Fiction and Reality in HBO’s Treme: A Narrative Alchemy at the Service of Political Truth

Abstract

Author of the television drama The Wire, David Simon with Eric Overmyer launched a new series entitled Treme on the American channel HBO in April, 2010. Located in the heart of New Orleans, Tremé is a neighborhood known for its unique cultural, social, and historical context. It is the oldest African American neighborhood in the United States, the birthplace of the Black civil right movement in the South and the home of Jazz. Categorized as a drama by David Simon, the series is a work of fiction. Yet it also depicts day-to-day life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, referencing real events, real people, real places, and real cultural symbols. Relying on the work of Schaeffer and Esquenazi, this article links fiction to reality with an analysis of historical truths though fictional characters’ narratives. With this methodology, we examine the film-makers’ perspective, and uncover the political intentionality of the series as an act of denunciation against the dysfunctions of the local, state, and federal institutions in responding to the Katrina catastrophe. The political message of the series is also an act of testimony and homage about the daily lives and struggles of New Orleanians in a post-Katrina era.