The diploma thesis is focused on the transmediality and adaptation phenomena and on the process of adaptation translation into the performative medium, a movie. The phenomena are grounded in the academical background, and their origin and historical development of their studies are contained in the theoretical part of the thesis. Furthermore, the different approaches to evaluation of the final product of the adaptation process are analyzed and it is explained that the evaluation of the adaptation is not bound by the fidelity criteria, but rather the overall transformation of the original message into the new media, in this case a movie. Due to these findings, the method of qualitative comparative analysis was used for the analytical part of the thesis. The qualitative research was focused mainly on the adaptation shifts as defined by Katerina Perdikaki, modulation, modification, mutation. Four biographical books of well- known personalities and their subsequent movie adaptations were analyzed. From these stories, four key moments were chosen to be used for the qualitative comparative analysis in order to research the adaptation shifts in the individual stories and their impact on the process of the creation of the adaptation and the final performative piece. The sample of the books was carefully...

Denna uppsats utgör en jämförande studie primärt inom fältet för traditionell litteraturvetenskap, adaption, remediering och transmedialitet, med ett innehållsligt genusperspektiv. Det undersökta materialet utgörs av två verk, tv-spelet Bioshock samt romanen som är baserad på spelet och är en prequel till det, Bioshock: Rapture. Det rör sig därmed om en form av adaption av berättelsevärlden, snarare än den mer konventionella adaptionen. Gestaltningar och representationer utifrån ett genusperspektiv analyseras utifrån hur de transmedieras mellan två tämligen olika medieformer. De utförda analyserna tyder på att genus, som det förstås i uppsatsen, representeras stereotypiskt för att därigenom rikta kritik gentemot detta, samt att de stereotypa skildringarna i viss mån förstärks i den transmediala processen i romanadaptionen. / This essay constitutes a comprehensive study within the field of traditional literary studies,adaptation studies, remediation, transmediality, whereas the content is analyzed through gender theory. The material examined consists of two sources, the videogame Bioshock, and the novel based upon the game, the prequel Bioshock: Rapture. The adaptation can be considered as an adaptation of the story world, rather than the conventional form of adaptations. Manifestations and representations of gender is being analyzed based on how they are being transmediated between two rather different types of media. The analyses conducted indicates that gender, as understood within the essay, is being represented rather stereotypically to thereby direct criticism against it. This kind of representations is also being emphasized in the transmedial process of the novel adaptation.

The topic of this thesis is visual art as a constitutive element of fictional worlds. The methodological basis is comparative semiotics, or more precisely intermediality research. The aim is to capture some of the possible realisations of intermedial relationships between literature and visual art. The constituent case studies are focused on the ekphrasis represented in the novel Witch Hammer by Václav Kaplický, on the transmediality as a transfer of aesthetics of one medium into another on the example of Josef Čapek's Three Proses which are traditionally perceived as cubist, and on the illustrative relationship between text and picture in František Hrubín's lyrical poems The Night of Job. The first study concerning the ekphrastic relationship confirms the ability of visual art to enrich the possibilities of literary expression thematically but also semantically through introspection into the inner lives of the characters which contributed to the overall interpretation of the work. The second study focused on the transmedia transfer in Čapek's proses does not have such an unequivocal conclusion. Given the complexity of each reader's receptive process, it is difficult to attribute the status of a literary pandanus of Cubism to the Three Proses, even with an awareness of its historical context. By...

David Foster Wallace felt that literature was at a historical crossroad, and thatpostmodernism had passed the point which it could still be considered a'revolutionary' cultural phenomenon. He felt that the capitalistic machinery of TVand advertisement had absorbed the postmodernist techniques of pastiche,deconstruction and rejection of a distinction between high and low culturalmodels, to a point where there was no longer a difference between reality and itsown representation. Something that represented a problem for both youngnovelists and readers.This thesis analyses Infinite Jest as a response to this very problem, trying tounderstand in which way Wallace wanted to get over postmodernism, establishinga new kind of literature that highlights the artificiality of reality, by using differenttools than postmodernism. Cross-referencing media and literary studies, my thesisargues that Infinite Jest is a novel that emphasizes the fact that it is a construct. Ishow how the book acknowledges, and gives value to the subjectivity of everyhuman experience, but still stressing the idea that all the data that the reader isreceiving is and will always be heavily mediated information. Therefore, I showhow Wallace uses his characters as if they were human recording devices, creatingin this way a book that is some sort of hybrid between literature and TV.Furthermore, I explain how, by means of narrative devices (such as a disruptiveand incomplete plot, hundreds of endnotes), Wallace wanted to restore thecommunicative function of a text, making himself sure that the reader is invited toactively cooperate in the formation of the novel's meaning, ultimately meeting,and engaging into a dialogue with the author's consciousness in the novel'slanguage, breaking that state of self-consciousness and isolation into which thereader has been condemned by postmodernism and capitalism. Showing that“There's more to life than sitting there simply interfacing”1 David Foster Wallace; Infinite Jest; media studies; Postmodernism; Image-fiction Television; intermediality; transmediality; narratology; heteroglossia. 1 David F. Wallce, Infinite Jest, (Back Bay Books 2016), p. 14.

This study investigates the previously neglected literary phenomenon of game novels, a genre that is part of the increasing significance that games are having in culture. Intermedial studies is one of the principal fields that examines these types of phenomena, which provides perspectives for understanding the interactions between media. Furthermore, it forms the foundation for this study that analyses the relation between the four novels by Drew Karpyshyn (Mass Effect: Revelation, 2007; Mass Effect: Ascension, 2008; Mass Effect: Retribution, 2010) and William C. Dietz (Mass Effect: Deception, 2012), and the Mass Effect Trilogy. Differences and similarities between the media are delineated using semiotic theories, primarily the concepts of modalities of media and transfers of media characteristics. The thesis further investigates the narrative discourse, and narrative perspectives in the novels and how these instances relate to the transferred characteristics of Mass Effect. Ultimately, the commonly transferred characteristic in the novels is the storyworld, which reveals both differences and similarities between the media. Regardless of any differences, the similarities demonstrate a relationship where the novels expand the storyworld.

The thesis explores the role of music in Günter Grass’s novels. In pointing out the vital role of intermediality for Grass’s narrative strategies, the thesis opens up for a new, intermedial perspective on his work. It shows how references to music are used to realise Grass’s poetological concept “paspresenture” – the simultaneous presence of past, present and future – as well as his constant strive towards concreteness. The study draws on theories of intermediality, with a special focus on the role of transmedial media characteristics. It develops a transmedial methodology for analysing intermedial references, stressing how the notion of “musicality” within the text is created by media characteristics shared by both music and literature. Intermedial references are conceived as highlighting structures that are inherent in literature. The textual analyses of The Tin Drum (1959), Too Far Afield (1995) and Crabwalk (2002) are divided into three steps. First, explicit musical references in the narratives are interpreted as indexes pointing towards transmedial structures relevant to this specific context. Second, the examination demonstrates the prominent role of transmedial characteristics such as repetitivity, contrast, simultaneity and performativity within the texts. Third and last, the function of musical reference is discussed: in all three narratives, the focus on transmedial structures supplies a more consistent interpretation of passages which otherwise prove difficult to decipher. In Grass’s fiction, issues appear not to be discussed but performatively reenacted and thus remind more of musical than literary development. What is more, music – as handled by Grass – does not appear absolute or transcendent; rather, its manipulative potential is always prominent. However, the way musical references are used to realise Grass’s poetological aims stresses the bodily presence of musical performance, thus making music appear as the performative realisation of time.

The field of video game studies has through later years shown a growing interest in game's spatialfeatures, along with their narrative implications. By introducing earlier findings of spatialmanifestations of dreams and psychological content in narrative works, with regards to their medialrepresentation into this discussion, I hope to conjoin video game research (better known asludology) with a line of psychoanalytic inquiry, which hitherto seems to have been left unexploredwithin media research.    While establishing a viewpoint through the interdisciplinary field of media research andpsychoanalysis, my intention is to broach a discussion on the possibilities of expanding itsviewpoints and theoretical frameworks unto the video game medium. In the present thesis I will forthis purpose center the discussion on the dreamlike Portal games, developed by Valve Corporation,which manages to enact a psychologically interesting narrative content largely through its spatialfeatures, as well as their game mechanics.    The psychoanalytic approach I intend to adopt for this study will, apart from taking mediaspecifications into account, also necessarily, following Gilles Deleuzes and Félix Guattaris focus onthe historical-political situation in their critique of earlier psychoanalytic inquiry, be directedtowards a societal context while addressing the individual works. I will thus, while analyzingspatial-psychological implications of works in different media, be regarding contemporary topics ofcultural phenomena and theories on human psychology as important factors for the forms ofexpression and thematic content, which contemporary cultural artifacts may take.    The term transmediality, which below will be discussed in appliance to psychoanalytic inquiry,refers in this thesis to the definition outlined by the literary scholar Irina Rajewsky, who situates itsemergence in an ongoing development in the field of the interconnected narratology and intermedialstudy, in which I hope to engage and contribute.

The thesis explores the role of music in Günter Grass’s novels. In pointing out the vital role of intermediality for Grass’s narrative strategies, the thesis opens up for a new, intermedial perspective on his work. It shows how references to music are used to realise Grass’s poetological concept “paspresenture” – the simultaneous presence of past, present and future – as well as his constant strive towards concreteness. The study draws on theories of intermediality, with a special focus on the role of transmedial media characteristics. It develops a transmedial methodology for analysing intermedial references, stressing how the notion of “musicality” within the text is created by media characteristics shared by both music and literature. Intermedial references are conceived as highlighting structures that are inherent in literature. The textual analyses of The Tin Drum (1959), Too Far Afield (1995) and Crabwalk (2002) are divided into three steps. First, explicit musical references in the narratives are interpreted as indexes pointing towards transmedial structures relevant to this specific context. Second, the examination demonstrates the prominent role of transmedial characteristics such as repetitivity, contrast, simultaneity and performativity within the texts. Third and last, the function of musical reference is discussed: in all three narratives, the focus on transmedial structures supplies a more consistent interpretation of passages which otherwise prove difficult to decipher. In Grass’s fiction, issues appear not to be discussed but performatively reenacted and thus remind more of musical than literary development. What is more, music – as handled by Grass – does not appear absolute or transcendent; rather, its manipulative potential is always prominent. However, the way musical references are used to realise Grass’s poetological aims stresses the bodily presence of musical performance, thus making music appear as the performative realisation of time.

Art in the city can be invisible until we talk about it. Letting children see public art in the context of play and narrative is a way to enhance creative thinking and knowledge as well as making the art visible. By creating a prototype for an art walk for children this study was able to create a scenery of children using different kinds of mediated narrative combined with a physical environment and movement. The theoretical framework of the project was picture books (Rhedin, 1991) transmedia (Jenkins 2006, Ryan 2004) and public art (Kwon 2002). The project’s aim was to create an empirical context for primary school children to explore public artwork. The project was designed as a walk for children and teachers, within a narrative context presented in a printed book containing illustrations of the actual artwork and a framing mystery story. The book also contains blank pages for children to draw and write stories based on the book and their empirical experience. Analysing the material from a method based on narratology (Genette 1980, Brooks 1992, Brannigan 1995) and phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 1945/1997) the study shows that switching between turning of pages, between the illustrations in the book and the first hand experience of being in the physical environment, leads to a high degree of engagement. Interaction with the artwork also inspires children to draw their own pictures, based on the artwork, and to create their own stories about it.

The diploma thesis called Jára Cimrman as a transmedial phenomenon - canon and participation focuses on the fictional character of Jára Cimrman from several points of view. Jára Cimrman is briefly introduced in the thesis and the founding of Jára Cimrman Theatre (Divadlo Járy Cimrmana) and the founding of Cimrman Salon (Salón Cimrman) are also described. The information about a radio programme called Vinárna U Pavouka where the name of Jára Cimrman first appeared are also involved. Identifying the canon of Cimrman presents an important element of the first part of the thesis. The following chapters focus on mystification and fictional world. The practical part of the thesis then deals particularly with fan participation and other user-generated content. The thesis briefly introduces and then uses various media and literary theories. These are especially transmediality theory, fictional worlds theory and mystification. The associated aim of this thesis is to describe composing of Cimrman's fictional world based on the canon with the help of literary theories. The canon or rather a corpus of the chosen texts is subsequently compared to the excerpts (but not only excerpts) of fan participation and produsage. The outcome of the thesis is also a partial mapping of Cimrman's marks in the Czech Republic...