Full Description
Star Wars has reached more than three generations of casual and hardcore fans alike, and as a result many of the producers of franchised Star Wars texts (films, television, comics, novels, games, and more) over the past four decades have been fans-turned-creators. Yet despite its dominant cultural and industrial positions, Star Wars has rarely been the topic of sustained critical work. Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling offers a corrective to this oversight by curating essays from a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars in order to bring Star Wars and its transmedia narratives more fully into the fold of media and cultural studies. The collection places Star Wars at the center of those studies' projects by examining video games, novels and novelizations, comics, advertising practices, television shows, franchising models, aesthetic and economic decisions, fandom and cultural responses, and other aspects of Star Wars and its world-building in their multiple contexts of production, distribution, and reception. In emphasizing that Star Wars is both a media franchise and a transmedia storyworld, Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling demonstrates the ways in which transmedia storytelling and the industrial logic of media franchising have developed in concert over the past four decades, as multinational corporations have become the central means for subsidizing, profiting from, and selling modes of immersive storyworlds to global audiences. By taking this dual approach, the book focuses on the interconnected nature of corporate production, fan consumption, and transmedia world-building. As such, this collection grapples with the historical, cultural, aesthetic, and political-economic implications of the relationship between media franchising and transmedia storytelling as they are seen at work in the world's most profitable transmedia franchise.
Contents
Foreword: Henry Jenkins and Dan Hassler-Forest, "'You'll find I'm full of surprises!': Introducing the Star Wars Storyworld" Episode I: A New Storyworld-The Original Trilogy Matthew Freeman, "From Quasi-Sequel to Novelization: Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Indie World-Building and the Culture of Transmedia Contingency" Tara Lomax, "'Thank the Maker!': George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd., and the Legends of Transtextual Authorship across the Star Wars Franchise" Stefan Hall, "Franchising Empire: Parker Bros., Atari, and the Rise of LucasArts" Jeremy Webster, "Han Leia Shot First: Transmedia Storytelling and the National Public Radio Dramatization of Star Wars." Drew Morton, "'You must feel the force around you!': Death Star Trench Running as Transmedia Play" Mark J.P. Wolf, "Adapting the Death Star into LEGO: The Case of LEGO Set #10188" [publisher, please note that this will be a reprint] Episode II: Attack of the Franchise-The Expanded Universe Thomas van Parys, "The Novelizations of the Star Wars Films" Jonathan Rey Lee, "The Digitizing Force of Decipher's Star Wars: Customizable Card Game" Megen de Bruin-Molé, "'She'll Always Be Royalty to Me': The Feminist Politics of Star Wars" Sean Guynes, "The New Jedi Order: Industrial Collaboration, Franchise Novels, and the Fiction Mega-Series" Beatriz Bartolomé Herrera and Philipp Dominik Keidl, "How Star Wars Became Museological: Transmedia Storytelling and Imaginary World Building in the Exhibition Space" Lincoln Geraghty, "Transmedia Character Building: Tracking Paratextual Crossovers in the Star Wars Universe" Cody Mejeur, "Chasing Wild Space: World-building, Renewal, and the Unknown in the The Old Republic" Episode III: The Fandom Re-Awakens-The Prequel Trilogy and the Disney Era Matt Hills, "Transmedia Under One Roof: The Star Wars Celebration as a Convergence Event" Taylor Evans, "Retconning Race: Post-Racial Blackness in the Star Wars Franchise" Allison Whitney, "Formatting Nostalgia: IMAX Expansions of the Star Wars Franchise" Andrew M. Butler, "Invoking the Holy Trilogy: Star Wars in in the Askewniverse" Gerry Canavan, "Rogue One, what makes 'A Star Wars Story,' and liminal franchise texts" Derek R. Sweet, "Some People Call him a Space Cowboy: Kanan Jarrus, Outer Rim Justice, and the Legitimization of The Obama Doctrine" Heather Urbanski, "The Kiss Goodnight from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Experiencing Star Wars as a Fan-Scholar on Disney Property" Afterword: Will Brooker and Dan Hassler-Forest, "'We'll See Each Other Again. I Believe That.' The Future of Star Wars."
