an overview of the dissertation’s structure.