Returning to <i>Kolchak</i>: Polymediated Narrative, Discourse, and Supernatural Drama

Authors

  • Andrew F. Herrmann East Tennessee State University
  • Art Herbig Indiana University-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne

Keywords:

, narrative, storyworld, television, polymediation, discourse, supernatural drama, transmedia, rhetoric, Kolchak, Buffy, X-Files, Twin Peaks

Abstract

Scholars are paying a great deal of attention to the complexity of the stories being created for print, film, television, and the web. In this essay, the authors explore the relationship between complex narratives and the discourses in which they participate using one genre and starting with one television program: Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The authors expand on the concept of polymediated narrative complexity in contemporary storyworlds to explore the external discourses that influence their legacies and interpretations. As such, this research examines Kolchak as an important ever-evolving discursive fragment within what would become the supernatural drama genre. 

Author Biographies

Andrew F. Herrmann, East Tennessee State University

Associate Professor of Communication Studies at East Tenessee State University. He co-edited Communication Perpectives on Popular Culture (Lexington, 2016) and Beyond New Media: Discourse and Critique in a Polymediated Age (Lexington, 2015). Most recently, he edited Organizational Autoethnography: Power and Identity in Our Working Lives (Routledge, 2017). 

Art Herbig, Indiana University-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne

Associate Professor of Communication at IPFW. He co-edited Communication Perpectives on Popular Culture (Lexington, 2016) and Beyond New Media: Discourse and Critique in a Polymediated Age (Lexington, 2015). Most recently, he edited Organizational Autoethnography: Power and Identity in Our Working Lives (Routledge, 2017).

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Published

2018-01-02

Issue

Vol. 12 (2018)

Section

Articles

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