Transmedia Critical| Don Quixote of La Mancha: Transmedia Storytelling in the Grey Zone

Abstract

Transmedia storytelling is one of the most interesting phenomena emerging from the contemporary media ecology. In this article, the focus moves from contemporary transmedia productions to a literary classic: The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, written by Miguel de Cervante from 1605–1615). Inspired by the conceptions of Henry Jenkins and Jesús Martín-Barbero, this article first reflects on the relationships between participatory culture, the media industry, and popular cultures; second, the article analyses from a narratological perspective a corpus of productions published between the 19th and 20th centuries in Spain that expanded the narrative universe of Cervantes’ masterpiece. The research specifically focuses on the auques, a series of peripheral graphic productions situated in a grey zone between Cervantes’ official narrative (the canon) and user-generated content (the fandom).