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Engley, Ryan

English

2014

M.A.

My thesis presents the argument that the discourse of contemporary television narrative studies is incomplete without the inclusion of Lacanian psychoanalysis. I show how psychoanalysis has been unfortunately shut-out of this emerging narrative conservation due to a misunderstanding of its fundamental concepts, first popularized by cognitivist standard bearer David Bordwell. I explore the unexamined overlap that cognitivism and psychoanalysis share, while looking at the emphasis on "gaps" emphasized by both critical approaches. I survey the complexity of the shifting ground of television spectatorship in the era of Netflix, which includes the movement of the television series from a set of discreet entities (episodes and seasons) to pure content (the effect of "binge watching"), and the shrinking distange between creator, content, and spectator. I sketch, implement, and demonstrate the pervasiveness of television narrative models that are unthinkable without psychoanalysis, such as "the unwinnable game" trope, "the death drive" narrative, and the death drive in narrative. Scholars need to understand the psychoanalytic core of television narrative in order to consider the radicality of television as an artistic medium.