Intermedial Encounters : Developing a Co-Reading Method of the Contemporary Novel and Art Exhibition

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates what a co-reading and co-attendance method of the contemporary, experimental novel and art exhibition would look like. This study also seeks to reveal what formal affordances the contemporary novel and exhibition share, to examine how they are moving towards each other, and to understand what can be gained from studying them together. The method is grounded in theoretical frameworks from literary studies, intermedial studies, and auto-ethnography, combined with an exploratory approach. Three case studies of thematically paired novels and exhibitions apply this preliminary method. Within the case studies, various structures – orders, times, and intervals – guide the meeting with exhibitions and literary texts to test which structures produce the most effective, sustained, and reciprocal encounters. The primary result is the presentation of an ideal, co-reading method that a reader could readily implement. The findings also reveal the key shared and non-shared formal affordances and formal logics that the novel and the exhibition harness to construct storyworlds. Ultimately, this study asserts that when paired together under a theme, a novel and an exhibition can successfully provide access to a multitude of complementary sensorial and multimodal experiences. The constructed co-reading and co-attendance method advocates new, interdisciplinary ways of thinking about novels, exhibitions, theory, and contemporary topics.