The reversed monomyth in a queer Russian web series

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores Here I Come, a web series released on YouTube in November 2020 and the only fictional queer web series in Russia since 2013. The starting point of the study is a narrative analysis of the plot structure using the monomyth scheme, proposed by Joseph Campbell in 1949. The analysis shows the creators performed a reversal of the standard hero’s journey resulting in a plot that both deviates from and conforms to Campbell’s monomyth structure in various ways. Further work is devoted to the study of how this technique helped the creators to find contact with a Russian audience. First, it examines how they managed to avoid the audience’s negativity when talking about queer issues while depicting events close to Russian reality. Second, it explores how the story was packed into the format of a web series, which is also very much tied to certain audience expectations. The article fully reveals the narrative strategy the creators used to speak to the Russian audience on the challenging theme in this format.