The Cosmologies of Global Film Franchises

Fifth session of the 2024-2025 CEFRES Francophone
Interdisciplinary Seminar The Map and the Border
In 2023 we  started questionning the very act of bordering and representing (a territory, a period, a trajectory). In short, thanks to the interdisciplinarity of our respective disciplines, we began inquiring into the question of the map and the border.

Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Date: Friday February 28, 2025, from 10 am
Language: French

Speaker: Eva KRÁSOVÁ (Institute of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Discussant: tbc

Abstract

The major multimedia franchises of contemporary popculture contain, among other things, strong cosmological and cosmogonic assertions in their narratives. Based on the examples chosen – the conception of the cosmos in the Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Phase One of The Infinity Saga), the Lego Ninjago series (seasons 1-11) and the Game of Thrones series (seasons 1-4) – we propose to examine these scattered elements which, as the narratives develop, form coherent systems. We will refer to them as ‘cosmological hypotheses’ in order to describe their structural characteristics and implications.

Maps, genealogies and diagrams are a specific component in the construction of a multimedia object. In the context of the monetised participatory culture of the contemporary world, promoting the involvement of recipients is a key factor in the success of the franchise: it’s hardly surprising that it is encouraged by every possible means. Here, the cosmological hypothesis is an important stimulus to the creation of participatory content, but it must meet certain criteria: exept for a certain degree of complexity and imagination, essential factors include non-specificity, manifesting itself as a mystery, but also familiarity, allowing the fictional world to integrate harmoniously into the experience of the recipient and, finally, transgression, at least partial, of the categories created.

As we shall see, thecreated cosmological hypotheses bear the structural marks of their emergence, creating figures with strong ethical, political and social implications within each franchise, giving them the impression of natural fact.

See the complete program of the 2024-2025 seminar here.