The Spice Must Flow: Dune as a Convergence Phenomenon

Fictional worlds today circulate in different media, demanding strong narratives, adaptations and internal coherence to allow their transformations across multiple platforms. This thesis examines Dune as a case study, focusing on its complex world-building as a foundation of its emergence into a convergent phenomenon. The analysis follows the evolution of the Dune universe tracing its trajectory from print, to movies, series and fandom across the digital world. Through the integration of Possible Worlds Theory, World-Building, and Adaptation Theory, the study demonstrates how Dune incorporates themes such as politics and power, ecological concerns, and the nature of the hero. Although many elements seem impossible in the Primary world, they are represented as a result of cultural evolution, genetic selection, biology and psychology. Convergence culture shows that Dune functions as an expandable and structurally strong narrative that is built to evolve. Finally, the thesis demonstrates how a single novel transforms into a memetic and highly recognizable cultural object on social media, considering the recent film adaptations, which revived global interest. This also refers to participatory culture, as it recognizes the audience not just as observers but as active participants who reshape meaning and keep the narrative actual. By inspecting all those dimensions, the thesis represents the evolution of the narrative beginning with Herbert’s foundational world‑building, traces the storyworld’s transformations through different media, arriving into the digital world where the narrative continues to spread as memes, fan practices, and online alternatives. By evaluating this progression from the novel’s origins to its present‑day, the thesis reveals how Dune’s world persists, changes, and receives new meanings across decades of adaptation and convergence.