In:Children’s Literature Across Media: Concepts and perspectives of transmedia narratives
Edited by Nina Christensen, Ute Dettmar and Sarah Mygind
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 21] 2026
► pp. 1–11
Introduction
Transmedia and intermediality studies and texts for and by children and young adults
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Phenomena and practices of transmedia storytelling have
been a central research interest in various disciplines for several years.
As Matthew Freeman and Renira Gambarato state in their introduction to the
Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies (2019): “The transmedia phenomenon
has led to the burgeoning of transmedia studies across film, television,
cultural, and communication studies across the academy, not to mention the
wider creative and cultural industries” (1). The present volume is based on
an interdisciplinary approach to transmedia storytelling, worldbuilding and
transmediality and it addresses different levels of production, various
kinds of artefacts and media, as well as examples of reception situated in
the context of contemporary convergent media cultures. The overall focus is
on contemporary developments in children’s literature and young adult
fiction in a transmedia environment, in the book market for children and
young adults, and in the diverse literary and media practices of children
and young people.
Article outline
- Similarities and differences: Transmedia and intermediality studies
- Children’s literatures studies and historical accounts of transmedia phenomena
- Overview of the volume
- Author queries
References
References (54)
Anders, Petra. 2021. Serialität
in der
Digitalität. In Serialität
in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Ina Brendel-Perpina & Anna Kretzschmar (eds.), 34–48. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengehren.
Appel, Charlotte, Christensen, Nina & Grenby, M. O. (eds.). 2023. Transnational
Books for Children 1750–1900: Producers, Consumers,
Encounters. Amsterdam &Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Bell, Christopher (ed.). 2019. Transmedia
Harry Potter: Essays on Storytelling across
Platforms, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
Booth, Paul. 2019. Transmedia
fandom and participation: the nuances and contours of fannish
participation. In The
Routledge Companion to Transmedia
Studies, Matthew Freeman & Renira Rampazzo Gambarato (eds.), 279–288. New York: Routledge.
Bordwell, David. 2009. Now
Leaving from Platform 1. [URL] (29 Sept.
2025)
Busse, Kristina. 2017. Framing
Fan Fiction: Literary and Social Practices in Fan Fiction
Communities. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.
Dena, Christy. 2019. Transmedia
Adaptation. Revisiting the No-Adaptation
Rule. In The
Routledge Companion to Transmedia
Studies, Matthew Freeman & Renira Rampazzo Gambarato (eds.), 195–206. New York: Routledge.
Dettmar, Ute. 2016. Fortgesetztes
Erzählen. In Serialität
in Literatur und Medien. Vol.1. Theorie und
Didaktik, Petra Anders & Michael Staiger (eds.), 115–127. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengehren.
. 2020. Serielles
Erzählen. In Handbuch
Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Tobias Kurwinkel, Philipp Schmerheim & Stefanie Jakobi (eds.), 137–144. Berlin: Springer.
Elleström, Lars. 2019. Transmedial
Narration: Narratives and Stories in Different
Media. Cham: Springer Nature.
Fitzsimmons, Rebekah & Wilson, Casey Alane. 2021. Boom!
Goes the Hypercanon: On the Importance of the Overlooked and
Understudied in Young Adult
Literature. In Beyond
the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult
Fiction, Rebekah Fitzsimmons & Casey Alane Wilson (eds.), ix–xxiv. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Freeman, Matthew. 2017. Historicising
Transmedia Storytelling: Early Twentieth-Century Transmedia
Storyworlds. New York: Routledge.
Freeman, Matthew & Rampazzo Gambarato, Renira (eds.). 2019. The
Routledge Companion to Transmedia
Studies. New York: Routledge.
Grenby, M. O. 2011. The
Child Reader,
1700–1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [URL]
Hengst, Heinz. 2014. Am
Anfang war die Biene Maja. Medienverbund und Japanisierung der
kommerziellen
Kultur. In 100
Jahre Biene Maja — vom Kinderbuch zum
Kassenschlager, Harald Weiß (ed.), 143–166. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.
Henkel, Ayoe Quist, Mygind, Sarah & Svendsen, Helle B. 2021. Exploring
Reading Experiences of Three Media Versions: Danish 8th Grade
Students Reading the Story
Nord. L1-Educational Studies in
Language and
Literature 21: 1–29.
Henkel, Ayoe Quist, Lassén-Seger, Maria & Mygind, Sarah. 2024. The
Inter- and Transmedial Aesthetics of Children’s
Literature. Nordic Journal of
ChildLit
Aesthetics 15 (1): 1–2.
Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence
Culture. Where Old and New Media
Collide. New York: New York University Press.
Jenkins 2007. Transmedia
Storytelling 101. [URL] (29. Sept.
2025)
Jenkins, Henry. 2009. The
Aesthetics of
Transmedia. In Response
to David Bordwell. [URL] (29 Sept.
2025)
Josting, Petra, Illies, Marlene Antonia, Preis, Matthias & Weber, Annemarie (eds.). 2020. Deutschsprachige
Kinder- und Jugendliteratur im Medienverbund
1900–1945. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
. (2024). German-Language
Children’s and Youth Literature in The Media Network
1900–1945. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
Kelleter, Frank. 2012. „Toto,
I think We’re in Oz Again“ (and Again and Again): Remakes and
Popular
Seriality. In Film
Remakes, Adaptations and Fan Productions: Remake/
Remodel, Kathleen Loock & Constantin Verevis (eds.), 19–44, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kérchy, Anna & Sundmark, Björn (eds.). 2020. Translating
and Transmediating Children’s
Literature. Cham: Springer.
Kinder, Marsha. 1991. Playing
with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games: From Muppet
Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Klastrup, Lisbeth & Tosca, Susana. 2004. Transmedial
Worlds. Rethinking Cyberworld
Design. Proceedings of the 2004
International Conference on
Cyberworlds, 209–416.
Krotz, Friedrich. 2007. The
Meta-Process of ’Mediatization’ as a Conceptual
Frame. Global Media and
Communication 3 (3): 256–260.
Kurwinkel, Tobias. 2020. Medien-
und
Produktverbund. In Handbuch
Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Tobias Kurwinkel, Philipp Schmerheim & Stefanie Jakobi (eds.), 14–18. Berlin: Springer.
Lauer, Gerhard. 2025. Die
neue literarische Öffentlichkeit: Zum Stand eines
Strukturwandels. Merkur 79 (3): 26–38.
Lipski, Jakub et al. 2020. Rewriting
Crusoe: The Robinsonade Across Languages, Cultures, and
Media. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.
McArdle, Molly. 2016. Queen
of the Bookternet: How Rachel Fershleiser Finds Readers Where They
Already Are. Brooklyn
Magazine. [URL] (29 September
2025).
Murray, Simone. 2018. The
Digital Literary Sphere: Reading, Writing, and Selling Books in the
Internet
Era. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mygind, Sarah. 2019. Harry
Potter, the boy with many faces: The illustrated Harry Potter books
in transmedia
motion. In Transmedia
Harry Potter: Essays on Storytelling across
Platforms, Christopher Bell (ed.), 181–198. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
. 2024. Young
People’s Literature in Transmedia
Networks. Unpublished keynote
lecture from the conference Researching the Reading
Experience in the Digital Age, Copenhagen
University 24–26
June.
O’Malley, Andrew. Children’s
Literature, Popular Culture, and Robinson
Crusoe. 2012. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Passalacqua, Franco & Pianzola, Federico. 2011. Defining
Transmedia Narrative: Problems and Questions. Dialogue with
Mary-Laure Ryan. Enthymema
(Milano) 4(4): 65–71.
Pianzola, Federico, Ribora, Simone & Lauer, Gerhard. 2020. Wattpad
as a resource for literary studies: Quantitative and qualitative
examples of the importance of digital social reading and readers’
comments in the margins. PLOS
ONE: 15 (1): e0226708.
Ryan, Marie-Laure & Thon, Jan-Noël (eds). 2014. Storyworlds
across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious
Narratology. Lincoln: University Press Nebraska.
Schmidt, Hanns Christian. 2020. Transmediale
Topoi. Medienübergreifende Erzählwelten in seriellen
Narrativen. Marburg: Büchner.
Scolari, Carlos A. & Ibrus, Indrek. 2014. Transmedia
Critical: Empirical Investigations into Multiplatform and
Collaborative
Storytelling. International Journal
of
Communication 8: 2191–2200.
Steinberg, Marc. 2012. Anime’s
Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in
Japan. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Taylor, Aaron. 2005. Everyone
Wants a Piece of Pooh: Winnie, from Adaptation to Market
Saturation. In Rethinking
Disney: Private Control, Public
Dimensions, Mike Budd & Max H. Kirsch (eds.), 181–198, Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press.
Thon, Jan-Noël & Wilde, Lukas. 2019. Introduction:
Characters across Media. Frontiers of
Narrative
Studies 5 (2), 169–175,
Tosca, Susana & Klastrup, Lisbeth. 2019. Transmedial
Worlds in Everyday Life Networked Reception, Social Media, and
Fictional Worlds. New York: Routledge.
Weinkauff, Gina, Tomkowiak, Ingrid, Möbius, Thomas & Dettmar, Ute (eds.). 2013. Kinder-
und Jugendliteratur in Medienkontexten: Adaption — Hybridisierung —
Intermedialität —
Konvergenz. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Wolf, Werner. 2014. Intermedialität:
Konzept, literaturwissenschaftliche Relevanz, Typologie,
intermediale
Formen. In Intertextualität,
Intermedialität, Transmedialität. Zur Beziehung zwischen Literatur
und anderen Medien, Volker C. Dörr & Tobias Kurwinkel (eds.), 11–45. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
