JOMEC Journal Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Published by Cardiff University Press ‘I Don’t Think the Two Would Be the Same Without Each Other’: Portmeirion as Unintentional Paratext Abby Waysdorf Utrecht University Email: [email protected] Keywords The Prisoner paratext Portmeirion fan tourism fandom interviews Abstract This article looks at media tourism through the concept of the paratext. The term paratext, originally developed by literary theorist Gérard Genette to discuss the ‘extra-textual’ elements of a book that gives the reader context about it (such as book covers or the author’s biographical information). It has become important to media scholars seeking to understand how audiences understand films and television shows in a media-rich environment. This paper expands on the concept, arguing that place can be used and understood as an ‘unintentional’ paratext – a paratext that was not created as one, but that functions as one for audiences. I do this through an analysis of the relationship between 1960s cult television show The Prisoner (ITV 1967-8) and its filming location of Portmeirion, a holiday village in North Wales, where fans have been visiting since The Prisoner first aired. Through analysis of 16 interviews with The Prisoner fans, participant observation at Portmeirion, and analysis of fan-produced writing, I show how fans have established and use Portmeirion as a paratext. Fans not only visit Portmeirion to better understand how it was used in the genesis and creation of The Prisoner, but establish parallels between Portmeirion itself and the program, putting The Prisoner into a particular British artistic tradition and further confirming it as a worthy object of fandom. In doing so, I not only expand the use of paratexts to ‘unintentional’ paratexts, but provide a new way of understanding why fans might want to participate in media tourism. Contributor Note Abby Waysdorf is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University, where she is part of the European History Reloaded – Curation and Appropriation of European Audiovisual Heritage (CADEAH) project, researching how individuals and groups appropriate and recirculate audiovisual heritage material. She holds a PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam and has published in International Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Communication, Transformative Works and Cultures, and Participations. Her research interests include fan cultures, place, and the interaction between audiences and the media industry. Citation Waysdorf, Abby. 2019. ‘I Don’t Think the Two Would Be the Same Without Each Other’: Portmeirion as Unintentional Paratext’. JOMEC Journal 14, ‘Transmedia Tourism’, ed. Ross Garner, 33-52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18573/jomec.178 Accepted for publication: 24th October 2019 https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/ @JOMECjournal Introduction It is through paratexts like advert- isements, movie trailers, and so forth that One of the most popular websites about we decide to engage with a text to begin 1960s cult classic television show The with, and it is through further paratexts Prisoner (ITV 1967-8), The Unmutual,1 bills such as reviews, merchandise, and spinoff itself as not only dedicated to the show products that we develop our itself, but to its main filming location – the understanding and contextualization of North Wales holiday village of Portmeirion. them. The trend towards wider Scrolling through the website, the visitor transmedia franchises (Jenkins 2006) encounters galleries of Portmeirion, fan- continues, with textual worlds developing written articles about Portmeirion, regular across film, television, video games, and updates on changes, and other content the Internet. Paratexts are increasingly relating to the place, even without any important to the way in which we explicit mention of The Prisoner. In talking encounter and make sense of texts, with fans of The Prisoner, it becomes clear building interest in these worlds, providing that this is not an anomaly. Rather, a range of entry points to them, and Portmeirion is considered to be an continuing engagement with them after integral part of The Prisoner fandom – the ‘main’ text ends. something that fans of the show need to be aware of, a crucial way of However, most discussions of paratexts understanding and contextualizing The situate them as intentional, i.e. as works Prisoner. For many fans, Portmeirion created to support a main text, whether it functions as a paratext of The Prisoner. be a film, television show, book, or so forth. In this article, it is argued that The concept of ‘paratexts’, originally paratexts can also be created ‘after the developed by Gérard Genette (1997) as a fact’, rather than deliberately developed way to theorize the ‘extra’ material around for this purpose, through the literary works (such as book covers, recontextualization of existing material. interviews with authors, and so forth), has These ‘unintentional paratexts’, while not become an important touchstone for designed to support a text, still shape the media studies in recent years. Paratexts way in which audiences engage with, are a way to make sense of the wide conceptualize, and appreciate certain range of ‘extra-textual’ material in the texts. It is also suggested that making use contemporary media landscape and how of ‘unintentional’ paratexts is a crucial it affects audience responses. As aspect of fan tourism – traveling to a Jonathan Gray (2010) argues, ‘[i]f we place associated with an object of imagine the triumvirate of Text, Audience, fandom – adding another dimension to and Industry as the Big Three of media discussions of place as paratext (Garner practice, then paratexts fill the space 2016) and the role of place in the between them, conditioning passages transmedia environment. and trajectories that criss-cross the mediascape, and variously negotiating or The use of Portmeirion as a paratext of determining interactions among the The Prisoner by long-term fans is used as three’ (Gray 2010, 23). a case study in order to explore this concept in more detail. This article is 1 www.theunmutual.co.uk 33 https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/ @JOMECjournal based on 16 in-depth interviews with The Genette argued that paratexts function as Prisoner fans who have visited a ‘threshold’ (1997, 2) between the text Portmeirion on multiple occasions, and the reader, a way to move into the supplemented by participatory obser- text but also to prepare the reader for vation and analysis of fan-produced what they might encounter there, ‘at the paratexts (including websites, fanzines, service of a better reception for the text and social media posts). This approach and a more pertinent reading of it’ centers on the long-term fan community (Genette 1997, 2). It is this concept of the of The Prisoner and how they have paratext-as-threshold that Gray (2010) reclaimed Portmeirion as an developed into his influential expansion of unintentional, after-the-fact paratext, the term for the contemporary media age, developed on two levels: that of opening it up from a strictly literary Portmeirion’s role as part of the text and definition to one that encompasses much the discourses of authorship around both of today’s media landscape. This article The Prisoner and Portmeirion. This serves expands on his conceptualization of to both better understand The Prisoner contemporary paratexts and their role in and to valorize it, both roles that media to encompass ‘unintended’ contemporary paratexts frequently play paratexts (paratexts not originally (Gray 2010). This case therefore designed as paratexts), and how places demonstrates the potential of place as a can fall into this role in fandom. source of meaning for fans, and a way in which unintentional paratexts can be Gray’s main argument regarding paratexts created. It connects the discussions is twofold. In the first place, paratexts are around media tourism to the discussions an essential part of how all media texts around contemporary trans-media, are understood. They are not bonus therefore situating media tourism more material, to be considered only as clearly in the broader media environment accessories, ‘but rather as valuable a and showing what role space and spatial source of information about a text, and as discourse can play in these debates. important a site for the generation of text, as is the work itself’ (Gray 2010, 230). No text exists without paratexts, according to Paratexts in Contemporary Media Gray, and paratexts are as crucial in Culture understanding a text as anything contained within the text. As mentioned, the concept of ‘paratexts’ has become influential in contemporary For many audiences, it is through media research. Drawing on the paratexts, rather than the text, that connotations of the ‘para’ prefix to meaning is actually constituted, and highlight the paratext’s distinction from, therefore understanding them is as but relation to, another text – think of important as understanding the text. This paralegal or paramilitary – it was originally takes place at every stage of encounter developed by Genette (1997) in order to with the text: they provide reasons to better understand the role that objects watch a particular text in the first place, such as book covers, titles, biographical but can also shape the way a viewer feels information of authors, and the like played about it after viewing (for example, by in the reading experience. highlighting aspects they may have 34 https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/ @JOMECjournal