What is Literature?
Literature can be defined as a group of written works-- specifically works that have a lasting impression from an artistic standpoint (Lexico). Books such as The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen are just a few out of the many books that considered some of the greatest pieces of literary art to exist in the modern era (The Greatest Books). Some of these books have become so popular that they have been readapted into various forms of media such as television series, movies, plays, and musicals, dramatized audio recordings, and even web series through various platforms.
In April of 2012, Hank Green and Bernie Su, Youtube content creators, released the first episode of the “Lizzie Bennet Diaries” (LBD for short), a modern take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. An avant-garde piece of its time, the LBD seemed like a simplistic rendition of Austen’s classic novel but it ended up winning an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media (Television Academy).
The series presented as a vlog follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice with a few changes to fit its modern take on the story. What made this series so popular wasn’t just because it was the first of its kind nor because avid lovers of the original work were seeking new content. The vlog series became popular because the series was not limited to its main platform on Youtube but was shared and discussed across various social media outlets. The series became alive and loved due to the audience interaction with the story as it was being told and it changed how people interact with literature.
Although the series has been over for almost six years now, how the series can be defined has slightly changed. It was presented as a fictional vlog series but one can argue that it is a form of fanfiction, therefore, being a form of digital literature. To understand what digital literature is, you have to work your way from the ground up. Through this blog, I will do my best to explain how “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” fits in the digital literature world by discussing topics such as multimodality, transmedia, digital literature and the impact and implications of this series.
If you’d like to learn more, start here.
References
Definition of Literature
The Greatest Books
Television Academy