The project « TV Series in the Pandemic Era » received an Emergence-Idex grant in 2021.
The project analyzes the effects of the sanitary crisis on the serial form, at the level of production, representations, and reception. We focus on what makes the specific responsiveness of the serial format – in particular its capacity, linked to their nature as works in progress, to capture the uncertainty that dominates the period, and thus to function as a tool for audiences to understand the world. We do also take into account the criticisms addressed to series as commercial products within the “economy of
(Citton), especially since the advent of online television. The increasing number of series every year is also accused of contributing to the increased polarization of Western societies. The “PSP” project is thus situated at the intersection of media studies, visual culture, and global studies. The transnational and transcultural dimension of series makes them particularly fruitful objects to apprehend the evolutions of the imaginary of the local and the global, the near and the far, just as these notions keep evolving and mutating.
The ambition of the project is also to develop innovative modes of research, by exploring these phenomena and themes, not only through the traditional forms of academic work, but also through the development of video essays, a particularly inventive form with regard to research on moving images.
After the Cerisy conference “TV Series beyond borders” (July 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSv9nCOis3Y ), which will lead to a collective book published by Presses Universitaires de Rennes, a special issue is in preparation for 2024, as well as a collection of video essays on Vimeo, “The Co-Videographic Project”, and a round table at the NECS conference (Oslo, June 2023).
Responsable :
- Ariane Hudelet – professeure des universités à l’Université de Paris, membre du LARCA