Bow to Stern

Abstract

If brands are narratives, as Stern, Twitchell and many marketing consultants contend, then the tools and techniques of literary criticism can help enhance branding understanding. This article applies the literary methods of Franco Moretti to a multi-storied brand, whose seemingly unfathomable mystique has fascinated consumers for more than a century. Specifically, it interprets RMS Titanic as an encyclopaedic narrative – what Moretti calls a ‘modern epic’ – which melds multiple literary genres, thereby complementing Stern’s classic study of consumer-marketer mythopoeia.