UnknownMollet, Tracey
Springer International Publishing (Cham, Switzerland , 2021) (eng) English9783030663148Unknown1st ed.HORROR TELEVISION PROGRAMS -- HISTORY AND CRITICISM; UnknownThis book explores the narrative, genre, nostalgia and fandoms of the phenomenally successful Netflix original series Stranger Things. It considers the different ways in which the show both challenges and confirms our pre-conceived notions of cult media texts by examining the series’ textual features, contextual criticism and forms of audience engagement. The chapters examine all aspects of the show’s presence in popular culture, engaging with debates surrounding cult horror, teen drama and contemporary anxieties in the age of Trump. The book also touches upon relatively neglected areas of scholarship in the realm of cult media, such as set design, fashion and the textual complexities of the Secret Cinema experience. Discussions within the book also serve to demonstrate how cult texts are facilitated by the new age of television, where notions of medium specificity are fundamentally transformed and streaming platforms open shows to the extensive analysis expected from (now mainstream) cult fandoms.
Physical dimension
1 online resource (xiii, 253 p.)Unknownill.
Summary / review / table of contents
1.Stranger Things in a Familiar Land: Mainstream Cult Entertainment in the Age of Netflix --
2.'There's More to Life Than Stupid Boys': the (Re) Gendering of Cult Teen Relationships in Stranger Things 3 --
3.Coming of Age in the Upside Down: Renegotiating the Boundaries of Mainstream/Cult Horror in Stranger Things --
4.Flirting with the Final Girl: Stranger Things and the Inconsistent Representation of Female Empowerment --
5.'Something is coming ...': the Screenwriter as Dungeon Master of Stranger Things --
6.'What Happens to Us in the Future?': Stranger Things 3 Goes Back to the Future (1985) --
7.Stranger Networks: Ancillary Threats, Cult Nostalgia and Technological Invasions --
8.A Nightmare on Maple Street: Anti-Nostalgia and Family Dynamics in Stranger Things --
9.Returning Home: Set Design and Visual Storytelling in the Cult World of Stranger Things --
10.From 1980s Intertextualities to (Un)faithful 'Inter-Textualities': Stranger Things and Audience-Created Relations Between Media Texts --
11.Never Ending Story: How Transmedia Narratives Generate Cults --
12.Sponsored Things: Audiences and the Commodification of the Past in Stranger Things.