Palinsesti/Paratesti: le teorie transmediali della contemporaneità

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to investigate the new theories of transmediality in relation to contemporary paratexts, keeping in mind and questioning on the one hand the studies on Genette’s palimpsests and paratexts and on the other the theoretical contribution by Mittell, which defines the three main paratextual typologies of transmediality. From a theoretical. point of view, I will take into account the transmedia storytelling, as characterized by Jenkins and by Sepinwall. In fact, over time, television series, with their acquired complexity, have managed to become the culturally hegemonic form of storytelling, proving to be able to tell very long stories, allowing the characters to evolve over a particularly long period of time. In the current state of media evolution, television seems able to open a greater number of possibilities than other media to those who want to build complex narratives. This essay will discuss modern transmedia theories from a theoretical point of view in relation to the analysis of different types of paratext in relation to television series, in order to verify the ability of transmedia theories to conceptualize the expansions of storytelling.