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A Generic, Narrative, and Audience Reception Analysis of True Blood Stacey M View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of New Mexico University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Communication ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-1-2012 The onsM trous Side of Humanity: A Generic, Narrative, and Audience Reception Analysis of True Blood Stacey M. Overholt Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds Recommended Citation Overholt, Stacey M.. "The onM strous Side of Humanity: A Generic, Narrative, and Audience Reception Analysis of True Blood." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/65 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i Stacey M. Overholt Candidate Communication and Journalism Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Dr. Janice Schuetz, Chairperson Dr. Glenda Balas Dr. Pavel Shlossberg ii "THE MONSTROUS SIDE OF HUMANITY": A GENERIC, NARRATIVE, AND AUDIENCE RECEPTION ANALYSIS OF TRUE BLOOD by STACEY M. OVERHOLT B.S., COMMUNICATION, CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA, 2010 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Communication The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2012 iii DEDICATION This thesis is lovingly dedicated to my wonderful family: Mom, Dad, Stephanie, Klayton, and Nathan. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I can say with complete conviction that this thesis would not have been written without the guidance and help of many people. Therefore, what follows is my humble attempt to communicate my appreciation to those people. First, many appreciative thanks go to My Committee 2.0: Dr. Janice Schuetz, Dr. Glenda Balas, and Dr. Pavel Shlossberg. Jan, thank you for challenging me and pouring countless hours into this project; your feedback and support have helped me grow as a scholar. Also, thank you for seeing the value in a thesis about vampires. Glenda, thank you for always being supportive of my interest in studying True Blood; your encouragement gave me the courage to stick with this topic. Pavel, thank you for bringing so much enthusiasm to this project; your expertise and insights have helped shape and strengthen this thesis. There truly aren’t enough words to describe my love and appreciation for my family. Mama and Daddy—thank you for supporting my unexpected decision to move to Albuquerque, for constantly helping me from 750 miles away, and for always being proud of me; I am honored to be your daughter. Stephanie—thank you for always taking care of me, completing me, and, along with Mama, being my inspiration; even at my worst, I’m best with you. Klayton—thank you for your ceaseless encouragement, kindness, and love; I am blessed to know you. And to Nathan—thank you for bringing magic into my life and for making my heart grow two sizes that day; I adore you. Finally, thank you to Evelyn and Ella; the unconditional love you’ve both shown me has changed my life. I love you all. How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. –A.A. Milne v My brief time spent as a quasi-New Mexican has been made remarkable by the people I was lucky enough to meet. Your hugs, encouraging post-it notes, and time spent eating queso with me have made this experience unforgettable. Thank you all for living this quote: Adversity tries people and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are. –Frances Hodgson Burnett Marisa—thank you for always helping and encouraging me, and transforming many possibly sad moments into happy memories; you are wonderful. Siobhan—thank you for going through this delightful thesis process with me and always being incredibly encouraging; you are my favorite Canadian. Many thanks also go to your lovely mom for her help with my thesis 1.0. Pammy G—thank you for being the rainbow of my life. We win at life. LaRae—thank you for keeping me company on the totem pole. It’s been fun. Jelena—thank you for always graciously answering my many, many, many questions and being the best diagonal mate ever. Lex—thank you for always taking the time to help me make sense of my thesis even though you really didn’t have the time to spare. vi “THE MONSTROUS SIDE OF HUMANITY”: A GENERIC, NARRATIVE, AND AUDIENCE RECEPTION ANALYSIS OF TRUE BLOOD By Stacey M. Overholt B.S., Communication, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, 2010 M.A., Communication, University of New Mexico, 2012 ABSTRACT HBO’s drama series True Blood has been considered a unique and polysemic text since its debut in 2008.This thesis examined the series through the theoretical lenses of genre, narrative, and audience reception. Specifically, this study examined the series’ adherence to the gothic vampire subgenre, the way the series functions as an allegorical narrative, and the audience reception principles demonstrated by viewers of the series. Through my analysis of episodes from all four aired seasons, I established the gothic vampire subgenre, a television genre from literary and film genres, and determined that the series adheres to the substantive, stylistic, and situational elements of the genre. I also approached the series as an allegorical narrative and posited that it functions as an allegory for societal opposition and political oppression. Finally, I analyzed online audience responses to the series from the Racialicious website using Hall’s encoding- decoding, Fiske’s concept of pleasure, and Fisher’s narrative paradigm. I determined that oppositional readings are pleasurable for these viewers and that narrative coherence and fidelity are of prime importance to them. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………….………………………………1 Assumptions……………………………………………………………………….5 Rationale…………………………………………………………………………..8 Research Questions…………………………………………………...…………………10 Key Explanations………………………………………..………………………...…….11 Home Box Office (HBO)………………………………………………………...11 True Blood……………………………………………………………………….14 Celluloid Vampires………………………………………………………………17 Racialicious………………………………………………………………………17 Audiences………………………………………………………………………...19 Overview…………………………………………………………………………………20 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………...…………………………………...21 Genre……………………………………………………………………………………..21 Literary Genre……………………………………………………………………31 Film Genre……………………………………………………………………….35 Television Genre…………………………………………………………………39 Narrative…………………………………………………………………………………42 Literary and Film Narratives……………………………………………………..47 Television Narrative……………………………………………………………...51 Online Narrative………………………………………………………………….55 Audience Reception Theories……………………………………………………………56 Television and Literary Audiences………………………………………………58 viii Synthesis Model………………………………………………………………………….65 Figure 1: Synthesis Model……………………………………………………….65 CHAPTER 3: METHODS……………………………………….…………………….66 True Blood……………………………………………………………………………….66 Racialicious………………………………………………………………………………70 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………..69 Research Questions………………………………………………………………………73 Methods…………………………………………………………………………………..74 Genre Analysis…………………………………………………………………...75 Narrative Analysis……………………………………………………………….78 Audience Reception Analysis………………………...………………………….79 CHAPTER 4: GENRE ANALYSIS…………………………………………………...81 Generic Criticism………………………………………………………………………...81 Substantive Elements…………………………………………………………….82 Themes…………………………………………………………………...82 Issues……………………………………………………………………..92 Stylistic Elements………………………………………………………………...94 Vampire-Human Interactions…………………………………………….95 Human-Human Interactions……………………………………………...97 Vampire-Vampire Interactions…………………………………...………99 Situational Elements…………………………………………………..………..101 Social and Political Context……………………………………..….…..101 Vampire Culture…………………………………..……………….……103 ix The “Other”……………………………………………………………105 CHAPTER 5: NARRATIVE ANALYSIS…………………………………………...107 Allegorical Narrative…………………………………………………………………...108 “Strange Love”………………………………………………………………….111 Setting…………………………………………………………………..111 Characters………………………………………………………………112 Plot……………………………………………………………………...115 “You’ll Be the Death of Me”…………………………………………………...116 Setting…………………………………………………………………..116 Characters………………………………………………………………117 Plot……………………………………………………………………...118 “Scratches”……………………………………………………………………...119 Setting…………………………………………………………………..119 Characters………………………………………………………………120 Plot……………………………………………………………………...121 “Release Me”…………………………………….……………………………..121 Setting…………………………………………………………………..122 Characters………………………………………………………………123 Plot……………………………………………………………………...124 “Beautifully Broken”…………………………………………………………...124 Setting…………………………………………………………………..125 Characters………………………………………………………………126 Plot……………………………………………………………………...127 x “Evil is Going On”……………………………………………………………...128 Setting…………………………………………………………………..128 Characters………………………………………………………………129 Plot……………………………………………………………………...129 “I’m Alive and On Fire”………………………………………………………..130 Setting…………………………………………………………………..130 Characters………………………………………………………………131 Plot……………………………………………………………………...132 “And When I Die”……………………………………………………………...132 Setting…………………………………………………………………..133 Characters………………………………………………………………133 Plot……………………………………………………………………...134 CHAPTER 6: AUDIENCE ANALYSIS……………………………………………..136 Reception Analysis……………………………………………………………………..136 Encoding/Decoding……………………………………………………………..137
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