For this paper, please pick one transfictional character to explore in depth. A
“transfictional character” is a character that appears across multiple different texts. By
“text,” I mean “fictional works,” which might include movies, TV shows, podcasts,
fanfiction, etc. You can pick a character we’ve studied in this class (for example,
comparing Edwin Drood across the book and adaptation), but you can also pick a
completely new character.
Pease analyze the potential serial relationship between two versions of this character (I
would not advise trying to write about three versions, but you can ask me). Please make
sure that you have access to both texts. To write this paper effectively, you will need to
refer to each text in detail. The main task of this paper is to construct a complex,
debatable, nuanced claim about how your character functions across several texts, and
that claim should be grounded in some form of textual analysis.
You might ask questions like:
• How might audiences identify this as the same character? Alternatively, what is
it about this version of the character that feels unique? How would you
characterize the dynamics of “continuity and change” with respect to this
character? So what, or what are the consequences of that?
• What are some larger implications of the idea that a character can feel stable
across time and texts? How is that stability constructed and perceived, and what
might that suggest about how characters function in all narratives (but especially
serial ones)?
• What relationship does one version imagine itself to have with prior versions?
• Is this character constructed to be relatable or familiar, to be a puzzle, to have a
narratorial or focalizing role? For some other purpose? What assumptions does
that suggest about these texts’ intended audience, ideological function, etc? Is
that similar or different to other versions?
• Especially if your versions involve a shift in medium, what role does medium (or
genre expectations) play in how this character and their plots are constructed?
• How would you visualize or map out this character’s place in one version, or
across versions? Are they static? Are their plots cyclical? Do they build to
something? Does their role in the narrative narrow over time? How is this
character situated within a network of others? Does this network look the same
or different to other versions?