ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the overarching critical approach of transmediality as key to understanding the ever-expanding and evolving nature of vast serial narratives. It analyzes the 'spatial' dimension of narrative ecosystems as interactive, expanding territories, examining their boundaries, their peripheral zones, and the tools needed to understand these spaces. The book deals with cases of narrative ecosystems for which the character is the epicenter of the evolutionary development, naming them 'character-centered narrative ecosystems'. It offers a sort of 'archaeological' look on television worldbuilding in the 1990s through cross-overs and spin-off. The book focuses on the study of morphology of the TV serial narrative formats in order to discuss the selection and evolution patterns that affect their characters and lead to the development of narrative formats. It demonstrates the potential of a systemic reading and cross-areas approaches, in that each presents a specific point of view.
