The Arc and the Machine Narrative and the New Media

The Arc and the Machineis a timely and original defense of narrative in an age of information. Stressing interpretation and experience alongside affect and sensation it convincingly argues that narrative is key to contemporary forms of cultural production and to the practice of contemporary life. Re-appraising the prospects for narrative in the digital age, it insists on the centrality of narrative to informational culture and provokes a critical re-appraisal of how innovations in information technology as a material cultural form can be understood and assessed.

Caroline Bassett is Senior Lecturer in Digital Media in the Department of Media and Film at the University of Sussex.