"Introduction: Serial Narratives"

lwu Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht Theme Issue: Serial Narratives Kathleen Loock (Ed.) XLVII . 1/2 . 2014 lwu Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht XLVII . 1/2 . 2014 Inhalt / Contents Kathleen Loock: Introduction: Serial Narratives.................................................................................5 Ilka Brasch: Narrative, Technology, and the Operational Aesthetic in Film Serials of the 1910s...............................................11 Rudmer Canjels: Sensational Programs without Head and Tail: Transforming and Distributing American Silent Film Serials in the Netherlands.........................25 Phyll Smith: “Poisoning their daydreams”: American Serial Cinema, Moral Panic and the British Children’s Cinema Movement................................39 Björn Hochschild: Superhero Comics and the Potential for Continuation: Identity and Temporality in Alan Moore’s Watchmen..........................................55 Guy Risko: More than a Gangster: Trilogies, Genre, and The Godfather...............................67 Kathleen Loock: “The past is never really past”: Serial Storytelling from Psycho to Bates Motel....................................................81 Agnieszka Rasmus: “I know where I’ve seen you before!”: Hollywood Remakes of British Films, from DVD Box Sets to the Online Debate.................................97 Marla Harris: No Longer Watching for the Plot?: The Crime Drama Bron/Broën and Its Adaptations............................................111 Maria Sulimma: Simultaneous Seriality: On the Crossmedia Relationship of Television Narratives.................................127 Robyn Warhol: Binge-watching: How Netlix Original Programs Are Changing Serial Form..............................145 Nathalie Knöhr: The Professional Practice of Serial Audio Drama Production in the Age of Digitization.....................................................159 Ursula Ganz-Blättler: The Medium Is the Audience: Successive Talk as Narrative Pleasure................................................................175 Bettina Soller: Fan Fiction and Soap Operas: On the Seriality of Vast Narratives......................................................................191 Reviews Shane Denson: Postnaturalism: Frankenstein, Film, and the Anthropotechnical Interface (Dennis Büscher-Ulbrich)................................207 Carlen Lavigne (ed.): Remake Television: Reboot, Re-use, Recycle (Marla Harris)...............................................................208 Frank Kelleter: Serial Agencies: The Wire and Its Readers (Marcel Hartwig).......................................................209 Sarah Schaschek: Pornography and Seriality: The Culture of Producing Pleasure (Madita Oeming).......................................210 Rob Allen and Thijs van den Berg (eds.): Serialization in Popular Culture (Daniel Stein).....................................................211 Amanda D. Lotz: Cable Guys: Television and Masculinities in the 21st Century (Maria Sulimma).............................................212 Notes on Contributors......................................................................................215 Beiträge, die dem redaktionellen Konzept entsprechen und nicht über 20 Typoskriptseiten hinausgehen sollten, sind den Herausgebern ebenso willkommen wie Anregungen und Verbesserungsvorschläge. Alle Einsendungen sollten an die Redaktion gehen und Rückporto enthalten. Den Manuskriptsendungen sollten die entsprechenden Disketten in letztkorrigierter Fassung beigelegt werden (bevorzugt MS-Word f. Windows Versionen). Für die formale Gestaltung der Typoskripte ist generell das MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed., 2009) verbindlich. Die Autoren erhalten zwei Hefte als Belegexemplare ihrer Beiträge . Den Rezensenten wird ein Exemplar des jeweiligen Heftes zur Verfügung gestellt. Eine Verplichtung zur Besprechung unverlangt eingesandter Rezensionsexemplare besteht nicht. Gestaltung des Heftcovers: Madita Oeming Alle Rechte liegen beim Verlag und den Herausgebern. Satz: Redaktion der LWU. Druck: Königshausen & Neumann Introduction: Serial Narratives Since the nineteenth century, serial narration has been a preferred mode of popular storytelling. From serialized novels to comic strips and ilm serials, from radio plays and television series to video games and digital forms of storytelling – serial narratives have proven to be an effective means of attracting and engaging mass audiences, especially when new technologies (like the mass-production of cheap novels or color print in newspapers) and new mass media (like ilm, radio, television, or the internet) emerged.1 In a capitalist market society, serial narratives “[make] excellent economic sense,” as Jennifer Hayward has observed (2). Producers can rely on recurrent characters, ongoing storylines, and delayed narrative closure in order to generate audience desire for future installments. In that regard, serial narratives essentially promote themselves and the medium in which they appear, as consumers must continue to read, watch, or listen over extended periods of time if they want to gain access to the full story. Yet, seriality is more than a market-oriented production and distribution mechanism that relies on standardization, schematization, and sheer endless possibilities for variation and continuation. As a storytelling format, seriality comes with a well-developed set of aesthetic practices and pleasures for audiences that help explain the continuing popularity of serial narratives.2 The particular appeal of a television series, for instance, may lie in ritualized viewing practices, in a long-term emotional engagement with ictional characters and their experiences, or in creative responses like fan iction. Up until the last decade, serial narratives have attracted little academic attention because they were often considered trivial or ideologically tainted evils of modern mass culture. Some of the early studies date back to the 1980s and 1990s and have mostly focused on speciic media or genres such as the nineteenth-century serialized novel printed in magazines and newspapers or the television series, in particular the soap opera.3 With the rise of so-called ‘quality TV’4 since the late 1990s and early 2000s, academic interest in television has been steadily increasing, as scholars from different disciplines explore the new aesthetics, narrative complexity, and cultural work of shows like The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007), The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008), Mad Men (AMC, 2007-), and Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013).5 This development has coincided with a boom in comic studies, where a number of academics seek to investigate the serial dimension of the medium – from early 1 2 3 4 5 Cf. Hagedorn 28-29; Hayward 1-2. This view on seriality is based on the theoretical framework of the interdisciplinary Research Unit “Popular Seriality – Aesthetics and Practice” (www.popularseriality.de/en/); see also Kelleter, “Populäre Serialität.” On the serialized novel, see Radway; Vann; Neuschäfer, Fritz-El Ahmad, and Walter; Hughes and Lund; Lund; Sutherland; Hayward; Law; and Payne. On television shows, see Ang; Hickethier; Allen, Speaking and To Be Continued; and Schneider. Stedman’s book on ilm, radio, and television serials was already published in 1971. On the concept of ‘quality TV,’ see, for example, Jancovich and Lyons; McCabe and Akass; as well as Blanchet et al. On the pay-TV channel HBO in particular, see Edgerton and Jones; and Leverette, Lott, and Buckley. Earlier discourses on ‘quality TV’ can be found in Feuer, Kerr, and Vahimagi; and Thompson. Publications with a special focus on the serial format of these new television shows include Allrath and Gymnich; Kelleter, Serial Agencies; and Mittell. 5 newspaper comic strips to the graphic novel.6 Even more recently, attempts have been made to situate different medium-speciic serial narratives within a larger theoretical framework of serialization. They are informed by approaches which foreground technological and institutional affordances of the evolving media landscape and correlating possibilities for audience participation and fandoms.7 The result is an emerging ield of seriality studies that examines serialization as a dynamic practice which crosses media boundaries and constantly adapts to the ever-changing media landscape and its latest technological innovations. This special issue seeks to make an original contribution to the ield of seriality studies. It explores narrative, cultural, and historical dimensions of serial narratives in an effort to come to terms with their changing forms and functions within the ield of popular culture. Altogether thirteen essays from leading and emerging scholars in the ields of ilm and media studies, literary studies, cultural history, ethnography and American studies address questions relating to the production and reception of serial narratives in the past and present. How can the evolution of serial forms be understood within particular theoretical frameworks? How does the sprawl of serial narratives across different media challenge established notions of authorship, narrative closure, and cultural legitimacy? How does it work to increase audience loyalty and engagement? How do authors and producers respond to new modes of consumption that differ from the ritualized experience of daily, weekly or monthly installments? Do DVD sets, VOD (Video-on-Demand) services, and streaming require new narrative strategies and storytelling techniques to satisfy the repeat viewer of television series or the binge viewer, who consumes more than one episode (sometimes even entire seasons) in one sitting? What effect has the so-called ‘second screen’ (i.e. activities on laptops, tablets or smartphones that take place in online forums while users are watching a television program on a ‘primary screen’) on viewing experiences and (the semblance of) audience participation? The irst three essays engage with the still undertheorized ilm serial: Ilka Brasch shows how the silent ilm serial’s speciic mode of serial storytelling was closely linked to the latest technological inventions of the 1910s and encouraged a critical relection of its own narrative organization. Rudmer Canjels extends this analysis of American-made silent ilm serials with a focus on their distribution in the Netherlands during the 1910s and 1920s, where they were often re-edited, adjusted to local screening customs, and ultimately shown in a different way than originally intended. Phyll Smith then turns to the production of British sound serials in the 1940s, following immediately after the end of World War II. He addresses the public debates surrounding the moral and psychological effects of ilm serials upon their audiences and outlines how British producers created a distinct and inluential serial product which outlived the U.S. ilm serial industry and developed models of seriality for contemporary British children’s television. The second group of essays deals with serial transformations of iconic igures, from American superheroes to the Godfather and Norman Bates. Björn Hochschild argues that Alan Moore’s comic series Watchmen not only relects on the identity and history of American superheroes but also on the possibilities of representing time that its own medium affords, and relates these ideas to challenges of temporality 6 7 6 See, for example, Ditschke, Kroucheva and Stein; Stein, Meyer, and Edlich; Gardner; Stein and Thon. See Blanchet et al.; Kelleter, Populäre Serialität; Mayer; Allen and van den Berg. and seriality during the comic reading process. Guy Risko’s essay on Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy offers a theoretical approach that helps to understand how the second and third ilm need to re-conigure and re-invent the predecessor(s) in order to create a beginning/middle/end structure for the entire trilogy. My own contribution is concerned with the long-running Psycho franchise. I argue that the ilms and television series, which function either as sequel, remake, spin-off or prequel in relation to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic, all build on the preexisting narrative and memory of the original, treating it as an authoritative intertext. At the same time, they mutually inluence each other’s meaning(s) and affect the viewers’ understanding of the Norman-Bates-character in an increasingly serialized and complex storyworld. The next group of essays opens transnational and transmedia perspectives on serial storytelling. First, Agnieszka Rasmus looks at Hollywood remakes of British ilms that were produced between 1995 and 2005. With a special focus on the DVD releases of these ilms, she argues that former strategies of disavowal were gradually replaced by extensive original-remake commentaries that address issues of seriality and cater to audiences who ind pleasure in (inter)active viewing practices. Then, Marla Harris examines the current wave of transnational television remakes. She focuses on the Swedish-Danish crime series Bron/Broen (SVT1/DR1, 2011-), the remade U.S. version The Bridge (FX, 2013-2014), and the British-French co-production The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic/Canal+, 2013-), and seeks to understand how competition affects the viewing experience, as iTunes, Netlix, and Hulu, along with the online ‘recap industry,’ attract audiences that are eager to watch multiple versions of a serial narrative. Maria Sulimma complements the issues raised in this section with an essay that explores the interactions between the different, simultaneously progressing serial narratives that belong to the Walking Dead franchise: the comic book series, AMC’s television show (2010-), and the video game. The last group of essays deals with the new media and their effect on the serial form. First, Robyn Warhol suggests that, in order to increase subscription rates and compete with U.S. American premium TV channels like HBO, Netlix original programming counts on ‘binge-watching’ to anchor its business model. To capitalize on the ‘bingeing’ format that allows to stream episodes of the Netlix series Arrested Development (2013), House of Cards (2013-), and Orange is the New Black (2013-) in rapid succession, Netlix introduces innovations and departs from traditional serial patterns. Next, Nathalie Knöhr’s essay examines the production of the popular German audio play Die drei ??? (The Three Investigators), and asks how a digital fan culture is changing the production process of the long-running series. Ursula Ganz-Blättler then maintains that serial narratives do not only provide entertainment by successfully feeding content to audiences but also by catering to the social need to share one’s particular pleasure with recurring characters, their trials and tribulations with others. In her essay, she analyzes the participatory pleasures and social functions generated by ‘second screen’ communication about serial narratives. Finally, Bettina Soller proposes that fan iction should not only be examined as a form of literary adaptation. Fan iction, she argues, serializes the content and ictional universes of existing media texts (like Joanne K. Rowling’s Harry Potter or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series), and fan-produced texts themselves usually appear online in serial installments and must therefore be understood as an audience practice that is located within the dynamics of serialization in popular culture. 7 This special issue concludes with a section of book reviews that covers some of the recent publications in the ield of seriality studies and ittingly complements the wide range of seriality-related questions addressed in the essays. Overall, the aim is to bring different, interdisciplinary perspectives to the analysis of serial narratives that will contribute to a deeper understanding of their forms and functions, and, more generally, to the ongoing research that is being done in seriality studies. It therefore seems only appropriate to end this introduction with the exact same words Robert C. Allen already used twenty years ago, when he stated that this “is work that, like the form it analyzes, is necessarily ‘to be continued’” (“Introduction” 24). Berlin Kathleen Loock Works Cited Allen, Robert C. “Introduction.” To Be Continued …: Soap Operas Around the World. Ed. Allen. London/New York: Routledge, 1995. 1-26. ---. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill, NC: U of North Carolina P, 1985. ---, ed. To Be Continued …: Soap Operas Around the World. London/New York: Routledge, 1995. Allen, Rob, and Thijs van den Berg, eds. Serialization in Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 2014. Allrath, Gaby, and Marion Gymnich, eds. Narrative Strategies in Television Series. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005. Ang, Ien. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. New York: Methuen, 1985. Blanchet, Robert, Kristina Köhler, Tereza Smid, and Julia Zutavern, eds. Serielle Formen: Von den frühen Film-Serials zu aktuellen Quality-TV- und OnlineSerien. Marburg: Schüren, 2011. Ditschke, Stephan, Katerina Kroucheva, and Daniel Stein, eds. Comics: Zur Geschichte und Theorie eines populärkulturellen Mediums. Bielefeld: transcript, 2009. Edgerton, Gary R., and Jeffrey P. Jones, eds. The Essential HBO Reader. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky P, 2008. Feuer, Jane, Paul Kerr, and Tise Vahimagi, eds. MTM “Quality Television.” London: BFI, 1984. Gardner, Jared. Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2012. Hagedorn, Roger. “Doubtless to Be Continued: A Brief History of Serial Narrative.” To Be Continued …: Soap Operas Around the World. Ed. Robert C. Allen. London/New York: Routledge, 1995. 27-48. Hayward, Jennifer. Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial Fictions form Dickens to Soap Opera. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky P, 1997. Hickethier, Knut. Die Fernsehserie und das Serielle des Fernsehens. Lüneburg: Universität Lüneburg, 1991. 8 Hughes, Linda K., and Michael Lund. The Victorian Serial. Charlottesville, VA: UP of Virginia, 1991. Jancovich, Mark, and James Lyons, eds. Quality Popular Television: Cult TV, the Industry, and Fans. London: BFI, 2003. Kelleter, Frank. “Populäre Serialität: Eine Einführung.” Populäre Serialität: Narration – Evolution – Distinktion. Zum seriellen Erzählen seit dem 19. Jahrhundert. Ed. Kelleter. Bielefeld: transcript, 2012. 11-46. ---, ed. Populäre Serialität: Narration – Evolution – Distinktion. Zum seriellen Erzählen seit dem 19. Jahrhundert. Bielefeld: transcript, 2012. ---. Serial Agencies. Winchester: Zero Books, 2014. Law, Graham. Serializing Fiction in the Victorian Press. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000. Leverette, Marc, Brian L. Lott, and Cara Louise Buckley, eds. It’s not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era. New York: Routledge, 2008. Lund, Michael. America’s Continuing Story: An Introduction to Serial Fiction, 1850-1900. Detroit, MI: Wayne State UP, 1993. Mayer, Ruth. Serial Fu Manchu: The Chinese Supervillain and the Spread of Yellow Peril Ideology. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2013. McCabe, Janet, and Kim Akass, eds. Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond. London/New York: Tauris, 2007. Mittell, Jason. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York: New York UP, 2015. Neuschäfer, Hans-Jörg, Dorothee Fritz-El Ahmad, and Klaus-Peter Walter. Der französische Feuilletonroman: Die Entstehung der Serienliteratur im Medium der Tageszeitung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1986. Payne, David. The Reenchantment of Nineteenth-Century Fiction: Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, and Serialization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Radway, Janice. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: U of North Carolina P, 1984. Schneider, Irmela, ed. Serien-Welten: Strukturen US-amerikanischer Serien aus vier Jahrzehnten. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1995. Stedman, Raymond William. The Serials: Suspense and Drama by Installment. Norman, OK: U of Oklahoma P, 1971. Stein, Daniel, and Jan-Noël Thon, eds. From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels: Contributions to the Theory and History of Graphic Narrative. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013. ---, Christina Meyer, and Micha Edlich, eds. American Comic Books and Graphic Novels. Special issue of Amerikastudien/American Studies 56.4 (2011). Sutherland, John. Victorian Fiction: Writers, Publishers, Readers. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995. Thompson, Robert J. Television’s Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER. New York: Continuum, 1996. Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 9