Translations, adaptations and cross media storytelling in Europe from 1830 to 1930

Between 1830 and 1930, Europe underwent radical change and entered modernity, by the emersion and expansion of a multimedia and mass culture, crossing linguistic and national boundaries and overturning cultural practices, sparking the imagination of countless individuals and providing new and cosmopolitan icons for the collective imagination. The history and main aspects of this cultural New Deal are first described, to emphasize afterwards that transmedia storytelling and convergence culture could be early observed on a wide European and even intercontinental scale, within the framework of the first multimedia ‘common market’ of European fiction. This argument will be illustrated by drawing from a wide range of examples.