Seriality and Storytelling in Social Media

Serial form has long been of interest to narrative scholars, but the characteristics of serial narrative identified thus far have been derived primarily from fictional examples in older media forms such as print texts and television. The key characteristics of serial form (e.g., part-whole segmentation and sequenced installments) can also be found in other storytelling modes, including stories that emerge from contemporary social-media contexts. In this article, using nonfictional as well as fictional narrative examples taken from social-network sites (YouTube), microblogging (Twitter), and wikis (Wikipedia), I identify both familiar and new patterns of seriality. Alongside recognized, familiar kinds of serial narratives, the new forms of seriality include non-teleological storytelling, reverse-order archiving, and the sequenced deletion (rather than addition) of material. Overall, the social-media serial forms I discuss highlight the way seriality is often a matter of degree and emphasize the importance of attending to the relationship between narrative process and product. The relative nature of seriality reinforces the need for a contextualized approach to narrative criticism, one that takes account of the perspectives of narrators and audiences, along with the sociohistorical situation of stories that emerge in serial form.

Serial Form and Narrativity

Narrative analysts have explored serial forms in discussions of nineteenth-century literature (Hayward 1997; Hughes and Lund 1991), television narrative (Mittell 2007), comic books, and film serials (Barefoot 2011), and they are beginning to engage with newer media such as computer games (Newman and Simon 2011), fandoms (Thomas 2010), and web-disseminated narratives (Lang 2010). These serial forms have provided vital stimulus for exploring narratological issues such as plot dynamics, suspense, and teleological resolution; for contrasting episodic and serial genres; and for tracing the evolution of particular serial forms from conventional to more complex modes (Mittell 2006). Despite the transmedial, broadly historical scope of these discussions, the focus has almost exclusively rested on fictional genres (but see Kelleter forthcoming as an exception to this trend). What is more, in identifying core attributes of serial narratives, analysts have tended to rely on a specific subcorpus of largely plot-driven, fictional modes. To come to terms with the full range of serial storytelling, theorists need to consider other varieties of serial narration, including those found in contemporary social-media contexts. The examples I focus on in this article suggest an alternative subcorpus that affords new insights into serial form. In particular, the social-media storytelling brought under scrutiny here—storytelling in wikis, social-network sites, and microblogging sites—highlights the importance of considering modes of production and reception in studies of seriality. These modes may be set alongside those found in offline forms of narration and in other online narrative environments that would not be classed as social media (e.g., hypertext fiction or e-mail novels). The social-media focus of this article thus extends the range of serial examples used as a basis for theory building while also underscoring the potential for seriality to be reconfigured in novel communicative contexts.

In much of the previous scholarship on serial narratives, the qualities of seriality are assumed rather than clearly defined. Hayward (1997), though, provides a starting point with her description of the serial as “an ongoing narrative released in successive parts” (3). Jones (2005) further suggests that there is usually a gap between one serial installment and the next and that the installments are often disseminated on a regular basis (e.g., publication may occur on repeated daily or weekly occasions). As Hayward’s description implies, in contrast with wider-scope discussions of the history of serial publication (Amiran 1997; Brake 2010), analyses of serial form mainly concern themselves with narrative examples rather than with other genres (such as expository discourse). Yet not all serial publication involves narratives. Simply producing a text in segments over time does not a narrative make: the content of that text must demonstrate narrativity. At its simplest, a narrative must report a temporally ordered sequence of events; however, as Ryan (2007) points out, a number of additional factors are oft en invoked as markers of narrativity, that is, the qualities that...