ArteActa 2018, 2:7-34

The Worldbuilding of Television Series from the Perspectives of Fandom and Utopian Studies: Twin Peaks and other Fictive Maps

David Havas

Quality TV is a rather broad notion which refers to a specific type of contemporary television production. To be sure, in the case of TV series, this label extends across many genres and very diverse creative practices. However, the purpose of the article is to shift the attention from this notion to the motivation for inhabiting the worlds of TV series, and not only from the perspective of fan studies. In fact, the utopian aspect of audiovisual worlds, the world-building of a unique space bound up with specific mythologies, atmospheres, and complex characters, is essential for the modern serialized television show. It follows, then, that a certain shared trans-media narrative of both the creators of television material and viewers arises. Hence, this article's theoretical framework brings to light significant though lesser known publications from the field of fan studies, alongside sources from the fields of psychology, philosophy, and utopian studies. The article turns to the serial Twin Peaks: The Return as an example of such a shared trans-media narrative and the negotiation of a concrete, operative aesthetic of a distinct fictional world between creators and fans.

Keywords: quality TV, worldbuilding, TV series, fan studies, utopia, fan fiction, fictional universe, pop culture, narrative gaps, Twin Peaks

Published: December 15, 2018  Show citation

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Havas, D. (2018). The Worldbuilding of Television Series from the Perspectives of Fandom and Utopian Studies: Twin Peaks and other Fictive Maps. ArteActa, 1(2), 7-34
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