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  • © 2018

Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Demonstrates how changes unique to each platform connect with the rise of transmedia storytelling
  • Attributes the rise of the post-apocalyptic genre to concurrent transformations in the media industry rather than cultural fears
  • Advances a new understanding of genre-medium coevolution

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
  2. Portal

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Doomsday Dreaming

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 3-14
    3. The End of the Media as We Know It

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 15-35
    4. The Appeal of the Apocalypse

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 37-54
  3. Post-apocalypse

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 55-55
    2. The Endings of I Am Legend

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 57-76
    3. Convergence Publishing and Prestige Niches

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 121-141
    4. Antichrist Obama and the Doomsday Preppers

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 143-162
  4. Paradigms

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163
    2. The Many Deaths of The Terminator

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 165-184
    3. The Many Lives of The Walking Dead

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 185-206
    4. Epilogue: After the End

      • Stephen Joyce
      Pages 207-211
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 213-220

About this book

This book confronts the question of why our culture is so fascinated by the apocalypse. It ultimately argues that while many see the post-apocalyptic genre as reflective of contemporary fears, it has actually co-evolved with the transformations in our mediascape to become a perfect vehicle for transmedia storytelling. The post-apocalyptic offers audiences a portal to a fantasy world that is at once strange and familiar, offers a high degree of internal consistency and completeness, and allows for a diversity of stories by different creative teams in the same story world. With case studies of franchises such as The Walking Dead and The Terminator, Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse offers analyses of how shifts in media industries and reception cultures have promoted a new kind of open, world-building narrative across film, television, video games, and print. For transmedia scholars and fans of the genre, this book shows how the end of the world is reallyjust the beginning…

Reviews

Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse convincingly and brilliantly brings together its objects of study. Stephen Joyce pushes us to think about transmedia storytelling, its industrial/narrative cores and its ‘franchise guardians’, in new and important ways. Combining analyses of failure and success in franchises like The Terminator and The Walking Dead with provocative discussions of fandom, this is a fantastic addition to transmedia studies.” (Matt Hills, University of Huddersfield, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Stephen Joyce

About the author

Stephen Joyce is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the author of A River of Han: Eastern Tragedy in a Western Land. 

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access