Doubtless to be continued: A brief history of serial narrative

In a section of S/Z entitled “contract-narratives,” Roland Barthes asserts that narrative is not only production (the story as it “unfolds”) but product. As such, it is “legal tender, subject to contract, economic stakes, in short, merchandise, barter.” Narrative’s material basis is an often overlooked fact. When it comes to serial narrative, however, this fact cannot be ignored because it is at the heart of what distinguishes a serial, to what purposes serials have

traditionally been put, and how this narrative form developed.1 Contrary to popular belief, the serial is not limited to a particular medium nor genre.