Litteratur Mellem Medier. (Literature Media) ed. by Tore Rye Andersen, et al. (review)

Edited by Tore Rye Andersen, Jørgen Bruhn, Nina Christensen, et al. Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2018, 384 pages. ISBN: 978-87-7124-856-2

The collective volume Litteratur mellem medier (Literature between Media) explores a broad and in many respects unexplored field whose significance can hardly be underestimated in times of digital change. It addresses questions that are as simple as they are crucial: What exactly is a text? How does the medium influence a text? How are content, form, and materiality related? The core concept of the edited volume, which focuses on current developments while also pointing out historical references, is that of intermediality. It describes both the interplay between different media—which in turn addresses different senses—and that between media and users. Literature now takes place in this dynamic "in-between," that is, mellem medier, and arises in interaction between producers and recipients. This creates a broader concept of literature and text, and the volume aims to define, dissolve, and expand our understanding of the historically determined interactions between literature, the written text, and the material book. In the present time, due to digitalization and the possibilities and challenges it brings with it, it is immensely important to reassess the parameters of writing, books, and literature independently of one another. This also challenges us to reflect on and question traditional criteria of literary criticism, since the assumption that "real literature" can only exist in printed form seems obsolete.

The focus is now on the media in which the texts are communicated, which also raises the question of how the medium influences production and reception. Tore Rye Andersen refers here on the one hand to media scientist Marshall McLuhan's famous quote, "The medium is the message," and on the other to the importance of materiality, the physical and technical aspects. Here, the book historian Robert Darnton and the media scientist N. Katherine Hayles, among others, provide the theoretical framework.

The basic assumption of the volume is that mediality and materiality carry and constitute meaning. The essays examine in detail how content, medium, and materiality interact from various perspectives, which are based on literary analysis, book history, or media studies, and which take a look at the various forms of presenting literature. Tore Rye Andersen points out that even attempts to describe new phenomena often still rely on concepts and terms from the old book world—for example, audio formats are called audio books.The traditional book world thus still provides an important frame of reference, even though it often captures new phenomena only metaphorically and sometimes inadequately.

In Litteratur mellem medier, sixteen individual articles cover a wide range and examine "the textual content of literature as well as its various media and material, visual and phonetic aspects" (7). Among other things, the structure and effect of audio books, paratexts (book covers), and the staging of author portraits are analyzed. The question of how the materiality of a book reflects the poetics of a specific novel and influences its reception is also addressed, for example, the material manifestation of intended gaps in the narrative through blank pages. The reflections on digital narration are particularly interesting: How does a literature that is "digitally native" differ from one that is "only" digitally adapted? After all, a hypertext not only offers the possibility of breaking away from linearity but also turns readers into coproducers who can interpret a multitude of "tracks." While a "normal" e-book is just another medium (which nevertheless influences reception), a text that is created directly in a hypertext structure can explore other possibilities of information distribution and "dramaturgy."

The edited volume does not focus on children's and young adult literature, but by looking at computer games, apps, comics, and graphic novels, it illuminates phenomena from children's and young adult culture. While the analysis of comics and graphic novels considers the interplay of text and image, literary, book-based...