Transmedia Adaptation and Transmedia Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century

This review essay examines new trends in transmedia studies and their relationship to adaptation studies by focusing on two recent publications: Lissette Lopez Szwydky’s monograph Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century (The Ohio State UP: Ohio, 2020) and the collection of essays entitled Transmedia Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century (Routledge: London, 2022) edited by Christina Meyer and Monika Pietrzak-Franger. The essay analyses the recent shift in focus in transmedia research from storytelling to practices. This shift is part of the trend to historicize the development of convergence media and draw parallels between transmedia practices in the long nineteenth century and those at work today. The essay concludes by investigating the role that adaptation and adaptation studies play in these two volumes’ explorations of nineteenth-century transmedia.