“It Is Happening Again”: Paratextuality, ‘Quality’ and Nostalgia in Twin Peaks’s Dispersed Anniversary
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-454X/6590Keywords:
Twin Peaks, anniversary, authorship, paratextuality, nostalgia, ‘quality’ televisionAbstract
This article contributes to academic discussions regarding tele-anniversaries, ‘quality’ television, and nostalgia by examining an atypical example concerning how and why Twin Peaks (1990-91) underwent its 25th anniversary in 2014. Contrasting to previous studies, which have discussed centrally-controlled and brand-managed occasions (Holdsworth, 2011; Gray and Bell, 2013; Hills, 2013, 2015a), this article considers Twin Peaks’s silver jubilee as a dispersed anniversary which originated from a range of nebulously-connected statements originating in journalistic discourse before becoming appropriated by official marketing strategies. By examining the serialised development of paratextual statements concerning the dispersed anniversary, I demonstrate that this progressed through three phases (1. paratextual speculation; 2. confirmation and verification; and, 3. calendrical establishment) and centred around establishing ‘meta-paratexts’ (Hills, 2015a) and discursive wills to ‘commemorate’ and ‘cohere’ around which meanings concerning nostalgia, art and commerce became negotiated.References
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Films
Big Ass Spider! (2014)
Noah (2014)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Online contents
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TV Shows
Big Brother (2000-)
Dallas (2012-2014)
Doctor Who (1963-)
Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
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