Complex TV : the poetics of contemporary television storytelling / Jason Mittell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mittell, Jason.

Contributor:

JSTOR (Online Service)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Television authorship.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 390 pages.)

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2015]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Over the past two decades, new technologies, changing viewer practices, and the proliferation of genres and channels have transformed American television. One of the most notable impacts of these shifts is the emergence of highly complex and elaborate forms of serial narrative, resulting in a robust period of formal experimentation and risky programming rarely seen in a medium that is typically viewed as formulaic and convention bound. Complex TV offers a sustained analysis of the poetics of television narrative, focusing on how storytelling has changed in recent years and how viewers make sense of these innovations. Through close analyses of key programs, including The Wire, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Veronica Mars, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Mad Men, the book traces the emergence of this narrative mode, focusing on issues such as viewer comprehension, transmedia storytelling, serial authorship, character change, and cultural evaluation. Developing a television-specific set of narrative theories, Complex TV argues that television is the most vital and important storytelling medium of our time. Book jacket.

Contents:

Complexity in context

Beginnings

Authorship

Characters

Comprehension

Evaluation

Serial melodrama

Orienting paratexts

Transmedia storytelling

Ends.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780814744963

0814744966

Publisher Number:

99982941857

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.