Autofictional Television as Transmedialization: a Theoretical Approach

This article aims to study the expansion of autofiction in the field of television through the productions Curb your Enthusiasm (HBO 2000-), Louie (FX 2010-), Qué fue de Jorge Sanz (Canal + 2010, Movistar +, 2017), El fin de la comedia (Comedy Central 2014-) and Mira lo que has hecho (Movistar + 2018-). An understanding of the autofiction on television is proposed as the intermedial encounter between the literary autofiction, the television comedy verité and the stand-up comedy, where autofictional conventions also operate. This paper aims to analyze the transmedial dimension of the aforementioned corpus in its two possible senses: in a broad sense, as an adaptation of literary autofiction (an issue closely linked to the notion of intermediality) and, in a narrow sense, as a multiplatform narrative which expands the fictional universe with varying degrees of depth. In the latter case, emphasis will be placed on the way in which their creators use various channels to expand the narration of the main character by exploiting the ambiguity between him and the public figure. Given that the corpus is going through the key years of digitalization, it is intended to identify the progressive incorporation of transmedia and intermediate strategies in the author’s television fiction, identifying its emergency conditions in the audiovisual industry and raising a debate on the conditions of its narrative pact.