ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to demonstrate, using a couple of examples from Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, how the storyworld of the show is a stage for intermental mind games that are given material form in the show's confessional interviews and pseudo-mythological rituals. The nexus between mind and world in Survivor is emblematic of today's mediated narrative environments, such as social media and reality TV in general, where unlimited self-expression and manipulation go hand in hand. The spirit of contemporary narrative theory is transmedial as well as transdisciplinary: narrative theorists of the cognitive paradigm such as David Herman, Marie-Laure Ryan, and Lisa Zunshine are keen to detect the same narrative universals at work in all media, especially in the ways that stories set up worlds and inhabit them with mental subjects. Ryan's analysis captures the dynamics between 'the kitschy new age spirituality' and Western capitalist materialism in Survivor.
