Beyond Adventure

This focus area is born of the observation that the dynamic of adventurous storytelling is often driven by a desire to break out of its own seriality and to reach a limit whose transgression would put an end to all adventurous transgressions. Therefore, the phrase "beyond adventure" does not merely describe an ‘Other’ of adventure; it alludes to a space outside of the realm of adventure, which remains related to adventurous narration and considerably influences it. This ostensibly vague and undefined sphere beyond adventure requires closer narratological investigation because it defines the structure of adventurous texts. It follows that the tendency to transgress its own premises is rooted in the paradigm of adventure itself.
The quintessential symbol of this desire for a realm beyond adventure is the motif of the grail. In the Arthurian novel, the grail denotes a boundary that chivalric adventure approaches as a result of its own internal logic of relentless escalation and intensification, but which can never be crossed. The problem of the limits of adventure remains open for debate in the narrative culture of later literary eras, as does the search for a religious or secular 'beyond' that adventure strives towards: trauma, the void at the centre, the heart of darkness – some border that cannot be crossed, at which the phantasmatic flow of adventure is halted.
As soon as the phantasmatic nature of adventure comes to be regarded as a flaw, literature itself sets out to search for a core of truth in adventurous narratives. This search for truth aims to find a different, secular form of 'beyond'. The issue of a "contact zone" (Bachtin) between adventurous narration and its societal surroundings arises as a result of this quest. This issue remains a topic of discussion within the genre of the novel until today and even resulted in the terminological distinction between “romance” and “novel” in the English language. Under the influence of modern and digital mass media, the potential for infinite continuation inherent to adventure once again becomes an aesthetic principle - as a manifestation of the unbridled growth of seriality in the midst of media-driven expansion. In the conditions brought about by these ever-changing forms of media, only the hardware on which it runs can exist "beyond adventure".