Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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sequences from the perspective of the new viewer: the viewer who is screening the
individual instalment as his or her introduction to the Friday the 13 th series. While
there are greater and subtler divisions of viewers, these are two polarities that can
most clearly elucidate the significance of individual perspective on viewing a film
within the franchise. This approach will be used in order to demonstrate how the
films aesthetically dictate and define the perspective of the viewer in relation to the
film text, how this affects understanding of the individual film narratives, and to
pinpoint the evolving devices used to inform this viewer/text relationship.
Jason Mittell writes of the ways in which serialised television narratives play
with memory when relating information from previous narrative strands. Mittell
argues that “complex serials strategically trigger, confound, and play with viewers’
memories, considering how television storytelling strategies fit with our
understanding of the cognitive mechanics of memory...” (2009; n.p.) Following this,
Mittell, as I intend to do here, identifies different ways in which series address and
adjust elements of the overarching narrative in order to make a connection for
individual instalments. In his conclusion, he justifies his method: “The significance
of this poetic catalog of techniques is to highlight the importance of underlying
cognitive processes in the seemingly simple act of narrative comprehension.”
The main focus of this chapter is to show the relationship between different
kinds of viewers and the narratives of the films placed within the context of
serialisation, and how this is facilitated aesthetically, however, it should be noted
that such texts are rarely experienced in a cultural vacuum. Familiarity with the
slasher sub-genre, particularly beginning in the mid-1980s, based on the financial
success of the films as well as merchandising relating to the franchise, was
widespread. Ian Conrich has addressed these elements of marketing in his writing on