From short short stories to augmented narrative: some examples in contemporary spanish flash fiction

Abstract

In the early years of the 21^st century, flash fiction has become a clear example of hybrid, multiplatform, hypermedia and transmedia narrative. These phenomena are shown in various formats and are published in analog and digital media, although the latter has taken a prominent position. The particular path of some contemporary Spanish micro-stories can exemplify how this genre’s main characteristics –complex referential world, virtual narrative and extreme textual brevity– encourages these transformations. Apart from determining the changes experimented by these texts in their multiplatform journey, by comparing their analysis from a theoretical perspective and the semiotic interpretations of their combined codes, revealing conclusions will be reached. All storytelling levels will be involved: discursive ellipsis signs will be provided with unique meanings, uncertainties and intended gaps will be specified in the story sphere and references will be more direct. The fundamental doubt is whether we truly are before the transformation of extremely brief micro-stories into augmented storytelling or, on the contrary, the result restricts the power of suggestion, inherent to the genre.