Publication details
Fikční světy (kriminálního) televizního seriálu
| Title in English | Fictional Worlds of (Crime) Television Series |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Iluminace. Časopis pro teorii, historii a estetiku filmu. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Mass media, audiovision |
| Keywords | fictional worlds; narratology; poetics; television; series; tv show; crime |
| Description | The study proposes an original conception of a TV series analysis (the term “series” refers here to both series and serials) based on the fictional worlds theory and neoformalism. It shifts the focus of analysis from the level of narrative modes and techniques to the level of semantic macrostructure of series fiction. The latter is superior to episodic structure and establishes or modifies the system of regulative principles, according to which the narration and stories are realized within episodes or across them. The presented model is open sufficiently enough not to limit a work to a priori conclusions but on the contrary to provide the set of tools allowing to analyze series in their utmost complexity. In order to describe clearly the proposed theoretical model, it is demonstrated on the example of a fictional arrangement, the so-called crime series mode. It provides a taxonomy of fictional worlds: of a whole series as macroworld and individual episodes as fictional worlds, which may be effectively semantically structured as subworlds governed by their own order. The interaction of these “worlds” produces narration and offers potentially many different stories, some ending at the end of an episode, others continuing across several episodes and still others developing throughout the series. Yet the fictional macroworld as a sum of fictional worlds of episodes collects, uses and modifies the set of norms allowing to recognize and analyze the immensely rugged and extensive system as a single fictional entity. Furthermore, the concept of the so-called fictional encyclopedia enables one to analyze spectator’s cognitive activity and possible means of watching and allows selective work with redundancy of narrative information. Despite its focus on crime series (in relation to which it employs some concepts from criminal sciences) the study provides useful means for analysis of TV series fiction in general. |