Children's Digital Narrative

This paper offers a discussion on how narrative texts work mechanically, based on the storytelling mechanism theory I constructed (Zheng 2016) and cybertext theory introduced by Espen Aarseth (1997). It agrees with my previous findings that there are no intrinsic differences between digital literature and literature presented on other platforms in terms of their mechanical textual behaviours. However, this paper also points out the limitations of my theory in its previous stage. To fix the problem, this paper differentiates the storytelling mechanism theory from its theoretical origin, cybertext theory, avoids the problems found in both theories, and further develops my typology of narrative texts to include 35 logical questions that can provide more meticulous views to enquire about a narrative text. Moreover, this paper constructs a map that can be used to demonstrate visually how a narrative text is produced with collaborative efforts from the three elements in the storytelling mechanism.

Digital children’s literature is a relatively recently established field of research that has been seeking for its theoretical base and defining its position and scope. Its major attention so far has been on the narrative app, a new form of children’s literature displayed on a touchscreen computational device.

The narrative app came into being around 2010, and immediately attracted the attention of the academics. So far, various studies have been conducted to explore its educational potential, but very few have investigated the app for what it is in its own right. To bridge the gap, this study has explored the nature of the narrative app and the essential principles of its narrative strategies.

As the subject of this study concerns a variety of disciplines, this research has been conducted in an extremely interdisciplinary way in order to develop a thorough understanding of the narrative app. In general, it has consulted scholarship in children’s literature (picturebook studies in particular), narratology, computer science, game studies, social semiotics, film studies, media studies, communication studies, electronic literature and game design.

With this interdisciplinary approach, this study has attempted to define the subject of the study, identify some tendencies in its development, and most importantly, develop an original theory of storytelling and a narrative map that may be able to explain the intrinsic methods used in the narrative app storytelling as well as other digital and non-digital storytelling. The findings of this study seem to suggest that the narrative app does not display any essential differences from the codex and other forms of literature in terms of its narrative strategies, but it appears to have great potential to truly innovate storytelling.

It is suggested that this study may provide an effective theoretical scope and methodology for the study of the field of digital children’s literature, which may offer the potential to strengthen this field of research. The theoretical framework constructed by this study may be applicable to some educational approaches to the narrative app, and may also be useful for teaching new literacies.

No universo das narrativas digitais, os book apps infantis, livros em formatos de aplicativos, destacam-se pela vasta possibilidade de incluir elementos interativos em seu conteúdo. No entanto, as propriedades dos ambientes digitais, como a interatividade, devem estar coerentes à estrutura da narrativa. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo foi verificar se a interatividade em book app infantil pode contribuir para o envolvimento do leitor na história. De acordo com Stichnothe [2014] é possível avaliar esta literatura emergente de acordo com as teorias de games. Para tanto, a partir de uma abordagem exploratória e qualitativa, analisou-se o book app Jack and the Beanstalk, na perspectiva das categorias estéticas da narrativa digital interativa: imersão, agência e transformação [MURRAY 2003], frente a anatomia dramática da ação [LAUREL 2014]. Observou-se que é fundamental alinhar a interatividade de forma significativa tendo em vista o arco dramático, favorecendo a estética no meio digital e, assim, buscar envolver o leitor na narrativa.

The children's picturebook presented in digital media, such as tablets and e-readers, allows the growth of interactive features, dynamic elements and sound stimuli that make it a hypermedia product. This paper, however, presents a descriptive-analytical study that specifically addresses the visual graph structure of child ebook Treasure Kai and the Lost Gold Shark Island. The visual grammar of the product is considered, describing the basic arrangement of visual elements in the principles of design as a communication strategy in the graphical interface. Such questions define the visual organization of the publication, which should be readable and coherent interface with the general meaning of the message. Based on this study, was identified strategies used will define visual graph structure of child ebook. Among them stands out the formal characteristics, color and textures used to differentiate interactive objects, specific treatments backgrounds to emphasize or indicate the changes in the flow of history and contrasts that contribute to the perception of the elements and display hierarchies in the process reading.

This paper suggests that viewing traditional narrative structure with its climactic plot as a norm diminishes the importance of all other narrative structures.  It demonstrates that rather than being traditional, this structure is a fairly recent upstart in narrative history, that young children view story as structured differently before schools channel their ideas through language arts curriculum, and that young children engage with stories as experience rather than structured texts.  Maintaining such a norm denies a rich source of different forms of narrative expression on which game developers can draw, and fails to support the genres being explored within digital media today.