Seriality in “The Wire”
I’ll attached a file with the topic. I have not created an argument for the paper yet but there does need to be an argument with lots of support from both the show and other critics.
This is the assignment:
I’m lifting your next essay topic from the Cornell German Grad Student Conference call for papers from 2015. I am not, I want to emphasize, expecting you to write a graduate level paper (though I’d be happy if you did!). I am, however, asking you to engage a set of questions – modified slightly for our purposes – that scholars and students are actually grappling with (i.e. ones that are supposed to take us to the heart of a relevant problem or issue).
The prompt for their conference on series and narrative is the prompt for your next essay on The Wire.
Question:
What is specific to the [t.v] serial form that separates it from a stand-alone novel or film? What is the relationship between two episodes or installments in a series, and how does a narrative continuity overcome, displace, or derive from the interruptions between these installments? How can we understand the different “endings” that are at play in a … television series?
This paper is a research paper. This fact should have no effect on how you approach this essay. Develop your argument first. Constellate other people’s positions around your idea. If you start with other thinker’s ideas first you will crowd yourself out.
Someone is going to ask “how many sources you should have for this paper?” There is no such thing as “a correct number of sources.” You need to conduct a capacious enough search of the available databases (not just Google Scholar) to ensure that you are familiar with both the major positions on the topic and the relevant literature on your specific topic and text (i.e. The Wire).
Know in advance that everyone and their cousin have written on The Wire over the course of the last decade. Much of the work is less than terrific. You need to remain critical of the criticism. Remember, your research is in service of getting your idea out more forcefully, not for showing that you think the same thing as another thinker (else there is no reason to read your work).
Many articles have been written on The Wire and t.v. seriality in non-scholarly publications (Salon, Vulture, Paste etc.). It is perfectly acceptable to cite from these sources though you want to balance any use of this work with more scholarly material.
