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Pedler, Martyn. Suffering and Seriality: Memory, Continuity and Trauma in Monthly Superhero Adventures. MiT5, Media in Transition: Creativity, Ownership, and Collaboration in the Digital Age: Cambridge, 27–29 Apr, 2007. Added by: joachim (5/16/13, 6:27 PM) |
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| Resource type: Conference Paper Language: en: English BibTeX citation key: Pedler2007 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Seriality, Superhero, USA Creators: Pedler Publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge) Collection: MiT5, Media in Transition: Creativity, Ownership, and Collaboration in the Digital Age |
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| Attachments | URLs http://web.mit.edu ... _and_Seriality.pdf |
| Abstract |
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This paper will explore recent shifts in the ongoing interaction between text, audience, continuity and memory in long-running superhero narratives. Why are some stories remembered, and others happily forgotten? A superhero’s monthly adventures used to be stand-alone stories, but once the market could guarantee fans each issue in sequential order, ongoing storylines became expected. Closer attention had to be paid to the past, collected over years of publication, both encouraging character development and creating continuity glitches. Whereas a ludicrous plot twist could previously be ignored into oblivion, now it requires active explanation. I will explain how writers currently plunder old stories, finding new pleasure and trauma in narrative variations, and spelunk for unexplored gaps in decades-old stories to thrust more pain and drama into the next issue of the hero’s ongoing adventures
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