Abstract

FREIRE SANCHEZ, Alfonso; GRACIA-MERCADE, Carla  and  VIDAL-MESTRE, Montserrat. Intertextual References for Expansion and Depth in Creating a Transmedia Narrative Universe. Case Study: The Avengers Saga. Palabra Clave [online]. 2022, vol.25, n.4, e2542.  Epub Oct 25, 2022. ISSN 0122-8285.  https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2022.25.4.2.

Transmedia narrative universes and their multiverses have become the largest sources of audiovisual productions in the film and video game industries. Star Wars, the Tolkien universe, DC Comics, Harry Potter, and Marvel are examples of transmedia narratives that contain numerous storyworlds interconnected through transmedia, thus forming universes capable of creating new cinematographic productions and new multiplatform content incessantly. Much of their success is due to expansion and depth as crucial elements of transmediality and media convergence. The article discusses the distinctive aspects of these narrative universes through the case study of The Avengers saga, a nuclear part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (UCM), from a multidisciplinary perspective involving discourse analysis and semiotics. Analyzing the content of the four films that are part of the saga allows us to identify the constant use of intertextual resources that come from the humanities (literature, history, philosophy, mythology, and film culture) and their relationship with the capacities for expansion and depth of transmedia narratives. The text proposes the need to highlight the importance of the humanistic foundations to create a deep, organic, and constantly expanding narrative universe of the saga, receivers’ holistic understanding of its meaning that can lead to the increased active participation of the fandom, and the creation of user-generated content and its link with this universe.

Keywords : Audiovisual narrative; Avengers; depth; expansion; intertextuality; media convergence; transmedia.

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