Despite being considered a female-driven discipline, previous scholarship and personal testimonies indicate that composition remains solidly a “boys’ club.” Popular media is male-dominated as well, resulting in on-screen representations of women that, written from the male perspective, tend toward one-dimensionality. Recently, more women are permeating Hollywood writers’ rooms and producing multi-layered stories that offset the aforementioned portrayals. This thesis examines how showrunners Marti Noxon, Jenji Kohan, and Shonda Rhimes have redefined female representation on-screen—and subsequently, perceptions of women in real life—by crafting nuanced, female-driven narratives. Elements analyzed include: themes present in Noxon’s Sharp Objects (2018) and Dietland (2018), Kohan’s Weeds (2004-2012) and Orange Is the New Black (2013-2019), and Rhimes’s Grey’s Anatomy (2005- ) and Scandal (2012-2018); critical reviews of said shows; interviews given by each showrunner; applicable social media posts; and variations in circulation and creative leniency of each televisual work. Existing literature on composition studies, public-facing work, rhetorical feminism, and gender in popular media is also explored. An apparent correlation exists between feminist archivists’ “uncovering” of women’s historical and rhetorical contributions, feminist rhetoricians’ “disruption” of academic and professional spheres, and female showrunners’ insistence on the legitimization of women’s lived experiences. Thus, Noxon’s, Kohan’s, and Rhimes’s contributions further “publicize” counterpublic, female concerns by disseminating these stories to large audiences via the accessible medium of television.

Les séries télévisées occupent une place en continuelle expansion dans nos vies. Objet de discussions, de débats, d’investissements, les fictions sérielles sont au cœur de notre société. Longtemps décriées, injustement rejetées du champ de l’art, les séries sont réhabilitées pour leur extraordinaire richesse. Après les avoir laissé de côté, comment les comprendre ? Comment les analyser ? Quelle spécificité caractérise la série ? Nous allons proposer un travail analytique, historique, économique et sociologique autour de ce type de fiction avec une idée simple : les séries sont un art du temps. Bâties sur une longévité audiovisuelle inégalée, les séries se nourrissent du temps autant qu’elles luttent contre celui-ci. C’est de ce paradoxe que nous souhaitons faire ressortir les forces temporelles qui habitent et régissent ce type de fiction à la fois pour les comprendre et les analyser. En nous basant sur un corpus nord-américain de séries contemporaines hétéroclites, nous allons essayer de démontrer que l’étude des fictions sérielles passe par l’étude de leur plus grande spécificité, le temps. Un temps qui influe sur la production, la diffusion, l’écriture, la narration ou encore sur le téléspectateur. Tout est relié par une certaine expérience du temps. C’est dans cette gigantesque singularité que la série peut se dévoiler de la même manière qu’elle s’évertue à nous dévoiler l’intime des personnages qui l’habitent. / TV shows hold a constantly expanding place in our lives. As a topic of conversation, debate, investment, serial fictions are central in our society. They have long been criticized and unfairly excluded from the artistic field, but now, they are being reinstated for their extraordinary richness. After having cast them aside, how can we understand them? How can we analyze them? Which specificities define the TV shows genre? We shall offer an analytical, historical, economical and sociological work around this type of fiction, built around a simple idea: TV shows are an art of time. Developed on an unmatched audiovisual longevity, TV shows feed on time as much as they fight it. Using this paradox, we shall emphasize the temporal forces which inhabit and rule this type of fiction, in order to understand and analyze them. Basing ourselves on a corpus of diverse Northern-American contemporary TV shows, we shall try to demonstrate that the study of serial fictions must be done through the study of their greatest specificity: time. Time, which affects production, diffusion, writing, narration and even the television viewer. Everything is connected through some experience of time. It’s through this huge singularity that a TV show can unveil itself, as it struggles to unveil the intimacy of the characters which inhabit it.

Modern stories are the product of a recursive process influenced by elements of genre, outside content, medium, and more. These stories exist in a multitude of forms and are transmitted across multiple media. This article examines how those stories function as pieces of a broader narrative, as well as how that narrative acts as a world for the creation of stories. Through an examination of the polymediated nature of modern narratives, we explore the complicated nature of modern storytelling.

Modern stories are the product of a recursive process influenced by elements of genre, outside content, medium, and more. These stories exist in a multitude of forms and are transmitted across multiple media. This article examines how those stories function as pieces of a broader narrative, as well as how that narrative acts as a world for the creation of stories. Through an examination of the polymediated nature of modern narratives, we explore the complicated nature of modern storytelling.