New book!
This volume brings together the work of early-career humanities researchers across Europe on the pressing issue of climate change. Within the framework of the European Association for American Studies, the essays employ a variety of perspectives and methodologies, demonstrating the relevance of humanities research in providing insight and inspiring global action. The scholars probe critically into representations of climate change in contemporary literature, the narrative implications of VR technologies and AI branding, and what it means to be human, and especially a woman, in the face of a climate crisis. The essays reveal the political undercurrents of representation and draw attention to the environmental impact as experienced in real and imagined worlds, particularly by indigenous communities. Reconnections offers a nuanced understanding of climate change by young scholars of American Studies and adjacent disciplines, emphasizing the urgent need to establish a new relationship with our planet, as well as among each other.
Contributors: Loredana Filip, Paschalia Mitskidou, Evripidis Karavasilis, Christina Koukouli, Foteini Toliou, Yıldız Aşar, Niki Grigoria Karamanidou, Judith Campagne, Laura Handl, Lukas H. Seidler, Susen Halank, Maria Virginia Tsikopoulou
Cover design: Nassia Kefala
Monograph
This book explores the growing body of multimodal literary texts: books that creatively experiment with the potential of design to represent narrative content. Examining five North and Central American novels from the first two decades of the twenty-first century, this study draws attention to texts that combine verbal text (writing) with non-verbal elements (photographic images, varied typography, maps, color, etc.) as integral parts of their narratives. Their experimentation both reconfigures the potential for print-based (and born-digital) fiction in the future, and holds a mirror to past practices of design and typography that were rendered invisible, or which received limited attention by authors, publishers, and readers. By placing the five case studies and related texts within a broader history of experimentation in literature, this book demonstrates how multimodal novels have changed the conceptualization of narrative content in literary texts and ushered in a new era for fiction.
Latest publication!
Building student engagement and creativity: A workshop on American multimodal fiction
This article examines the educational benefits of a workshop on American multimodal fiction. Despite growing research in the fields of multimodality studies and teaching and learning processes, the capacity of print-based multimodal fiction for creative pedagogical objectives remained largely unaddressed. In this workshop, students were introduced to a body of print-based novels that combine writing with design and typographic elements, images and maps, and were able to experience them first-hand in class. The books were arranged in different parts of the room in working stations and students experienced them autonomously. Their impressions fed into the creative work they submitted, where they were asked to re-imagine a short story into a multimodal text. The outcome of this process demonstrated the significance of student engagement in class, the potential of primary material to stimulate curiosity and sharpen their skillset and the capacity of print-based literary texts for inspiring creative output in the digital age.
Books
Mantzaris, Thomas (2024). Multimodal Poetics in Contemporary Fiction: Design and Experimentation in North and Central American Texts. Palgrave/Springer Nature.
Edited books
Mantzaris, Thomas, editor (2025). Reconnections: The Humanities in a Time of Climate Change. HELAAS Digital Publications.
Special issues in journals
Mantzaris, Thomas, editor (accepted/in press, 2026). Writing the New Twenties. AmLit – American Literatures.
Articles
Mantzaris, Thomas (2025). “Building Student Engagement and Creativity: A Workshop on American Multimodal Fiction.” European Journal of American Culture, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 73-79.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2023). “Understanding Maps after Multimodal Literature: A New Taxonomy.” Cartographic Perspectives, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 10-24.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2022). “Bridges and Words: The Poetry of John Ashbery.” Hartis, vl. 39, 2022, pp. 1-4. (in Greek)
Mantzaris, Thomas (2020). “Multimodal Literature in the Age of Covid-19.” Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media, vol. 4, pp. 137-150.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2020). “‘A Singular Gesture’: Zachary Thomas Dodson on the Potential of Design in Fiction.” Book 2.0, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020.
Mantzaris, Thomas, and Katerina Marazi (2019). “Seasoning the Novel: Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar.” Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media, vol. 3, pp. 303-316.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2018). “Visual Literature in the 21st Century: An Interview with Anna Gerber.” Materialities of Literature, vol.6, no.1, pp. 211-219.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2018). “Photography and the American Multimodal Novel: Exploring J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s S.” Iperstoria: Journal of American and English Studies, vol. 11, pp. 69-80.
Chapters in edited volumes
Mantzaris, Thomas (forthcoming, 2025). “Horror on the Page: Translating Multimodal Fiction.” Translating Horror: Shadows on the Page and Screen, edited by Paschalis Nikolaou, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Mantzaris, Thomas (accepted/in prep). “American Studies on Digital Rails: Multimodal Fiction Pushing the Boundaries of E-books.” Critical Digital Humanities Handbook, edited by Stefan Brandt, Frank Mehring, and Tatiani G. Rapatzikou.
Mantzaris, Thomas (accepted/in prep). “Reclaiming Humanity through Storytelling.” The American Immigrant Narrative Revisited, edited by Christoph Straub and Heike Paul. Brill.
Book reviews
Mantzaris, Thomas (2024). Review of Aerial Play: Drone Medium, Mobility, Communication, and Culture, by Julia M. Hilderbrand. Ex-Centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media, vol. 8, pp. 67-70.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2022). Review of Book, Text, Medium: Cross-Sectional Reading for a Digital Age, by Garrett Stewart. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1-4.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2021). Review of The Printed Book in Contemporary American Culture: Medium, Object, Metaphor, edited by Heike Schaefer and Alexander Starre. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 1-5.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2020). Review of Literary Visualities: Visual Descriptions, Readerly Visualisations, Textual Visibilities, edited by Ronja Bodola and Guido Isekenmeier. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 14, no. 3., pp. 1-5.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2020). Review of Book Presence in a Digital Age, edited by Kiene Brillenburg Wurth, Kári Drischoll, and Jessica Pressman. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 14, no.1, pp. 1-6.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2019). Review of Jonathan Franzen and the Romance of Community: Narratives of Salvation, by Jesús Blanco Hidalga. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2019). Review of Styles of Extinction: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, edited by Julian Murphet and Mark Steven. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2018). Review of Cormac McCarthy’s Literary Evolution: Editors, Agents and the Crafting of a Prolific American Author, by Daniel Robert King. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 13, no.2, pp. 1-4.
Mantzaris, Thomas (2016). Review of Storyworlds across Media: Towards Media Conscious Narratology, edited by Marie-Laure Ryan, and Jan-Noël Thon. GRAMMA: Journal of Theory and Criticism, vol. 23, pp. 167-169.
Conference proceedings
Mantzaris, Thomas. (accepted/in prep). “To ‘Other Times, More or Less Ordinary’: Don DeLillo’s The Silence and a Post-Multimodal Understanding of Fiction.” (E)motion in Changing Worlds: Selected Conference Proceedings, edited by Effie Botonaki, Maria Ristani, and Katerina Kitsi-Mitakou.
Mantzaris, Thomas (forthcoming, 2025). “A Haunting, Mobile Reality: Kate Pullinger’s Breathe and the Ambient Turn in Digital Storytelling.” Proceedings of the 4th Digital Culture and Audiovisual Challenges Conference, 2022, Corfu.
Kosior, Margarita, Thomas Mantzaris, and Zoi Tatsioka (2016). “Renegotiating the Basics: Learner Autonomy.” Proceedings of the 23rd International IATEFL Conference: When Inspiration is Born, Terme Topolšica, Slovenia.
Thomas Mantzaris 