Boy Melodrama: Genre Negotiations and Gender-Bending in the Supernatural Series

Agata Łuksza

doi:10.1515/texmat-2016-0011

Authors

Agata Łuksza University of Warsaw

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/texmat-2016-0011

Abstract

For years Supernatural (CW, 2005–) has gained the status of a cult series as well as one of the most passionate and devoted fandoms that has ever emerged. Even though the main concept of the series indicates that Supernatural should appeal predominantly to young male viewers, in fact, the fandom is dominated by young women who are the target audience of the CW network. My research is couched in fan studies and audience studies methodological perspectives as it is impossible to understand the phenomenon of Supernatural without referring to its fandom and fan practices. However, it focuses on the series’ structure in order to explain how this structure enables Supernatural’s viewers to challenge and revise prevailing gender roles. Supernatural combines elements of divergent TV genres, traditionally associated with either male or female audiences. It opens up to gender hybridity through genre hybridity: by interweaving melodrama with horror and other “masculine” genres the show provides a fascinating example of Gothic television which questions any simplistic gender identifications.

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Author Biography

Agata Łuksza, University of Warsaw

Agata Łuksza is a Research Associate in the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw, where she completed her Ph.D. in the field of cultural studies (Glamour, kobiecość, widowisko. Aktorka jako obiekt pożądania, forthcoming). Her research interests include: gender, body, and sexuality; the history of the nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theatre, particularly popular genres; the history of women in theatre; popular and American culture, especially in the area of Gothic Studies. She has published in major Polish journals (e.g., Dialog, Didaskalia, Tematy z Szewskiej) and Feminist Media Studies.

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