Telecinematic stylistics: Language and style in fantasy TV series

Abstract

The language of written fantasy has been amply studied, with extensive research on authors such as JRR Tolkien, Robert E Howard, or Aldous Huxley. The study of television language, on the other hand, is attracting increasing attention, even though the scope of such research often encompasses a single TV show rather than whole genres. Given the renewed interest in all things fantasy, this study seeks to analyze the language of fantasy TV series from a corpus-stylistic perspective to open new paths for linguistic inquiry. First, I depart from a theoretical distinction that relies on Mandala’s (2012) overview of the field and James and Mendlesohn’s (2012) definitions of fantasy as a genre; I consider some of the traits they associate with written fantasy and propose a taxonomy of the different types of fantasy worlds in television. On the basis of this, I design my own TV fantasy corpus by sampling three episodes from fifteen American fantasy TV shows (2011–2021) and compare it against Davies’ TV Corpus (2021). Using a corpus-based approach, I implement a POS (part-of-speech) and semantic analysis of the corpus and consider whether, and if so how, the language of fantasy in television reflects the same characteristics scholars have identified in written fantasy and general television discourse. In doing so, I aim to contribute to the understanding of the style of fantasy as a genre and assess whether fantasy TV series are characterized by particular linguistic features.