10.4225/03/58b8af939bc4f Maher, Laura-Jane Laura-Jane Maher 99 problems: an exploration of writerly ontologies in transmedial life-writing Monash University 2017 Autobiography 2016 Transmedia ethesis-20160501-214718 Transmedia franchising thesis(doctorate) Otherness Writerly monash:170713 Lacuna Life-writing Alterity Open access Subjectivity Relationality 1959.1/1263563 Ontology Writerlyness Feminism Transmedia storytelling 2017-03-02 23:49:37 Thesis https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/99_problems_an_exploration_of_writerly_ontologies_in_transmedial_life-writing/4719565 Recent years have seen a proliferation of studies directed at storyworlds that are constructed across multiple media platforms. These are alternately described as transmedia, cross-media, and immersive or distributed phenomena. To date most research in this field has focussed on its implications for entertainment and imaginative storyworld creation, and has generally considered those storyworlds that blossom from cinematic or computer and consul gaming experiences. Rather than investigate the effect this constellation of artistic forms might have on the storyworld as a product, this thesis concentrates on the effect of using transmedial creative practices to explore autobiographical storyworlds, in particular how such storyworlds enable a renegotiation of the subject and other. The outcome of this research raises questions regarding how such storyworlds are positioned and regulated in an economic and legal context. To do this, this thesis draws on the semiotic theory of “writerlyness” and then embeds it within a feminist framework indebted to intersectionality to illuminate the matrix of ontologies that manifest in an autobiographical storyworld. Since the phenomenon involves both diegetic and mimetic modes, a new reading practice described as the “lacuna” is introduced to account for the variety of reading practices that arise in response to these storyworlds. This thesis considers how transmedial narratives are regulated and how that regulation is subverted in order to determine how readers and creators can use transmedial life-writing to challenge regulatory discourses that purport to police creative endeavour and subjective expression.