Series Of Narratives Research Articles

“I want world peace… oh, and bigger boobs”: repetitions and stereotyping on Friends’ sustainable character Phoebe

ABSTRACT Television (TV) series have emerged as the quintessential entertainment product in popular culture, amplifying their potential for affecting stereotypical representations. However, how stereotypes are embedded and transformed through media has been overlooked. This study investigates repetitions, an essential feature of serial narratives that plays a key role in stereotyping through the construction of characters in TV series. Through a literary deconstructionist analysis of Phoebe Buffay, one of the main characters from the neo-cult TV series Friends, we offer a typology of different repetitions – namely, reproduction, layering and evolution – and show how they contribute to cementing the stereotypes of morally desirable yet deviant behaviours, such as sustainable consumption.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and the Aesthetics of Serial Narration in The Sopranos (1999–2007)

Abstract Against the backdrop of the difficult therapeutic relationship between Tony Soprano and Jennifer Melfi and its embeddedness in the series’ dramaturgy, this article explores what psychoanalysis accomplishes for the US TV series The Sopranos (1999–2007), in particular for its perspectives on serial narratives and their reception. It analyses how select tenets of psychoanalysis (in particular, the psychoanalytic setting, countertransference, and its interminability) self-reflexively interrogate the aesthetics of serial narration and the ethical underpinnings of the audience’s attachment to the series.

Sculpting Foucauldian power in Game of Thrones as a transmedia project: a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis

This study analyses the textual, visual and interactional modes employed in creating and representing Daenerys Targaryen in both Home Box Office TV show Game of Thrones and mobile game Reigns: Game of Thrones as a transmedia project to guide users’ construal of the notion of embodied power. The authors examine the structural, functional and semiotic elements that the two media orchestrate to represent how power is attained, developed and relinquished. The results indicate that the two texts/media put forward two different kinds of power (relations) and levels of users’ interactivity. The TV show employs a more linear and developmental conception of power characterizing Daenerys as a transferrable object of power while the game underlines a more dispersed and pervasive notion of power to decentre absolute power. The show deploys immersive cinematic representations/visual spectacle, converging/diverging serial narration that goes beyond the opulent mise-en-scène and complex scenes to attract users’ attention. As for the game, it deploys intellectual and emotional interactivity, choice and coherence that allow users to experience the story, mechanics and environment as users identify with Daenerys. While the show introduces a host of socipolitical tools to maintain longer reign as different forms of governmentality, the game characterizes disciplinary power where subjects/users are offered training opportunities under the designer’s gaze to internalize a series of procedures and sociopolitical tactics. The findings reiterate Foucault’s notion of power as a system of relations, a capillary power that circulates and subjectifies, whilst subjects/users are spaces where subtractive and productive power are wielded, enacted and/or resisted. Each medium deploys its semiotic-specific resources to create meaning differently. While the TV show relies heavily on visual resources and narrative techniques to make meaning, the game mobilizes certain verbo-visual and interactive resources to make meaning. With the growing attention given to transmedia projects as a social practice with social meanings, this article claims to offer critical implications for social semioticians, film creators and game designers through a systematic analytical framework with a special focus on visual meanings.

The fictional and the documentary: two serial narratives about the Kiss Nightclub

The fictional and the documentary: two serial narratives about the Kiss Nightclub

Cell phone fiction: Serial poetics and platform vernacular

Norms and conventions for cell phone fiction have been in the making for a long time without being clearly codified and established as commercially or critically viable mainstay phenomena. This paper explores new manifestations of the emerging poetics of cell phone fiction, meaning the narrative and stylistic principles by which audiovisual short form serial narratives are constructed with the cell phone as intended user interface. We analyze and discuss cell phone fiction developed by two commercial players, Quibi and SnapChat. We have chosen as our main cases two serials that are generically alike but nevertheless demonstrate significant differences of style and narrative design — When The Streetlights Go On (Quibi, 2020) and Class of Lies (Snap Originals, 2018). The main differences can be understood in relation to diverging forms of “platform vernacular” (Gibbs, et al., 2015). Despite its so-called turnstyle functionality, Quibi’s When The Streetlights Go On is shown to embrace the stylistic and narrative design of long form media, whereas SnapOriginals’ Class of Lies opts for a ‘vertical only’ platform, a hyper emphatic style as well as going a long way to accommodate its users and the vernacular of cell phone practices and practices associated with Snapchat as a social media application.

On-screen tourism and destination development: a sociocognitive approach

ABSTRACT This study develops a new conceptual framework, called the “sociocultural market wheel” of tourism destinations, to establish on-screen tourism as an integrated part of destination development, rather than a peripheral voice or an ad-hoc niche element. To do so, this study applies the sociocognitive product market theory, which has been well established in the field of management in the recent years. This study argues that on-screen place-making representations impact tourism destination development through a continuous, mutual and two-way sensemaking and sensegiving process between film industry storytellers and internal and external destination shared conceptual systems, which is grounded around the exchange of multi-level stories, what has been also described as “serial narratives” that contain destination-related myths. The main aims of the study are, first, to build on recent literature on on-screen tourism that is taking a popular culture, rather than a destination or tourist, perspective and, second, to inform destination practitioners and DMOs that they need to monitor, interpret and analyse the stories and serial narratives that the film industry produces about the destination, to be able to proactively drive sustainable destination development and avoid the risks of touristification.

Strategie narracyjne destabilizujące porządek czasowy w neoserialach

The serial narrative mode, regularly used in episodic productions with a repetitive plot structure, is now rarely used. As for contemporary series, researchers agree that filmmakers adhere to a new paradigm of television storytelling which Jason Mittell termed “narrative complexity.” One of its distinguishing features are temporal disturbances in which the creators use various narrative strategies that destabilize the temporal order, ranging from flashbacks that fill in the plot gaps to “mind game” strategies. In this article I analyze narrative strategies disrupting the linear plot in quality TV dramas and the characteristics of formal procedures used by artists.

The lack and unfulfilment of daredevil: born again

ABSTRACT Serial narratives promote continuous storytelling across entertainment mediums, especially in comic books. These narratives are seemingly reflective of the never-ending plight of the superheroes and villains and their inability to ever find definitive resolutions of their struggles. Although many critics bemoan the repetition of these approaches to storytelling, seriality in comics performs a crucial function of providing readers the opportunity to connect with and reinforce the very human experience of our lives’ conflicts never really being resolved. The Lacanian concept of lack is the clearest formulation of this psychic drive. Applying this concept to a canonical comic book story arc, Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again, this article demonstrates just how pervasive is the characters’ inability to truly find a sense of completion in their lives even when possessing superhuman abilities and/or access to resources, and how that absence of completion is what fuels the very nature of the serial narrative format of storytelling. The result is a richer understanding of how conflict operates in comics and how their seriality performs a conciliatory role in relationship to the human condition.

To Pause With a Cliffhanger or a Temporary Closure? The Differential Impact of Serial Versus Episodic Narratives on Children’s Physical Activity Behaviors

Research has supported the effectiveness of narratives for promoting health behavior, but different narrative presentation formats (serial vs. episodic) have seldom been compared. Suspense theories suggest that serial narratives, which do not provide a full resolution at the end of an episode, may create higher motivation for continued engagement with a story. Forty-four 8 to 12-year-old children were randomly assigned to watch an animation series designed for an existing active video game in which the plot was delivered either continuously across multiple episodes (serial) or in multiple yet relatively independent self-contained episodes (episodic). Controlling for social desirability, children who watched the serial narrative had significantly more moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and step counts while the episodic group’s gameplay duration decreased, especially during later visits. There was no difference in self-reported narrative immersion or physical activity intention. Serial narratives can result in more time spent in MVPA behaviors than episodic narratives.

Paratextual Negotiations: Fan Forums as Digital Epitexts of Popular Superhero Comic Books and Science Fiction Pulp Novel Series

This article examines the reception of popular serial narratives. Starting from the assumption that this reception presents both a challenge (how to study the vast and heterogeneous readerly engagement with these texts?) and a chance (readers of such texts tend to comment profusely about the reception process), we identify the paratext as a privileged space of readerly communication on, and serial engagement with, popular storytelling. We develop the concept of “paratextual negotiation” as a means of understanding letter columns and fan forums as (now mostly) digital epitexts that shape the evolution of particularly popular—widely noticed, commercially successful, long-running—narratives, with a focus on the German science fiction pulp novel series Perry Rhodan (1961–) and additional thoughts on the US American comic book superhero Captain America (1941–). Taking the quantitative-empirical metrics of attention measurement and their public display seriously by identifying and close-reading the most popular forum threads and the most broadly recognized commentary about these narratives, we argue that the participatory element of popular culture can be reconstructed in the interplay between series text and serial paratext and can be described as a force in serial evolution that thrives on a combination of variation and redundancy and of selection and adaptation.

An Interview with Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Film, Warhol's Legacy, Public Persona, and American Culture

The Journal of American CultureEarly View Original Article An Interview with Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Film, Warhol's Legacy, Public Persona, and American Culture Victoria Surliuga, Corresponding Author Victoria Surliuga victoria.surliuga@ttu.edu Corresponding author mail id: victoria.surliuga@ttu.eduSearch for more papers by this author Victoria Surliuga, Corresponding Author Victoria Surliuga victoria.surliuga@ttu.edu Corresponding author mail id: victoria.surliuga@ttu.eduSearch for more papers by this author First published: 06 March 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13435 Victoria Surliuga: is Associate Professor of Italian Studies, World Cinema and Italian Program Coordinator at Texas Tech University. She was awarded The 1905 Fellowship of the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association for her research on Peggy Guggenheim and art patronage, a CH Foundation grant to the Italian Program at Texas Tech University, and Scholarship Catalyst Grants from Texas Tech University. She was also a Humanities Fellow at the Humanities Center of Texas Tech University. Her publications include “The Fran Lebowitz Series in Scorsese's Pretend It's a City and Public Speaking” (Series: International Journal of TV Serial Narratives, 2022) and “The Art of Fran Lebowitz's Public Persona” (The Journal of American Culture, 2022). Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Storytelling Techniques and Features of Plot Structure in Web Series

Web series are a modern and actively developing audiovisual format, which, however, has so far received only limited attention from researchers. The format’s specific nature implies that it must be viewed from three angles at once: as an audiovisual product, in many ways akin to television and cinema formats; as a type of Internet content that exists in tune with the laws of its environment; and, finally, as a series per se, created with the canons and rules of serial narration in mind. Building on these three key aspects, it is possible to identify the specific format features of a web series and to find out how they influence its creation process, for example, in terms of storytelling strategies used in web series scriptwriting.This article examines nine web series of different genres, produced in nine countries around the world. The aim of the study is to discover and trace the relationship between the specific features of web series as a format and the story structure of the selected series. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth scheme serves as a main tool of analysis and allows to present this structure as a series of key stages, making it explicit. As a result, it becomes visible how the hero’s classic journey gets transformed in a web series. This makes it possible to identify the main features of storytelling in this format and the techniques used by screenwriters. These techniques include, in particular, a quick start of the story, a focus on the heroes’ inner journey, complete exclusion of their parents from the plot, and some others. Thus, the study comes to the conclusion that the specificity of web series as a format is not only taken into account by screenwriters, but also forces them to transform the classic plot schemes to a large extent.

The Digital Dickens Notes Project

The Digital Dickens Notes Project

Research on the Strategy of Intangible Cultural Heritage Collection Activation

Bengbu Ancient Residence Expo Park is named after the collection of ancient buildings in Fujian, Zhejiang, southern Anhui and the Three Gorges reservoir area, and is called the "open-air museum" of Chinese ancient dwellings. From "collection" to "activation", in order to further promote the visual and living inheritance of the park's intangible cultural heritage art, especially to deeply explore the way of the intangible cultural heritage culture of ancient dwellings developing in the same frequency with the new era society, this paper uses a variety of narrative strategies such as serial narration of thematic stories, visual communication, and "ancient dwellings+" tourism culture IP, aiming at activating the charm of ancient dwellings. The "collection and activation" of Chinese ancient dwellings has polished the local characteristic cultural business cards and promoted the ecological development of regional economy.

Football as format

We use to identify football as a game who was killed by the television, as a lot of fans worldwide say to criticize the inteference of mass media. In this work we will analyze for first the ritual dimension of football, then the relationship between football and television, and at last the serial dimensions of football: our attempt is to demonstrate how television doesn’t kill football ‘cause it’s a format prototype. This game was born in élite Colleges during the time of affirmation of industrialization and seriality in mass cultural productions: in this way, we will say that television is the natural complement of football ‘cause it is in the forms of serial narratives typical of the contemporary that football finds a way to unfold its nature born as an entertainment complex serial product.

Book Review: Difficult Women on Television Drama: The Gender Politics of Complex Women in Serial Narratives

Book Review: Difficult Women on Television Drama: The Gender Politics of Complex Women in Serial Narratives

Algorithmic Audiences, Serialized Streamers, and the Discontents of Datafication

This article addresses streaming television platforms’ reliance on algorithms, serial narratives, and user interfaces and the effect of these strategies on the television viewing audience. The datafication of television means that opaque, proprietary computational processes play a significant role in the television that gets made, in steering viewing to particular series, and in reshaping the identity of the viewing public. User interfaces, data tracking, seriality, and algorithms have thus far proven inadequate for navigating the vast databases offered by streaming platforms. In practice, these systems off-load work to viewers and actively create obstacles to the formation of a collective viewing experience. Algorithmic audiences are trained to be sequential, isolated viewers, whose work of watching occurs in labor-intensive ways.

Berlin, Capital of Serial Adaptation. Exploring and Expanding a Political Storyworld in Babylon Berlin

German television series have only recently caught up with the new international standards of serial narration in this “Golden Age” of television. One of the most prestigious – and most expensive – new television series is Babylon Berlin (2017–). As an adaptation of Volker Kutscher’s historical detective novels, Babylon Berlin challenges conventional notions of adaptation, as it crosses the border between reduction and expansion, localisation and globalisation. My analysis of seasons one and two of Babylon Berlin will demonstrate the importance of world building in recent serial adaptation. In particular, I will focus on how the series explores the political storyworld, analysing the re-creation of historical and social spaces in Berlin in 1929 and their connection to the characters.

Bir Anlatı Türü Olarak Dijital Platform Dizilerinde Öyküleme Unsurları: Kulüp Dizisi Üzerinde Bir İnceleme

Bu çalışma, anlatının en önemli üç öğesini; zaman, mekân ve kişiler bağlamında analiz ederek öykülemenin özünü oluşturan bu üç unsuru dijital bir platform dizisi üzerinden analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Geleneksel olandan daha farklı bir hikâye anlatıcılığı geliştiren dijital platformlardaki içerik üretimine anlatı bağlamında bakmak ve böylece anlatının değişmez ve temel olan bu üç unsuruna özgü olarak dizi anlatı türünde yeni hikâyeler üretmeye tâlip bu ortamların nasıl bir alan oluşturduğuna ilişkin bir değerlendirme yapmak mümkün olabilir. Geleneksel televizyon dizilerinden farklı olarak toplumun her kesiminden izleyicinin ulaşamadığı; öte yandan varlığını gizem ve merak duygusu eşliğinde her geçen gün hissettiren, adına çeşitli platformlarda ve farklı bir yönü konuşulurken rastlanılan dijital platformlardan seçilmiş bir dizi üzerinde anlatı yerlemlerine ilişkin olarak yapılan bu çalışma, bağımsız bir platformda anlatının ruhuna ilişkin farklılıkları ortaya çıkarma amacı taşımaktadır. Anlatının temel öğelerine ilişkin olarak anlatı kuramı çerçevesinde, anlatı bilimin imlediği, öykünün zaman, mekân ve kişilerini (anlatı kahramanları), öykülemeyi esas alan bir zeminde analiz etmeyi içeren bu çalışma betimleyici ve yapısalcı bir inceleme çalışmasıdır.

Serial narratives in the new millennium: The decline and the future of daytime US soap operas

Despite its cultural significance, soap opera as a television genre has been in decline in the United States since the early 2000s. While the nature of its audience has been changing, the media landscape also has been drastically shifting because of the wide expansion of new media technologies. In this article, I survey these reasons and examine the current state of the genre. To do so, I first briefly examine the history of the genre before I review the significant cultural and social forces that reshaped the US media landscape and eroded the popularity of the genre in certain segments of the audience.