Sweeney Todd, Victorian Transmedia

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Transmedia storytelling has recently become the object of critical attention, as literary critics try to explain how franchises like Star Wars work across time and media. Henry Jenkins is usually credited for coining the term in 2006. According to Jenkins, “transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” Jenkins's definition of transmedia storytelling sets the bar very high--each element of the franchise must contribute independently to the story as a whole. Critics such as Jason Mittell and Marie-Laure Ryan posit a more capacious definition of transmedia that does not require such a high bar of independence and coherence.

The nineteenth century often told stories across media. Adaptations were rampant. Sweeney Todd (1846-47) is an example of this. First published by Edward Lloyd in one of his weekly penny papers, the story of Sweeney Todd was likely written by James Malcolm Rymer. The story was serialized as A String of Pearls, A Romance in eighteen weekly parts from 21 November 1846 to 20 March 1847. Three weeks before serialization concluded, George Dibdin Pitt staged a melodramatic adaptation of the story at the Britannia Saloon Theatre. Three years later, Edward Lloyd would draw upon Dibdin Pitt's plot innovations in a vastly extended version of The String of Pearls, serialized in 93 eight-page weekly penny parts from 1850-51.

Lloyd and Rymer could have reacted only competitively to Dibdin Pitt's melodrama; instead, they reacted cooperatively by subsuming Dibdin Pitt's melodrama into the storyworld of Sweeney Todd. I explore how this might constitute transmedia storytelling in an article scheduled for a special issue of space and place in Victorian Periodicals Review.