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Interactive Digital Narrative: The Genealogy of a Field

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The Authoring Problem

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

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Abstract

A gifted young storyteller, orphaned at birth, has traced their origins to the city of knowledge. Fascinated by the youth’s potential, the scholars each lay claim. The cinematographer maps their filmic features, a vocabulary of edits and frames; the actor cites their own history of interactivity and dynamic audiences; the author notes the storyteller’s obvious place in the illustrious family of narrative convention; the computer scientist, present at the birth, is keen to ensure their place is recognised; the ludographer, youngest of the scholars, denies such reliance on any family history, instead seeing them as the start of a new, illustrious line—and encouraging the storyteller to define a new way of thinking. This chapter charts the intertwining, dynamic and interdisciplinary history of interactive digital narrative. Drawing on the breadth of scholarship, it provides a convenient primer for the convoluted, often-contradictory genealogy of the field and its complex relationship with authorship, along with open questions to consider.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more on the “author”, see the chapter by Kitromili and Reyes in this volume.

  2. 2.

    For another attempt to define these terms, see the introduction of this volume.

  3. 3.

    Rashomon itself was adapted (largely faithfully) from Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story In a Grove, which also experiments with the impact of multiple competing retellings of the same story.

  4. 4.

    Often ascribed to Henry Kissinger in his speech to Ashland University, this quip is most likely the work of Professor Wallace Stanley Sayre. He is commonly considered to have articulated it as early as 1950.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richmond, The American International University, London, UK

    Sam Brooker

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  1. Sam Brooker
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Correspondence to Sam Brooker .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, UK

    Charlie Hargood

  2. University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    David E. Millard

  3. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Alex Mitchell

  4. Hochschule RheinMain, Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany

    Ulrike Spierling

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Brooker, S. (2022). Interactive Digital Narrative: The Genealogy of a Field. In: Hargood, C., Millard, D.E., Mitchell, A., Spierling, U. (eds) The Authoring Problem. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05214-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05214-9_3

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