Series Of Narratives Research Articles

Histories and new directions: Soap opera/serial narrative research

This is an introduction to the Special Issue, inspired by the Histories and New Directions: Soap Opera and Serial Narrative Research conference at the University of York in July 2017. The event was conceptualized and organized by the editors of this Special Issue to gather media and cultural studies scholars, and generate a scholarly dialogue on the historical issues, current status and future directions of serial narratives and soap opera as a genre. The introduction outlines the seven articles in this issue, all of which revisit and expand on previous soap opera scholarship and its enduring appeal to audiences and fans. In asking questions about the aesthetics, audiences and industries of soap operas, the articles in this Special Issue highlight some of the key issues in soap storytelling and fandom such as community, pleasure and gender. Some of the articles also consider the impact of COVID-19 on the production and reception of soap operas.

The Claremont serial killer and the production of class-based suburbia in serial killer mythology

ABSTRACT This is an investigation into the ways in which serial killer mythology and notions of place are often co-created. In this study, we focus on the mythos of the serial killer and its relationship to the construct of Australian suburbia. We focus on the ways in which the tension between working-class suburbia and upper-middle-class suburbia plays out through the serial killer narrative. Politically, the serial killer narrative is also intertwined with the production of race-based, class-based and gendered definitions of space. We show how culture is deeply invested in ‘making sense’ of serial killing through several political manoeuvres, including the privileging of certain victims over others, such as the way in which women of colour are rendered invisible in these mythologies. To argue these assertions, we draw from a case study located in Perth, Western Australia, dubbed by the media as the Claremont serial killings. By tracing several sub-narratives, we perform qualitative discourse analysis on diverse media texts.

“Retweet for More”: The Serialization of Porn on the Twitter Alter Community

This article examines the notion of seriality in the context of the Filipino alter community, a network of Twitter users producing, distributing, and consuming pornographic images. The alter community is prominent among Filipino gay men who satisfy their need for sexual arousal, collective identity, and validation of their sexuality in the alter community. Seriality is influenced by technological features and affordances of a media platform. In the case of Twitter, the platform’s short form formats and real-time content generation fosters a particular kind of seriality. This essay analyzes data from online observations, content analysis of tweets and profiles, and interviews and is informed by theories on seriality, gay sexuality, and Internet studies. In situating seriality within the context of gay amateur porn economy, this article argues that serial pornography is instrumental in satisfying both present and long-standing affective, sexual, and social needs of gay men. These needs, this essay claims, stem from long history of minoritization of homosexuality. As Twitter renders older tweets ephemeral and quantifies social engagement, seriality enables gay men to satisfy the aforementioned needs longer. Furthermore, this essay proposes that serial porn on Twitter brings new insights to how seriality is conceived. Serial porn images are strategically and carefully constructed narratives of sexual encounters aimed at garnering higher social engagement and validation. Thus, serial narratives can resolve present and urgent affective tensions and needs that unravel within an ongoing life narrative rather than working toward supporting a plausible ending, as seen in other serial forms. This article contributes to an understanding of how pornographic images and serial narratives fit into consumerist culture and how platforms exploit long-standing affective needs of sexual minorities to ensure extended production and consumption of contents.

Anthology of a resume: schizoanalytic notes for mapping serial narratives

Resumo O presente artigo, inspirado pelas linhas de força das filosofias da diferença de Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari, tem como objetivo explorar algumas notas esquizoanalíticas para a cartografia de um currículo de um artefato cultural. A partir das contribuições das teorias pós-críticas e suas conexões com o campo dos estudos culturais, compreendemos as narrativas seriadas como um currículo. O texto opera, em sua estilística, por meio de uma elaboração (auto)ficcional, trazendo takes narrados pelo Cartógrafo, personagem que apresenta algumas notas metodológicas da nossa investigação cartográfica a partir de fragmentos de suas memórias. O argumento explorado neste texto é o de que as linhas constitutivas do currículo das narrativas seriadas têm apresentado uma multiplicidade que o faz ser compreendido como um “currículo antológico”, permitindo visualizar as suas regiões de controle, derivadas do aparelho de Estado, e as suas zonas de contágios, próprias das máquinas de guerra. Nesse sentido, o “currículo antológico” é produzido no embate entre as linhas duras, as linhas flexíveis e as linhas de fuga que o compõem. Concluímos que o que está em jogo nesse artefato são as distintas maneiras com que nos tornamos nós mesmos, as diferentes posições de sujeito que assumimos ao longo da vida. Nesse sentido, apostamos que o currículo das narrativas seriadas, ao acionar linhas de fuga, abre espaços para outras saídas, proporcionando raciocínios menos normativos para os sujeitos atravessados por dissidências de gênero e de sexualidade.

Generified machinations in the curriculum of serial narratives

Resumo: Filiados a uma perspectiva pós-crítica de pesquisa em Educação, significamos o artefato cultural das narrativas seriadas como um currículo. Investigamos a proveniência de um modo particular de produção de masculinidades a partir da categorização dos ‘homens difíceis’ das narrativas seriadas e perscrutamos o modo como o feminino também é enunciado nesse currículo. A partir das nossas aproximações com a esquizoanálise, argumentamos que esse currículo, ao se constituir como um “currículo-máquina” produtor de fabulações generificadas, tem sido estratificado por linhas duras, por linhas maleáveis e por linhas de fuga. Concluímos que esses discursos generificados têm apontado aquilo que é pensável e dizível acerca dos gêneros e das sexualidades de um determinado tempo.

Frank Kelleter, ed., "Media of Serial Narrative" (Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2017), 306 pp.

Frank Kelleter, ed., "Media of Serial Narrative" (Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2017), 306 pp.

Domesticating and Glocalising the Dreamy: McCay’s Little Nemo and Its Sequels in Early Italian Corriere dei Piccoli (1909-1914)

The editors of Corriere dei Piccoli (CdP), an Italian comics magazine for children launched in December 1908, followed the New York Herald’s every step. In envisioning the creation of a children’s supplement, Italy’s biggest newspaper understood the enthralment and economic potential of the Sunday pages and introduced its Italian readers to various American serial figures. One of those recurring characters, Winsor McCay's Little Nemo, was the most heavily reformatted on CdP’s centre pages in 1913. The drastic flattening of McCay’s vertical appeal to a double page put the graphic designer to the limits of his possibilities. This domestication of the American format is a consequence of the pedagogical ideas and moralistic intentions behind the bourgeois magazine, and Italian style and reading preferences related to readership. Still, Little Nemo inspired the autochthonous authors to create their own versions of McCay’s serial narrative. I uncover the actualizations of the serial figure by three Italian comic artists, unveiling the many moralistic and propagandistic incarnations of Little Nemo. Although heavily reformatted, Little Nemo’s legacy in CdP went further than any other Sunday page.

“Everything is Connected”

The paper discusses the storytelling formulas of the first season of the German series Dark (2017–2020) by focusing on the key temporal and spatial aspects of seriality in the show, such as the time frame of diegesis (story time), the temporal structure of the story (discourse and narration time) and the unique temporal installation of the series. As argued, the story and visual textuality of Dark not only transcends time and space – thus to provide us with a complex narrative set – but, by atemporal and spatial storytelling jumps, it creates a map of inconsistencies of double discontinuity fairly new to television and serial narration. By focusing on these spatial-temporal aspects of the series, the paper sketches a new approach to postmodern television formulas, while it also offers a possible interpretation to the national characteristics of the production based on the recurring theme of captivity in time.

Boundless Media

Introduction| June 01 2021 Boundless Media Erika Balsom; Erika Balsom Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Mary Ann Doane; Mary Ann Doane Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Kris Fallon; Kris Fallon Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Kaitlin Clifton Forcier; Kaitlin Clifton Forcier Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Tess Takahashi Tess Takahashi Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2021) 48 (2): 33. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2021.48.2.33 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Erika Balsom, Mary Ann Doane, Kris Fallon, Kaitlin Clifton Forcier, Tess Takahashi; Boundless Media. Afterimage 1 June 2021; 48 (2): 33. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2021.48.2.33 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAfterimage Search Digital technologies have dramatically expanded the scalar possibilities of media, enabling new forms of durational recording, storytelling, imagemaking, and data visualization, which have in turn transformed the parameters of documentary and fictional representation. Through a consideration of a diverse array of media objects that pose problems of temporal and/or spatial immensity—from television’s serial narratives to a fifteen-hour video installation, from photostitching algorithms to “infinity rooms” and screensavers—the essays in this dossier take account of how a sense of boundlessness has become a pervasive quality of our contemporary experience of media. When magnitude is invoked today in relation to digital media, it is often in the notion of “Big data,” a term used to designate data sets so large and complex as to necessitate innovative forms of processing and analysis. This dossier turns to other, less interrogated iterations of digital magnitude as they occur in artistic and vernacular practices. It insists... You do not currently have access to this content.

The Ethics of Serial Narrative Structures

The power of episodic television shows such as Columbo (NBC, 1968-1978; ABC, 1988-2003) in which each episode tells a full story, has been highlighted by Jean-Pierre Esquenazi (2017: 107-28), who compares them to cubist works, whose universes become denser over time. Yet, surveys evidence that audiences generally prefer watching serial television shows whose narrative arcs develop over numerous episodes (Glevarec 2012; Combes 2015). Series such as E.R. (NBC, 1994-2009), Angel (The WB, 1999-2004), LOST (ABC, 2004-2010), Person of Interest (CBS, 2011-2016) and Awake (NBC, 2012), which are the focus of this essay, negotiate a “balance between episodic and serial demands” (Mittell 2015: 20), as they include episodes that both stand on their own and advance various long-term narrative arcs. These semi-serial shows display a writing which, season after season, feeds on the very tension between their episodic and serial aspects, between short-term and long-term features. This tension raises ethical stakes, particularly an ethics of care, which this essay will attempt to bring to the fore, drawing from the work of Sandra Laugier (2014: 261). Laugier’s work invites us to understand how television shows, through their durations and the various kinds of attachment they elicit, may educate viewers morally and make them attentive to what seems to be unremarkable within ordinary life. Her recent work on TV series (2019) focuses on their representational contents – situations, dialogues, gestures, dilemmas, identity politics and (political or moral) choices made by (groups of) characters – but it does not take into account the way specific narrative structures may encourage spectators to adopt a particular ethical view. The purpose of this essay is precisely to focus on the ethics of care invoked through serial narrative structures. By analyzing several examples, we will show that semi-serial shows thematize their own narrative negotiations within the story world and, even if they construct strong serial arcs, maintain the importance of the episodic form as a metaphor of human beings in their very individualities and specificities.

Premediated Imaginaries. The Future and the Consumption of the Present in Serial Narratives

Premediated Imaginaries. The Future and the Consumption of the Present in Serial Narratives

Ursula Ganz-Blättler. “Signs of time: Cumulative narrative in broadcast television fiction”

TV series are one of the very few ‘traditional’ media formats that continue to thrive in the current media landscape. In Europe, the format of TV series (i.e. serial audio-visual fictional narratives) has been surging for some time in terms of numbers of suppliers and consumers, as well as in shares of distributors’ offerings and consumers’ media use. Homegrown high-end original productions have become ‘calling cards’ for suppliers active in the European market(s). Subscription-based, pay-per-view, and advertising-based networks, as well as public service suppliers order and finance serial fiction. International players like Netflix, HBO, Sky, and Amazon invest in original (co-) productions in many countries. From a media economic perspective, the market entry of more and more ‘big tech’ and conglomerate players into the production and distribution of TV series is another indicator of the importance of the product TV series. The success of the format warrants extensive investigation. Nevertheless, compared to, e.g., cinema, ‘new’ media, and political communication, the attention of scholars in communication/media science and other disciplines still seems surprisingly modest, particularly in Europe. Some noteworthy European works on fictional TV series are Schlütz (2016), Redvall (2013), Gormász (2015), and the scientific journal Series – International Journal of TV Serial Narratives (series.unibo.it). Ursula Ganz’s work Signs of Time was accepted as a habilitation thesis in 2009, and an adapted form was published in 2018. The thesis thus represents somewhat of a European premiere in discussing in great detail and depth what the term ‘(audiovisual) cumulative narrative’ entails and how the central feature of accumulation impacts the analysis of narrative as communication and reflective stance.

Episodic Listening: Analyzing the Content and Usage of Born-Audio Serial Narratives

Following a ‘boom’ in audiobook consumption, recent years have seen the emergence of born-audio literature: narratives written specifically for the audiobook format. The article focuses on the content and usage of born-audio serial narratives produced by the Swedish audiobook subscription service, Storytel. As these so-called Storytel Originals are produced specifically for the audiobook format, they make a good case for studying how the format influences the narrative content as well as the usage of literary texts. The serial publishing format becomes especially relevant within the subscription-based context because it, ideally, encourages users’ long-term commitment to the story - and to the service. Accordingly, it becomes relevant to investigate how Storytel uses the serial narrative format to attract and maintain the users’ attention. By combining literary analyses of selected Originals stories with quantitative analyses of statistical data on listening behaviour in relation to these series, we examine the connection between the narrative content of series in different genres and the users’ loyalty towards the series. Thus, we focus on the following research questions: How does the born-audio serial format shape the narrative content and usage of the Originals series, and to what extent does it promote user loyalty? (Less)

TELENOVELA E TURISMO: UMA ANÁLISE ESTILÍSTICA DE O OUTRO LADO DO PARAÍSO

Este trabalho lança mão da metodologia de Análise Estilística, conforme preconizada por Jeremy Butler, para observar como a telenovela O Outro Lado do Paraíso, exibida pela TV Globo entre os anos de 2017 e 2018, aborda o turismo na região do Jalapão, no Tocantins. É selecionado um evento narrativo que permite observar a relação entre a narrativa ficcional seriada e o turismo enquanto atividade econômica. A análise permite observar três frentes em que o apelo turístico é empregado na telenovela: I) a estrutura receptora do turista; II) cultura local como atrativo e; III) valorização das belezas naturais. Entre as considerações elencadas, reflete-se sobre a função social da telenovela que permite aos espectadores conhecer lugares distantes, a propagação de um destino idealizado que reforça a exclusão de determinados grupos sociais e a importância das narrativas seriadas para o setor turístico.

The iron screen: an ideological analysis of the discourse on Russia through the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl

ABSTRACT In TV fiction, over the past years, it has been possible to detect the recuperation of specific themes linked to a particular sociopolitical context: the Cold War. The Russians and the Soviet era are becoming gradually more commonplace in highly popular television serial narratives like the miniseries Chernobyl. Accordingly, the main aim of this paper is to determine how its discourse is constructed and its relationship with the television industry and the current socio-political reality. The ultimate intention is to reflect on how TV fiction has become a valuable benchmark for gauging the situation of a specific society and how it has contributed to constructing its collective imaginaries.

Finding balance: Nostalgia in Star Wars transmedia

Nostalgia is a necessary element of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–20) and the ‘new’ Star Wars comics (Marvel, 2015–19), recent serial narratives in the ever-expanding transmedia Star Wars universe. The anticipation (and consequential reception) of these works is, in part, driven by nostalgia: the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, was released in 1977 and as the series has expanded in the decades since, in film and other media, nostalgia has become ingrained within the fandom as audiences are invited to repeatedly return to ‘a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’. As a result of decades of content, there is a sense of ‘ownership’ amongst the fandom and, at times, a resistance to new content that attempts to ‘weaponize’ nostalgia as a marketing tool, such as in the ‘Sequel Trilogy’ (2015, 2017, 2019). The Clone Wars, first mentioned in A New Hope, is set between two Star Wars (Prequel) films that feature key events in the overall saga, while the Star Wars comics take place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The Clone Wars and the Star Wars comics succeed where the sequels (and prequels) arguably do not because they use nostalgia to serialize and capitalize on transmedia, allowing the audience to revisit characters and narrative events that have already been established for decades. Both works allow for character and narrative development between two fixed (cinematic) points in the story canon, with the spaces in between and around those points that frame their place in the Star Wars universe allowing for rich exploration.

La vanguardia del cómic digital: Transmedialidad y recursos narrativos en Joselito de Marta Altieri = Digital Comics Avant-garde: Transmediality and narrative resources in Marta Altieri's Joselito

One of the latest and more complex examples of the potentialities of digital comics is Joselito (2018-) by Spanish author Marta Altieri. Published on her own webpage, Joselito is a serial melodrama, in which the author uses all her knowledge as a webpage designer in order to introduce various intermedial elements, such as real-time diegetic music, photographs, chat conversations, gif animations, memes or vertical scroll as a reading mechanism, imitating our way of reading someone else's stories today. In this paper, we propose a study of Joselito's narrative and analyze the strategies that it uses when it comes to represent psychological and subjective realities, as well as the way it provokes emotional and sensorial responses in the readers. We also analyze the implications of the absence of the conventional panoptic qualities of conventional comics, which are replaced by a multimodal way of organizing information. We also investigate the many ways whereby Joselito defies the most traditional comic definitions, not to mention the great changes that animations introduce in the representation of movement. Additionally, we analyze how the return of serial narrative and the possibility of extending each chapter without restrictions have an influence in webcomics like Joselito, making way to a different kind of narrative, based on the anecdotal and on routine, where the psychological evolution of the characters is not as important as it is in the classical graphic novel.

In the post-TV era: transmedia and fandom in Sherlock, by Moffat and Gatiss

Serial narratives such as TV series have their own language, genres and narrative tools, according to their media specificities. It is observed that the television of today is going through a process of rapid cultural and technological transformations. Such advances have led to profound changes in the formats of the series, as well as in their modes of production and consumption. As for the production aspects, for example, we observe the creation of new narrative models in which the technological resources are shaped as extensions of the television product, creating a multiplatform or transmedial narrative experience. In this paper we will examine the case of the television series Sherlock by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, broadcasted by BBC, as an example of a program designed for a transmedia television, one that encouraged the emergence of an engaged audience willing to follow the series beyond the TV screen across other media platforms.***Na era da pós-TV: transmídia e fandom em Sherlock, de Moffat e Gatiss***Narrativas seriais como as séries de televisão possuem linguagem, gêneros e ferramentas narrativas próprias, conforme suas especificidades midiáticas. Observa-se que a televisão de hoje passa por um processo de rápidas transformações culturais e tecnológicas. Tais avanços têm levado a profundas modificações nos formatos, modos de produção e consumo das séries. Em relação aos aspectos de produção, por exemplo, observa-se a criação de novos modelos narrativos nos quais os recursos tecnológicos se configuram como uma extensão do produto televisivo, criando uma experiência narrativa multiplataforma ou transmidiática. Neste trabalho analisaremos o caso da série televisiva Sherlock, de Steven Moffat e Mark Gatiss exibida pela BBC, como um exemplo de programa elaborado para uma televisão transmidiática que estimulou o surgimento de um público engajado, disposto a seguir a série para além da tela de TV.Palavras-chave: televisão; série de TV; Sherlock; transmídia; pós-TV.

The Plot Twist in TV Serial Narratives

AbstractThis article explores the use of the plot twist in screen fictions. This is a largely unexplored area, as interest in this phenomenon has largely focused on the so-called “plot twist movie,” which is an older narrative tradition. In order to explain this aesthetic phenomenon, it draws on the model of surprise originally proposed by the cognitive psychologists Wulf Meyer, Rainer Reisenzein, and Achim Schützwohl. Plot twists are characterized by three distinct but intimately intertwined temporal segments and their corresponding functions, which are explained by this model. The objective of this article is to explore how cognitive-emotional interactions shape the aesthetic viewing experience and to identify how that experience relates to shows’ artistic qualities. Game of Thrones (S01 and S03), Homeland (S01), and Westworld (S01) will be used as test cases. In each of the three plot segments, there are specific processes that distinguish the experience of surprise as an aesthetic phenomenon.

"It's off-book!": Developing Serial Complexity across Media in A Series of Unfortunate Events

The article traces the development of narrative complexity in the book and television versions of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. The series has been criticized for its repetitive structure; however, drawing on seriality theory by Umberto Eco, Jason Mittell and Frank Kelleter, I demonstrate how it does move beyond repetition and towards a more complex narrative structure. I point out how the recent Netflix adaptation, rather than merely repeating the books, adds to this development of serial complexity. Thus, by comparing the book series and the adaptation, I demonstrate a tendency towards developing transmedial complexity in serial narratives.