Mind the Gaps: Serial Media Forms and the Affective Work of Audiences by Anne Mecklenburg A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in the University of Michigan 2020 Doctoral Committee: Professor Adela Pinch, Co-Chair Professor Yeidy Rivero, Co-Chair Professor Daniel Hack Associate Professor Daniel Herbert Anne Mecklenburg
[email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1268-1272 © Anne Mecklenburg 2020 Acknowledgements Revising this project during a stay-at-home order was a daunting, isolating, and sometimes frightening prospect, especially because my work as a graduate student has been sustained for so many years by the communities I have found here at Michigan and throughout my life. How could I contemplate a dissertation on form and community when the only person I saw for days on end was my cat (who incidentally, does not give good writing feedback)? Of course, as I learned over the past couple months, many Zoom calls and track-changes-enabled Google Docs later, all the support and solidarity I had learned to rely on during my first six years at Michigan was still there. First, I would like to thank my dissertation committee. My co-chairs, Adela Pinch and Yeidy Rivero, encouraged me to write towards my weirdest questions, trusted me as I figured out the shape and dimensions of this thing I was writing, and helped me see it clearly, in all its possibilities. Whenever I talked with Adela, Yeidy, Danny Hack, and Dan Herbert, their comments always reflected back to me a better version of the project than what I’d written, while also giving me exactly the kind of feedback I needed, to help me move toward what I most wanted it to be.