Investigating Stranger Things: Upside Down in the World of Mainstream Cult Entertainment

ISBN-13: 9783030663162 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Mollet, Tracey

Opis

This edited collection explores the narrative, genre, nostalgia and fandoms of the phenomenally successful Netflix original series, Stranger Things. The book brings together scholars in the fields of media, humanities, communications and cultural studies to consider the various ways in which the Duffer Brothers’ show both challenges and confirms pre-conceived notions of cult media. Through its three sections on texts, contexts and receptions, the collection examines all aspects of the series’ presence in popular culture, engaging in debates surrounding cult horror, teen drama, fan practices, and contemporary anxieties in the era of Trump. Its chapters seek to address relatively neglected areas of scholarship in the realm of cult media, such as set design, fashion, and the immersive Secret Cinema Experience. These discussions 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 up shows to extensive analysis in the now mainstream world of cult entertainment.

Spis treści

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.

O autorze

Tracey Mollet is Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK. She is the author of Cartoons in Hard Times: The Animated Shorts of Disney and Warner Brothers in Depression and War (2017) and A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale: Once Upon an American Dream (2020). She has published widely on American popular culture, including several essays on Stranger Things.

Lindsey Scott is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Suffolk, UK, where she teaches adaptation studies, children’s literature, and gothic horror in young adult fiction. Her work has appeared in edited collections and journals including Literature/Film Quarterly, Cinephile and Shakespeare Survey. She is currently writing on horror in children’s literature and popular culture.

Blurb

This 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.

Tracey Mollet is Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK. She is the author of Cartoons in Hard Times: The Animated Shorts of Disney and Warner Brothers in Depression and War (2017) and A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale: Once Upon an American Dream (2020). She has published widely on American popular culture, including several articles and chapters on Stranger Things, intertextuality and nostalgia.

Lindsey Scott is Lecturer in English at the University of Suffolk, UK, where she teaches adaptation studies and gothic horror in young adult fiction. Her work has appeared in edited collections and journals including Literature/Film Quarterly and Shakespeare Survey. She is currently writing on horror in children’s literature and popular culture.