| This dissertation explores the innovative mix of generic discourses surrounding teen/fantasy television, in order to examine how different genres interweave not only in televisual texts, but also in audience discourse and in online audience-authored metatexts. This dissertation's account of genre mixing and genre-inflected reception reformulates understandings of the role played by genre in the production, circulation, and reception of media texts. I approach genre as shifting discursive thread rather than category; as such, the seemingly depoliticized, formalist tradition of genre theory reveals the complexity of the producer/text/audience system. Approaching genre as thread rather than category helps us to move beyond problematic simplifications regarding the dynamics of media viewership, undoing assumptions which limit work in cultural studies as well as in audience studies, genre theory, and new media studies.;I use the term transgeneric to describe the way in which teen/fantasy television programs mesh generic codes, and in so doing transcend or at least blur generic divisions. Moreover, I pose transgenericism as a mode in which contemporary media texts utilize genre more generally; Buffy, Roswell, Angel, and Smallville serve as exemplary instances of a specific transgeneric formation, namely the synthesis of fantastic elements such as horror and science fiction with "teen" dramatic components such as romance and self-discovery narratives. Teen/fantasy transgenericism explores teen issues by superimposing teen elements onto the apocalyptic, horrific, and fantastic. As a result, teen aliens struggle with teen alienation, and teen alienation is literalized in the experiences of teen aliens.;In all four chapters, I look at different ways in which generic discourse traverses the system of producer, text, and audience: speaking in unison, at least on the surface, as Buffy fans and producers alike celebrated Buffy's generic innovation; becoming a site of dispute and fan activism, as in the Roswell gender/genre debates; differing significantly as Angel writers attempted to impart a critical, nostalgic knowledge of film noir to their audience; and finally pushing transgeneric formations in new directions in Smallville slash fiction. The combination of these interrelated case studies paints a multilayered picture of the complex dynamics and diverse processes of televisual generic discourse in practice. |
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