El Deseo de lo infinito (ENSEÑANZA)

The rebooting and scaling mechanism typical of the anthology form creates a syntagmatic structure of repetitions and connections, while still generating a set of paradigmatic variations.

Returning to these semiotic concepts (syntagmatic versus paradigmatic relations), as originally seen in Ferdinand Saussure ([1916] 1974), might be useful to understand how the anthological model is bounded to the creation of a whole (the collection itself), of a rhythm (the episodic and seasonal division) and of a network of loose relationships between its parts (repetitions/varia-tions). Reasoning in terms of syntagmatic (horizontal) and paradigmatic (vertical) processes in the use of world-narrowing strategies in anthology series also favor the observation of the social and cultural discourse that happens through these two coexisting processes in anthological

narra-tives: supporting a canon through a collective, shared vision across episodes and seasons, as op-posed to rewriting a story episode by episode or season by season. That is to say, for example:

what is the overall grand-narrative that Black Mirror convey - i.e. the dystopic effects of tech-nologies on human relationships and social structures - as opposed to the themes explored in each episode - i.e. queerness, non-normativity and intersectionality in San Junipero? Having already insisted on paradigmatic movements (world-narrowing, closure, scalability, discretion), I will now briefly focus on syntagmatic tendencies found in anthologies.

Perhaps more than on discretion, streaming platforms rely on connection. I notably refer to the creation of a network of content on online catalogs, through algorithmic-driven recommen-dation systems. Connectivity doesn’t only play a role on the large scale of a platform through a linkage of content, but it can also be found on the small scale of a serial narrative, as an intercon-nection of elements in the story-world. Within a narrative ecosystem framework, which I will discuss in the next chapter, vast serial narratives are indeed highly connected ecosystems. While it is evident that world-building involves a process of intra-textual connectivity and possibly even intertextual, transmedia citations, it is less evident to discuss practices of connection in world-narrowing such as in the case of anthology series. Yet, despite their discretional nature and their predilection for narrow worlds, contemporary anthology series seem to aspire, even more than early television anthologies, to the creation of a networked whole able to connect stand-alone sto-ries into a homogeneous collection.

Syntagmatic relationships between episodes or seasons in contemporary U.S. anthologies can be conventionally found in the repetition of a shared genre, register, tone or style, which re-spond to an anthologizing principle - i.e. how the anthology is selected through recurring themes.

Some anthology series, however, present unusual intertextual references between episodes or sea-sons. Examples may vary from simple citations to the recovery of characters or narrative ele-ments transitioning between different episodes (Black Mirror ) or between different seasons ²⁶ (American Horror Story ). These connecting-the-dots mechanisms found in some television an²⁷ -thologies do not affect the anthological structure. They act as repertoires of inner topoi (Eco 1984: 119) and “links between texts, operating in the perception and experience of audiences” (Esser et al. 2016: 225), rather than operating on a more profound narrative level that has impact on the anthological form. When observed in terms of industrial production and distri-bution dynamics, intertextual citations, as in the case of this type of crossovers that are internal to the anthology structure itself, don’t emerge as relevant components. They are perhaps more im-portant for building a fandom, rather than building a narrative complexity (Mittell 2015) typical of long-running serials.

On the contrary, other syntagmatic relationships are related to the very process of forma-tion of the anthology, as in the definiforma-tion of a structural recursivity which establishes the antholo-gy form itself. Anthological ordering through reiteration and connection of genre, register, tone or style results in the creation of specific anthological categories and clusters. The Twilight Zone for example comes to define a specific, reproducible formula and not just a generic sci-fi type, mean-ing that, while the anthology is not a format by itself, it does show some formattmean-ing abilities to generate replicas. Instead of demanding connectivity on a narrative level, like serials do,

A list of references, nods, cameos found in different episodes of Black Mirror are reported in an article appeared

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on Screen Rant, by the title “Black Mirror: 10 Connections Between Episodes You Probably Missed.” Fernandes, Mariana. “Black Mirror: 10 Connections Between Episodes You Probably Missed.” ScreenRant. Last modified June 3, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019. https://screenrant.com/black-mirror-episode-connections-shared-universe.

The updated list of connections between different seasons of American Horror Story can be found at the following

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link: https://americanhorrorstory.fandom.com/wiki/American_Horror_Story/Connections.

gies thus show a connectivity on a production and distribution level. Connectivity in production can happen in the recurring figure of a screenwriter or a director, whereas on a distribution level, it results in the assemblage of snippets of unrelated content. In this sense, the anthological prac-tice is naturally embedded in the digital landscape, since “it responds to the nature of its objects and supports, of their production, circulation and valorization.” (Doueihi 2011: 170) Beyond the inner anthological properties just outlined - world-narrowing, scalability, modularity - and the related concepts discussed - intertextuality, connectivity -, I should therefore discuss more broad-ly the ecosystemic context in which the contemporary anthology form emerges and acts.