![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Transmedia characters are fictional figures whose adventures are told in different media platforms, each one adding details to their story, as they are rewritten, altered or extended, varying the degree of continuity with the original. This discussion will focus on the identity of transmedia and transtexual female characters in television series Penny Dreadful (Showtime 2014–16) that exist in several gothic literary pretexts to the TV series as well as the series itself, also Titan’s prequel and sequel comic book series published after the series ended. Drawing on cognitive, narrative and transmedia theory, this discussion seeks to determine the essential criteria for establishing the persistence of individual identity of characters across texts and media. A central claim of this article is that the cognitive processes by which we as reader-viewers identify an agent as a character are cross-medial. Yet, there are important differences between media in how they represent a character. Of particular importance to this discussion are the power dynamics of transmedia entertainment, including the conflict and congruency between the way old and new media represent character through verbal and visual narrative devices.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. See Penny Dreadful Wiki – Fandom at http://penny-dreadful.wikia.com/wiki/Penny_Dreadful_Wiki.
2. In Palimpsest (1982) Genette differentiates between five different subtypes of transtextuality – Aspects of textuality: intertextuality, paratextuality, architextuality, metatextuality, hypotextuality and hypertextuality.
3. See “Chris King and Krysty Wilson-Cairns on Titan’s New Penny Dreadful Comic Series”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnK2DZmpOmk .
4. Transmedial storytelling is a special case of transfictionality that operates across many different media (See Ryan Citation2013, 366).
5. This distinction is an elaboration of Lubomir Dolezel’s Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds (Citation1998), where he describes a type of relation between fictional worlds and the texts that create them, which he calls “postmodern rewrite” and he distinguishes between three forms of rewrites: Transposition, expansion and displacement. Ryan, however, renames displacement modification.
6. For example, Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931), James Sangster’s Dracula (1958), and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992).
7. At this point in the prequel narrative, “the master” is still unnamed, although most television viewers perhaps already know his many aliases: Amun-Ra, The Dragon, Dracula and Dr. Alexander Sweet. Considering that his true identity has already been revealed to television viewers, it is interesting how aligned this prequel is with its pre-text regarding the story’s development.
8. The comic book adaptation of this dialogue sentence from Logan’s narrative ”If only you had run after him that day in the maze” (season 1, episode 5) is almost identical with the original – Except the word maze has been changed to “cliff” in the comic book adaptation.
9. This song is sung or played in several episodes – For instance in “Séance” (season 1, episode 2) by Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), in “Fresh Hell” (season 2, episode 1) by Evelyn Poole (Helen McCrory), and by her daughter Hecate (Sarah Greene) in “And They Were Enemies” (season 2, episode 10).
10. The reference to Malcolm’s lion-hunt story from the TV series is obvious and in Peter’s wording, Malcolm’s original story is modified: “I thought of a particular lion hunt many years ago. You’re moving through the tall grass, getting a glimpse of the prey, the shoulders mostly, the mane. You prepare your rifle. You’re very quiet. And then there’s a moment. The wind changes, the grass stops swaying. The lion turns, looks at you. The moment you realize you are no longer the hunter, you are the prey” (S1: E1).
11. As elaborated by Genette himself, Michael Riffaterre’s definition of “intertextuality is, in principle, much broader than mine is here, and it seems to extend everything I call transtextuality” (Genette (Citation1982 1997), 2).
12. As stated by Henry Jenkins, most transmedia content adds to our understanding of a story as a whole and serves “one or more of the following functions: offers backstory, maps the world, offers us other character’s perspectives on the action, deepens audience engagement” (Jenkins Citation2009, 7).
13. Similarly, when Vanessa surrenders to Dracula, she declares “I accept… myself” (season 3, episode 7).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anita Nell Bech Albertsen
Anita Nell Bech Albertsen is an Associate Professor of Danish Literature at the University of Southern Denmark where she teaches courses in Danish literature, Literary theory, Media studies and Creative Writing. Her research interests include narrative theory, e.g. text world theory, anti-narration and cognitive theory. Her recent publications include articles in Danish on televisual documentaries and narrative theory and, in English, ‘The Contaminant Cobweb: Complex Characters and Monstrous Mashup’ in Identity and the Fantastic, eds Rikke Schubart, Amanda Howell, Stephanie Green and Anita Nell Bech Albertsen, Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media. Vol 28 (2017): http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2017/06/14/bech-albersten/