Ricerc@Sapienza

Grounded in literary narratology and transmedia studies, this project seeks to understand the complex ethical dynamics of contemporary storytelling at the intersection of old and new media. It aims to provide insights into the practices and policies needed to promote ethical and responsible storytelling in the convergent and digital era. Focusing on narratives from 1990 to 2024, the project examines how these stories evolve as they transition between traditional and new media within the convergent era (Jenkins 2006). This period is chosen because theorists believe narratives have significantly changed due to media convergence (Mittell 2015). Narratives now dominate cultural life, influencing literature, politics, television, cinema, and advertising. The project explores the relationship between ethics and storytelling across different media, highlighting both traditional and emerging platforms. Ethical themes have changed over the centuries, especially with the advent of 20th-century media. Traditional modes often depicted clear oppositions between good and evil (e.g., Antigone, Medea, Hamlet, Lear), while 20th-century narratives have blurred these distinctions (e.g., Emmanuel Carrère's L'Adversaire, and tv series as Black Mirror, Dexter, Squid Game, or even comics as Watchman). New convergent media have introduced ethical and moral challenges that require deeper analysis (Smith 1995; Ercolino-Fusillo 2022). While there are emerging definitions of narrative complexity and negative empathy toward characters, a precise analysis of complex narratives in relation to ethics is still lacking. Through an interdisciplinary investigation drawing from ethics, literature, literary theory, comparative literature, philosophy, literary criticism, film criticism, and artificial intelligence, this project aims to examine ethical issues in narratives. This includes analyzing the texts, authorship, and the consumers of literary, cinematic, television series, and transmedia products.