Pride and Prejudice, written in1813 by Jane Austen, was aimed at upper-middle class women of that era. However, its audience has grown larger than someone of that time could have imagined. With adaptations ranging from graphic novels to film and television series, and in this case, a YouTube web series. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013) created by Hank Green and Bernie Sue, reimagines the classic novel and explores it through the lens of digital media. Presented in the format of video blogs, the series follows a graduate student named Lizzie Bennet as she shares stories from her life. The series ran for one hundred episodes however, there were a number of spin-offs across twitter and tumblr, which created a participatory element to the program. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a clear example of a piece of transmedia digital literature that adds value to the original texts as it adapts them for young adult audiences.
The vlog format transforms the classic novel into a first-person confessional style series that is aimed at a younger audience and was particularly relevant to that early YouTube era. This format made the experience more intimate and personal for the audience than traditional text could. This approach works well for younger audiences who are familiar with social media, thereby making the text more accessible and relevant. The adolescents of today are born into a world of digital media; they have, ‘grown up surrounded by digital tools’ (Hovious, Shinas, & Harper, 2021). These tools can be utlisied to make traditional literature more engaging and accessible for students in today’s tech generation. However, there is a trade-off when using these digital formats. One trade off that fans of the traditional written text may find the fast-paced, informal style is less satisfying than the traditional format and sacrifices some of the nuances of the time period in which the novel is originally set.
The story outlined in the 100 episodes, whilst engaging and fun, is only scratching the surface of the transmedia design of the series. Transmedia refers to digital environments that encourage readers to, ‘seek out content, explore information in different contexts, evaluate ideas across formats, and interact with other readers’ (Lamb, 2011). The Lizzie Bennet Diaries achieves this through the multi-platform, multimodal approach to the story. By providing additional information through the narrative voice of supporting characters and encouraging audience participation in comment sections across social media. Characters such as younger sister Lydia Bennet, were given their own social media accounts, there were Twitter posts, GIFs, and YouTube vlogs from their perspectives. This additional information supported the overall experience of the audience.
Fans at the time who followed the story across platforms experienced a layered, multi-voiced narrative that extended from the main episodes to create a complete retelling of the classic novel. In this way, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries blurred the line between literature, television, and social media performance. The modernisation of Austen’s themes also resonated strongly with young adults. Issues like career pressures, student debt, and social media oversharing replaced Regency-era concerns about marriage and inheritance, while still keeping the spirit of the original novel alive.
The series was multimodal as the narrative was told through not only the spoken words but through the visual cues, editing techniques, costume role-plays, and the additional media content. The narrative voice of Lizzie was crucial in drawing the audience into her world, and the confessional format made viewers feel more like the characters were friends rather than just characters within a text. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries illustrates the flexibility of digital platforms in adapting traditional texts. Instead of condensing Austen’s narrative into a single vlog, it spread the story across multiple channels and platforms. This fragmented yet interconnected design reflects the way young adults already consume media; through scrolling, clicking, and jumping between platforms
The complexity of this multimodal format creates some issues around viewers engaging with the whole content of the story. With the multi-platform nature of the digital literature piece, casual viewers were more likely to miss the nuance of the different perspectives and additional information found across twitter, tumblr, and the spin-off vlog series. Were this a viewers only experience of Pride and Prejudice, the fragmented story telling results in missed information and context that a reader may find more clear in the traditional text format.
This example whilst on the list provided in the course, is particularly interesting in that it is still engaging more than a decade after its release. In 2022, Ashley Clements, the actor who played Lizzie, fanned the flames of the original audience by creating an engaging rewatch of each episode on the anniversary of its release. She provided behind the scenes anecdotes, interviewed other actors, and gave a deeper look into the making of the original web series. As for the content of the story, when addressing the relevance and timelessness of Jane Austen’s original work, we can refer to the Netflix adaptation directed by Euros Lyn, which is set to release in 2026. This story transcends time and continues to resonate with readers across generations.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries shows that classic stories can thrive just as strongly on YouTube as they can on the page.
References
Hovious, A., Shinas, V. H., & Harper, I. (2021). The compelling nature of transmedia storytelling: Empowering twenty-first-century readers and writers through multimodality. TechTrends, 26, 215–229. v https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09437-7
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12–18.