Reading Novels, Reading Networks: Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar, Social Media, and the Digital Literary Sphere

This article examines the theme of social networks in Mark Z. Danielewski’s serial novel The Familiar, as well as the social networks involved in the work’s reception, as a means of assessing the contemporary novel’s imbrication in social networks and social media. It contributes to critical discussions about The Familiar—and to broader conversations about the novel in the social media age—on two fronts. First, it analyzes Danielewski’s diegetic social networks. I argue that, in The Familiar, the planetary social is largely represented as a source of anxiety, as the existential threat of violence is amplified and perpetuated through social media. Yet the novel also explores how social networks offer the potential for resistance and protection from such violence. Second, the article describes how Danielewski’s real-world socially networked communities have impacted the interpretation of his writing. The analysis centers on the Facebook “Reading Club” dedicated to The Familiar and on the online discussion, conducted through WordPress, wherein students and faculty at multiple universities blogged about The Familiar, Volume 1. The WordPress discussion pushes the classroom into the blogosphere, troubling distinctions among academic interpretation, social networking, and public discourse. The Facebook group harnesses the conventions of both social media and book clubs, demonstrating how academic-adjacent interpretation may flourish in contexts not typified by such reading. At stake is a more nuanced understanding of the power and potential violence of communities constituted through social media; of the novel’s ability to represent and theorize such communities; and of the ways that reading communities’ emergence across social media has problematized longstanding conceptualizations of contemporary reading culture as characterized by a series of divisions (such as that between amateur and professional readers).

MYTH AND FOLKLORE EMBODIMENT IN THE FEMALE PROTAGONISTS OF CONTEMPORARY FICTIONS: A READING OF THE SHIVA TRILOGY AND BULBBUL

The collective consciousness of a community is tremendously shaped by myths and folktales passed on from generation to generation. With the publication of Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the idea of the hero and his journey took a giant leap, allowing the commoner's life narratives to be equated with the mythical journey. This study analyzes how mythology is demythified and symbolically represented in two of India's famous narratives, a novel series Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi and an “over-the-top” (OTT) film Bulbbul by Anvita Dutt. The objects of this research are Indian mythological narratives about Goddess Shakti and her various manifestations — Durga, Kali, Sati, and Parvati — whose respective nature and purpose differ vastly from one another. Through the qualitative research method, the paper shows that the reader/viewer has well-received the interweaving of myth with contemporary fiction. It has given way to a change in diegesis, from the predominantly male-hero-focused outline to a female-driven narrative. The myth-bound heroines thus represent the power to break the shackles of patriarchy and normative culture, allowing an area for women to radicalize themselves through bold actions. Kesadaran kolektif suatu komunitas sangat bergantung pada mitos dan cerita rakyat yang diturunkan dari generasi ke generasi. Dengan diterbitkannya The Hero with a Thousand Faces karya Joseph Campbell, gagasan tentang pahlawan dan perjalanannya memungkinkan narasi kehidupan orang biasa untuk disejajarkan dengan perjalanan mitos. Studi ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis bagaimana mitologi didemistifikasi dan secara simbolis direpresentasikan dalam dua narasi terkenal India, yakni serial novel Shiva Trilogy karya Amish Tripathi dan film “over-the-top” (OTT) Bulbbul karya Anvita Dutt. Objek penelitian ini adalah narasi mitologi India tentang Dewi Shakti dan berbagai manifestasinya — Durga, Kali, Sati, dan Parvati — yang sifat dan tujuannya masing-masing sangat berbeda satu sama lain. Melalui metode penelitian kualitatif, ditemukan; 1) pembaca/pemirsa telah menerima dengan baik jalinan mitos dengan fiksi kontemporer; 2) memberi jalan pada perubahan diegesis, dari garis besar yang berfokus pada pahlawan pria menjadi narasi yang digerakkan oleh wanita; 3) para tokoh wanita yang terikat mitos, mematahkan belenggu patriarki dan budaya normatif, memungkinkan area bagi perempuan untuk meradikalisasi diri mereka sendiri melalui tindakan yang berani.

Rethinking Montage: Berlin Alexanderplatz’s Paper Trails

This article takes up the concept of montage that has defined scholarship on Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz: Die Geschichte von Franz Biberkopf (1929) since its publication. Against interpretations that understand the novel’s technique of montage as related to film and the avant-garde, I show that the novel is more strongly tied to paper objects and practices, above all the nineteenth-century serial novel and its medial environment in the newspaper. Approaching the novel from this perspective directs attention – in opposition to the scholarship that has emphasized the experience of disruption produced by montage – to the significance of the plot and its highly gendered violence.

Gaboriau, Reviewer of the Manners in L’argent Des Autres

L’Argent des autres (1873) is not a “true” detective novel like Monsieur Lecoq (1868) written by the same author, Émile Gaboriau. The novel appeared in print eight years after the publication of L’Affaire Lerouge, the first French detective novel; however, there is no police investigation; the culprit is known from the first pages. Like his previous novels, La Dégringolade (1871–1872) and La Corde au cou (1872–1873), L’Argent des autres shows an evolution towards the novel of manners in which Gaboriau reveals the failures of the society of his time. Thus, the novel depicts a dark picture of Parisian finance. Furthermore, if there is a criminal in this serial novel, it is a woman! Gaboriau takes his reader into the viscera of the world of money and discloses the social mechanics of those who live off the money of others. Gaboriau denounces the appetites of the morally corrupt society through the description of fictional spaces, such as the Comptoir de crédit mutuel, the office of the newspaper Le Pilote financier, the office of the speculator Lattermann, on the one hand, and of actual emblematic places such as the Bourse, the large boulevards or the Bois de Boulogne on the other

SPIRITUALITAS DALAM HEKSALOGI NOVEL SUPERNOVA KARYA DEE

ABSTRAKPembahasan penelitian ini akan difokuskan pada tindakan plastisitas spiritualitas dalam serial novel Supernova karya Dee dengan judul Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh; Akar; Petir; Partikel; Gelombang; dan Intelegensi Embun Pagi. Penelitian ini memanfaatkan teori struktur naratif Vladimir Propp, yang terdiri dari dua tahap analisis. Pertama, analisis mengenai identifikasi motif spiritualitas dalam enam novel serial Supernova secara tekstual. Kedua, hasil identifikasi tersebut menunjukkan adanya unsur yang berulang terkait dengan motif spiritualitas yang disebut sebagai fungsi. Fungsi-fungsi tersebut kemudian dirumuskan sesuai dengan urutan kemunculannya dalam setiap novel. Melalui kedua tahap analisis tersebut dapat diperoleh makna dari adanya motif spiritualitas dalam keenam novel serial Supernova. Berdasarkan tahap analisis, ditemukan konsistensi motif spiritulitas dalam keenam novel merupakan sebuah proses pencarian dalam suatu kehidupan, serta merupakan usaha pemenuhan kekosongan diri untuk menemukan makna kehidupan. Plastisitas spiritualitas dalam keenam novel lebih menitikberatkan pada posisi sains sebagai unsur pembangun kesadaran setiap individu. Kata-kata kunci: Propp, fungsi, spiritualitas, plastisitas ABSTRACTThe research will be focused on the act of spirituality plasticity in Dee's Supernova novel series titled Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh; Akar; Petir; Partikel; Gelombang; dan Intelegensi Embun Pagi. This research utilizes the theory of narrative structure Vladimir Propp, which consists of two stages of analysis. First, an analysis of the identification of spirituality motif in six Supernova novel series. Second, the results of the identification indicate a recurring element related to the spirituality motif called function. These functions are then formulated according to the order in which they appear in each novel. Through these two stages of analysis can be obtained the meaning of the existence of a spirituality motif in the six serial Supernova novels. Based on the analysis phase, consistency of spirituality motifs can be found in the six novels as a process searching in life, and it is an attempt to fulfill the self-emptiness to find the meaning of life. Spirituality plasticity in the six novels is more focused on the role of science as an element of building awareness of each individual. Key words: Propp, function, spirituality, plasticity