Of domestic monsters and complex marvels: serialization, Richard III, and the Marvel cinematic universe

Abstract

Within this text, I identify the key concepts of the serial form in order to introduce my own work concerning the serial?s future within New Media and its overlooked past within the early modern period. Within my first chapter, ?Heading to the ?Mothership:? Narrative Complexity, Transmedia, and the Future of Serial Storytelling,? I place Jason Mittell?s definition of narrative complexity into conversation with transmedia storytelling in order to argue for a more nuanced definition of narrative complexity that is not limited to the medium of television. Meanwhile, within my second chapter, ??Destiny is Anatomy:? Richard III?s Feminized Body, Ambiguous Gender, and the Elizabethan Patriarchy,? I argue the ways in which Shakespeare simultaneously demonstrated that the actions of both male and female social transgressors were unnatural and threatened the established social order of the established Elizabethan patriarchal society through his dramatic representation of Richard III as embodying both the effeminate male and the masculine female.--Abstract.