Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
London Metropolitan University
Narrative Supplements: DVD and the Idea of the Text
Book chapter in New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age, eds. Bronwen Thomas and Ruth Page (University of Nebraska Press 2011) commissioned by the editors.
The article asks whether such scholars of the DVD as Barlow (2005) and Cover (2005) have overstated the extent to which the DVD enables new narrative formations and newly empowered viewers.
The essay employs close textual analysis using semiotic and narrative theory. The boxed set of TV spy thriller Spooks (2002) is used as a case study. Spooks was chosen because the spy thriller relies heavily on the emotions of fear and anxiety, thus helping to illustrate the salience of Haeffner’s insistence on narrative as an affective phenomenon. Also, the extras and commentaries in which the ostensible text of Spooks is embedded can be easily distinguished from the formalized narrative procedures of the thriller format.
The chapter is discussed in Yumiko Iwata (2009) ‘Creating Suspense and Surprise in Short Literary Fiction’ PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham.
