Narrative Strategies in Television Series

by G. Allrath, M. Gymnich

Overview

In the context of a systematic overview of the possibilities of applying narratological concepts to a study of TV series, ten case studies are explored in depth, demonstrating how series such as 24, Buffy, Twin Peaks, Star Trek, Blackadder, and Sex and the City make use of innovative audiovisual means of storytelling. Transgressing the traditional confines of narrative theory, the chapter authors address the question of how form, content, and function intersect in these series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403996053
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/10/2005
Edition description:	2005
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

ELISABETH BIRK Teaching and Research Assistant, Department of Linguistics, Aachen, Germany HANNE BIRK is currently working on a Ph.D. on 'remembering' in contemporary novels by Maori (New Zealand), Aborigine (Australia), and First Nations (Canada) authors STEFAN DEINES Teaching and Research Assistant, Philosophy Department, University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany ESTHER FRITSCH Teacher, University of Wuppertal, Germany SANDRA HEINEN is currently working on a doctoral thesis on authorship in English Romanticism. She has written essays concerned with narrative strategies in film, television, and literature and co-edited Krisen des Verstehens um 1800 (2004) JANINE MATTHEES works as Project Manager at a marketing agency DIRK SCHULZ works for gender Inn, an online database for literature on Gender Studies and Women's Studies, and gender forum, an electronic journal and he teaches English/American literature and culture, University of Cologne, Germany KLAUDIA SEIBEL is currently workingon her doctoral thesis on hybrid genres in the contemporary British novel CAROLA SURKAMP Lecturer, University of Giessen, Germany, in the Department of Teaching English as a Foreign Language ECKART VOIGTS-VIRCHOW Visiting Professor, University of Vienna, Austria. He has published widely on contemporary drama, film and media studies, and Dennis Potter.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Towards a Narratology of TV Series; G.Allrath, M.Gymnich, C.Surkamp PART 1: BEYOND REALISM: AUTHENTIFYING AND SUBJECTIFYING NARRATIVE STRATEGIES 'Today is Going to be the Longest Day of my Life': A Narratological Analysis of 24; E.Birk & H.Birk Exploring Inner Spaces - Authoritative Narratives and Subjective Worlds in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise ; M.Gymnich Animated Cartoons and Other Innovative Forms of Presenting Consciousness on Screen: The German TV Series Berlin, Berlin ; C.Surkamp PART 2: MULTI-LAYERED CHARACTERS, MULTI-LAYERED NARRATIVES 'She's Filled with Secrets': Hidden Worlds, Embedded Narratives, and Character Doubling in Twin Peaks ; J.Matthees 'This is not Happening': The Multi-layered Ontology of The X-Files ; K.Seibel Life in Doppelgangland: Innovative Character Conception and Alternate Worlds in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel ; G.Allrath PART 3: NARRATING GENDER/GENDERING NARRATIVES Serial Gossip: Gossip as Theme and NarrativeStrategy in Sex and the City ; E.Fritsch Ellen Dege narrated : Breaking the Heteronormative Narrative Contract; D.Schulz PART 4: (RE)NARRATING HISTORY History and Biography in Die zweite Heimat : Narrative Strategies to Represent the Past; S.Heinen & S.Deines History: The Sitcom, England: The Theme Park - Blackadder 's Retrovisions as Historiographic Meta-TV; E.Voigts-Virchow Index