Intermediality

Abstract

Whether they address other artifacts, imitate stylistic means associated with music and the visual arts, or include reproductions of non-verbal artworks, intermedial novels stretch the boundaries of the verbal in general and of fictional narrative in particular. They may play with expectations regarding genre and form. Reading them may require knowledge of the sign systems that are characteristic of the referenced non-literary art forms. Intermedial novels question traditional views of the possibilities of the novel - such as linear narrative and conventional presentation formats -by challenging how readers process media-specific communication and how readers translate form and content into meaning. Contemplating specific semiotic systems along with historical contexts of artistic production and reception produces intermedial readings that consider both the respective signification processes at work in a novel and the continuously changing cultural embeddedness of art forms and their expressive potential.