The dragon’s AR: Narrative augmentation in Russell’s The Dragon Defenders

Abstract

The use of augmented reality (AR) in literature has predominantly focused on providing instructional tools for educators and learners, emphasizing its capacity of enhancing engagement and supporting immersive learning. Aside from its central literacy purpose, AR in children’s literature appears in the form of digital pop-up books or as add-on games, which are usually located outside of the main narrative. In this sense, AR risks disrupting the flow of a story instead of enriching the continuous imaginative space of the narrative. The Dragon Defenders series, by James Russell, uses AR as a narrative tool in ways previously unseen in children’s literature. Russell puts the reader into the shoes of his main characters, Paddy and Flynn, using AR to show the reader what the boys themselves see. There are moments in these books where the AR system and traditional narrative system fully overlap, integrate and enhance the narrative dimension of the story. While readers navigate through the book by turning physical pages, the addition of AR at specific moments in the story not only provides a more immersive reading experience but, in this case, advances the narrative to great effect. This case study asks how AR can be used to enhance the narrative structure and flow in a text-based novel, using formal gameplay analysis to examine how the AR and narrative systems interact and identifying which examples of this interaction work to the best effect. It analyses the AR moments in the context of the book, deconstructs the unusual first-person perspective from the protagonist’s point of view and explores how these AR experiences help drive and truly augment the core narrative. The larger context of this study seeks to emancipate AR from its predominantly technological ontology and contribute to the development of AR as a genuine narrative device in fiction storytelling.