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MS4 Case Study: Stranger Things: Genre, Narrative and Representation

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The Strange Concept of Genre

1. How does genre help audiences?2. How does genre help companies such as Netflix?3. Why is innovation important for genre?4. In what ways does the 1980s setting appeal to younger and older viewers?5. What could be the risk of labelling the series as 'horror'?6. In what ways does the narrative challenge the audience's expectations?

Era

• Set in the 1980s

• Makes intertextual references to a range of 80s texts e.g. Stephen King novels, Dungeons and Dragons, ET, Stand By Me, The Goonies and many more

• Enjoyed by both young and old audiences (maybe not the Stephen King novels).

Horror/Drama/Thriller/SciFi

How can we apply the following?

• Daniel Chandler

• Steve Neale

• Nick Lacey

Rick Altman’s Semantic and Syntactic

• Semantic means the way that the media is presented i.e: what is typically expected in a certain genre such characters, settings, costumes & props e.g. isolated house and creepy monster

• Syntactic explores the relationship between the semantic elements, such as elements of the narrative or the ideology of the genre e.g. isolated house + creepy monster = fear.

The Horror Genre: The Final Girl theory

• A cliche of the horror genre identified by Carol J Clover

• Focuses on female characters (teenage girls) as victims)

• Those who engage in illegal/immoral behaviour (sex, drugs, smoking) die first

• There is a final girl who survives – the one who resists the bad behaviour

• This trope is subverted through Barb

Narrative

How can we apply the following Narrative theorists?• Todorov• Propp• Strauss• Barthes

• Is the narrative linear or non-linear?• Restricted or unrestricted?• Effect?• Single or Multi stranded?• Effect

Representation

Masculinity?

Government workers: all men

Ted Wheeler

What did I do? What did I doooo…?

Police

Hopper: “Flo, we’ve discussed this. Mornings are for coffee and contemplation…Coffee and contemplation”

Boys

25.082.03 4.26

37.52

Mrs Wheeler

‘Connie Fraser: Social Services’

Nancy

Joyce

Vulture’s Brian Moylan said it best:• “Nancy is an archetype created through

an evil conspiracy launched by Wes Craven, John Hughes, and Molly Ringwald sometime during the Reagan administration. It’s a conspiracy more dangerous than nuclear proliferation, because everyone is still trying to be Nancy and hating who they really are: Barb.”

Barb