Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This study explores the prospects of constructing a metadata model to capture the transformation of classic evil characters through various media adaptations. The scope encompasses ancient literary themes and motifs as they evolve through a ‘remediation’ model of analysis in both the literary sense of the term and the computational one. Within this frame, the researcher employs Bolter and Grusin’s theory of ‘remediation’ that explains the digital proliferation as an evolution of various forms of media that derives from one another both old and new. Remediation would allow for linking various adaptations and transtextual representations of a work of literature through various media modes. In exploring the cycle of remediation throughout various eras and modes of media expression, main topics of discussion persist. For example, whether the interchangeable role of monsters emerging into superheroes represent a rebellion against the traditional norm of what monstrous is. Another topic is whether audience interaction with emerging media in the form of comments, reviews, re-posting and sometimes even reproducing their own versions, reflect the same dynamics literature once enjoyed with ancient oral traditions. Further, can this audience interaction go beyond story adaptations in ways that challenge cultural institutions that have dominated media and information industries worldwide?