Becoming: Genre, Queerness, and Transformation in NBC's Hannibal

The NBC series Hannibal has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for its cinematic qualities, its complex characters, and its innovative reworking of Thomas Harris’s mythology so well-known from Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its variants. The series concluded late in 2015 after three seasons, despite widespread fan support for its continuation. While there is a healthy body of scholarship on Harris’s novels and Demme’s film adaptation, little critical attention has been paid to this newest iteration of the character and narrative.

Hannibal builds on the serial killer narratives of popular procedurals, while taking them in a drastically different direction. Like critically acclaimed series such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, it makes its viewers complicit in the actions of a deeply problematic individual and, in the case of Hannibal, forces them to confront that complicity through the character of Will Graham. The essays in Becoming explore these questions of authorship and audience response as well as the show’s themes of horror, gore, cannibalism, queerness, and transformation. Contributors also address Hannibal’s distinctive visual, auditory, and narrative style. Concluding with a compelling interview with series writer Nick Antosca, this volume will both entertain and educate scholars and fans of Hannibal and its many iterations.

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Becoming: Genre, Queerness, and Transformation in NBC's Hannibal

The NBC series Hannibal has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for its cinematic qualities, its complex characters, and its innovative reworking of Thomas Harris’s mythology so well-known from Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its variants. The series concluded late in 2015 after three seasons, despite widespread fan support for its continuation. While there is a healthy body of scholarship on Harris’s novels and Demme’s film adaptation, little critical attention has been paid to this newest iteration of the character and narrative.

Hannibal builds on the serial killer narratives of popular procedurals, while taking them in a drastically different direction. Like critically acclaimed series such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, it makes its viewers complicit in the actions of a deeply problematic individual and, in the case of Hannibal, forces them to confront that complicity through the character of Will Graham. The essays in Becoming explore these questions of authorship and audience response as well as the show’s themes of horror, gore, cannibalism, queerness, and transformation. Contributors also address Hannibal’s distinctive visual, auditory, and narrative style. Concluding with a compelling interview with series writer Nick Antosca, this volume will both entertain and educate scholars and fans of Hannibal and its many iterations.

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Becoming: Genre, Queerness, and Transformation in NBC's Hannibal

Becoming: Genre, Queerness, and Transformation in NBC's Hannibal

Becoming: Genre, Queerness, and Transformation in NBC's Hannibal

Becoming: Genre, Queerness, and Transformation in NBC's Hannibal

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Overview

The NBC series Hannibal has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for its cinematic qualities, its complex characters, and its innovative reworking of Thomas Harris’s mythology so well-known from Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its variants. The series concluded late in 2015 after three seasons, despite widespread fan support for its continuation. While there is a healthy body of scholarship on Harris’s novels and Demme’s film adaptation, little critical attention has been paid to this newest iteration of the character and narrative.

Hannibal builds on the serial killer narratives of popular procedurals, while taking them in a drastically different direction. Like critically acclaimed series such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, it makes its viewers complicit in the actions of a deeply problematic individual and, in the case of Hannibal, forces them to confront that complicity through the character of Will Graham. The essays in Becoming explore these questions of authorship and audience response as well as the show’s themes of horror, gore, cannibalism, queerness, and transformation. Contributors also address Hannibal’s distinctive visual, auditory, and narrative style. Concluding with a compelling interview with series writer Nick Antosca, this volume will both entertain and educate scholars and fans of Hannibal and its many iterations.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780815654643
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Publication date: 08/06/2019
Series: Television and Popular Culture
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Kavita Mudan Finn holds a PhD from the University of Oxford. She has taught literature, history, gender studies, and composition at Georgetown University, George Washington University, University of Maryland at College Park, Southern New Hampshire University, and Simmons College in Boston.

EJ Nielsen is a PhD student in communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with an MFA in studio art (printmaking) from New Mexico State University. They have recent or upcoming articles in the Journal of Fandom Studies, Transformative Works and Cultures, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Somatechnics.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Janice Poon Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: A Love Crime Kavita Mudan Finn and EJ Nielsen 2. The Hannibalization of America: The Cannibal Gourmet as Promethean Gift Giver Andrew Owen and Leanne Havis 3. Hannibal Lecter's Monstrous Return: The Horror of Seriality in Bryan Fuller's Hannibal Jessica Balanzategui, Naja Later, and Tara Lomax 4. "Adapt. Evolve. Become.": Queering Red Dragon in Bryan Fuller's Hannibal Ellie Lewerenz 5. Monstrous Masculinities in Gothic Romance: Will Graham, Jane Eyre, and Caleb Williams Evan Hayles Gledhill 6. "Whispering through the Chrysalis": Hannibal Lecter and the Poetics of Mentorship Gabriel A. Rieger 7. The Great Red Dragon: Francis Dolarhyde and Queer Readings of Skin Evelyn Deshane 8. Hannibal and the Cannibal: Tracking Colonial Imaginaries Samira Nadkarni and Rukmini Pande 9. Bedelia Du Maurier: Hannibal's Femme Fatale and Final Girl Kara M. French 10. "Some Lazy Psychiatry, Dr. Lecter": Teacups, Narrative, and Hannibal's Critique of Psychoanalysis Karen Felts 11. "Do You See?": Clues, Reasoning, and Connoisseurship Michelle D. Miranda 12. Fannibals Are Still Hungry: Feeding Hannibal and Other Series Companion Cookbooks as Immersive Fan Experience Amanda Ewoldt 13. Hannibal: Adaptation and Authorship in the Age of Fan Production Lori Morimoto 14. Rei(g)ning Lecter: An Interview with Series Writer Nick Antosca on Hannibal Matthew Sorrento Appendix: Hannibal Episodes Contributors Index

Interviews

Fascinating essays examine the show's themes and tropes, including those related to horror, gore, cannibalism, the enduring appeal of Hannibal Lecter, and issues of queerness and transformation.

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