TOPICS: SERIALISATION in Spring 2021 (CL2091A)

This course explores serialization, a dominant phenomenon in contemporary literary production. From Harry Potter to Elena Ferrante, from Fifty Shades to Karl Ove Knausgaard, writers and publishers are increasingly thinking in terms of multi-volume projects where readers follow characters and intrigues from one book to the next. A similar trend can be observed in contemporary television where viewers devour their favorite series in a manner dismissively described as ‘binge watching’. This state of affairs is not, however, unprecedented and has its roots in the nineteenth century as writers such as Dickens, Balzac and Eugène Sue created the roman-feuilleton, or serial novel, initially published in newspapers. Both the literary and the streaming/television series are concerned with the commodification and structuring of time through contemporary technology in revealing ways. In this course, we will examine the logic of serialization and what happens to readers, reading, writing and storytelling when that logic is at work. We will consider concepts such as immersion, tension, realism, narrative time & space, social consciousness, adaptation and fandom as well as their associated theories. We will read examples from the nineteenth century and the present day, and watch and think critically about examples drawn from contemporary TV series including David Simon’s The Wire, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Bruce Miller’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Will also explore think about place and how contemporary Paris is portrayed in the French language police series Engrenages. Uppermost in our minds throughout the semester will be the question of how the shape of a narrative changes the way we experience it.