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"It's off-book!" : Developing Serial Complexity across Media in A Series of Unfortunate Events

Tanderup, Sara LU orcid (2020) In Children's Literature Association quarterly 45(1). p.59-79
Abstract
The article traces the development of narrative complexity in the book and television versions of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. The series has been criticized for its repetitive structure; however, drawing on seriality theory by Umberto Eco, Jason Mittell and Frank Kelleter, I demonstrate how it does move beyond repetition and towards a more complex narrative structure. I point out how the recent Netflix adaptation, rather than merely repeating the books, adds to this development of serial complexity. Thus, by comparing the book series and the adaptation, I demonstrate a tendency towards developing transmedial complexity in serial narratives.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Children's Literature Association quarterly
volume
45
issue
1
pages
21 pages
publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85086670427
ISSN
0885-0429
DOI
10.1353/chq.2020.0004
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b9921c8d-7b2d-42fb-9994-6375ff7e4011
date added to LUP
2020-05-06 21:56:56
date last changed
2024-01-31 21:10:54
@article{b9921c8d-7b2d-42fb-9994-6375ff7e4011,
  abstract     = {{The article traces the development of narrative complexity in the book and television versions of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. The series has been criticized for its repetitive structure; however, drawing on seriality theory by Umberto Eco, Jason Mittell and Frank Kelleter, I demonstrate how it does move beyond repetition and towards a more complex narrative structure. I point out how the recent Netflix adaptation, rather than merely repeating the books, adds to this development of serial complexity. Thus, by comparing the book series and the adaptation, I demonstrate a tendency towards developing transmedial complexity in serial narratives.}},
  author       = {{Tanderup, Sara}},
  issn         = {{0885-0429}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{59--79}},
  publisher    = {{Johns Hopkins University Press}},
  series       = {{Children's Literature Association quarterly}},
  title        = {{"It's off-book!" : Developing Serial Complexity across Media in A Series of Unfortunate Events}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chq.2020.0004}},
  doi          = {{10.1353/chq.2020.0004}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}