Naturalism and Reality in 'Treme'

In this article I analyze through a close reading the impact of the construction of the characters on polyphonic narrative evolution through the four seasons of the television series Treme (HBO, 2010-2013). The series tries to tell the story of the people of New Orleans rebuilding their lives - and their communities - in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The undulations between collective life and private life in the plot construction allow to go beyond the individual character and demonstrate the resilience of an entire community. At the same time the otherness of Creole culture is enhanced avoiding a too obvious generalization. Naturalistic narrative strategies applied by the Treme writers confirm how a fictional narrative is able to not just to show reality, but as well to explain what happened and at the same time to go further: to demonstrate what potentially could have happened ...

Publication year:2014

Keywords:screenwriting research, television studies, dramaturgy