Dan Brown: Narrative Tourism and “Time Packaging”

Reasons for the extraordinary success of Dan Brown’s novels may be found in the particularly appealing formula he adopts in his storytelling: a mix of elements that have proved to be highly appreciated by a new typology of globalized reader. These include the deliberate blurring of distinctions between reality, history and fiction, the competent use of narratological devices to produce immersive space/time dimensions, and the creation of a cross- national and cross-generational media debate with diffuse critical authorship on the Web. Brown’s fiction can be taken as example of a new kind of novel placing high emphasis on transcoding and cognitive appreciation.