Narratological Approaches to Multimodal Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Global TV Formats

Abstract

This article cross-culturally compares different versions of the Quebec sitcom/sketch comedy television series Un Gars, Une Fille (1997-2002) by examining the various gender roles and family conflict management strategies in a scene in which the heterosexual couple visits the male character’s mother-in-law. The article summarizes similarities and differences in the narrative structure, sequencing and content of several format adaptations by compiling computer-generated quantitative and qualitative data on the length of segments. To accomplish this, I have used the annotation function of Adobe Premiere, and visualized the findings using Microsoft Excel bar graphs and tables. This study applies a multimodal methodology to reveal the textual organization of scenes, shots and sequences which guide viewers toward culturally proxemic interpretations. This article discusses the benefits of applying the notion of discursive proximity suggested by Uribe-Jongbloed and Espinosa-Medina (2014) to gain a more comprehensive and complex understanding of the multimodal nature of cross-cultural comparison of global television format adaptations.