The Sopranos Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Television Studies, Richard Price, Weeds, The Wire
- by Anna Weinstein
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- Media Studies, Women's Studies, Film Studies, Television Studies

The HBO television series The Sopranos, produced by David Chase in 1999 achieved unprecedental critical acclaim and quickly established itself on both sides of the Atlantic as cult viewing. It has generated a number of academic studies ranging from cultural studies, gender studies, through to exploration of psychological aspects of the programme. The main character, Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini) is the head of an Italian -American family living in New Yersey. However, like his name itself "family" has a double meaning , he is also a boss of a Mafia -style gang of mobsers, operating a "waste management company" and a night club (The Bada Bing!). The two sides of his lives are being explored while Tony is speaking to his therapist Dr. Jenniger Melfi as a result of his anxiety attacts and depression.

- by Olga Kwaczyńska
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- Gender Roles, Masculinities, The Sopranos

This article explores a dominant turn-of-the-millennium televisual genre, the late Oedipal narrative. Late Oedipal narratives such as The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad represent turbulent crises of sovereignty bound up with broader transitions in the spirit of the age. These crises are often connected to a change in the overriding media environment, which the late Oedipal genre tends to represent as a mortal challenge to atavistic, self-destructive "thantagonists" such as Jimmy McNulty, Tony Soprano, Al Swearengen, and Walter White. As such, the late Oedipal genre constitutes a recursive form of television about television as the medium is vacuumed up and remediated by its successor, the Internet. I refer to such palpable rearticulations of televisuality through the universal medium of the Internet as "secondary televisuality. "

- by Daniel Adleman
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- Media Studies, Film Theory, Television Studies, Postmodernism

In this chapter we investigate various representations of masculinity in the HBO TV series The Sopranos (1999-2007) through a discussion and analysis of the portraits of fathers and sons. Our analysis is based on theories grounded in gender and class, but also psychoanalytical theory, a framework that the series draws on to considerable extent. The award winning series depicts the difficulties and limitations of adapting to and combining different gender regimes. One of the major sources of conflict and psychological distress is Mafioso Tony Soprano's attempts to negotiate traditional working-class conceptions of masculinity and post-modern, middle class notions of father- and manhood. In this chapter we will use a multifold theoretical methodology where masculinity studies, psychoanalysis , class, sexuality and vaious forms of Bourdieu's capital are important means to approach and comprehend the never-ending, on-going conflicts and negotiation in father-son relationships, a...

- by Katarina Gregersdotter
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- Sociology, Psychoanalysis, Gender Studies, Humanities

Ficción televisiva contemporánea estadounidense /// Introducción En estos tiempos de fervor serial, desde Contrapicado creemos interesante elaborar un pequeño dossier que, a lo largo de varios meses, se detenga en ciertos aspectos de la llamada ficción televisiva contemporánea estadounidense. Esa denominación, tan adjetivada y rimbombante, no hace sino enmascarar un conjunto de series de televisión que, en los últimos años, han provocado el "cuelgue patológico" de millones de espectadores en todo el mundo. Series como Los Soprano, 24,

- by Manuel Garin
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- Film Studies, Heroes, Cinema, Series TV

Rethinking the American gangster figure from The Godfather to Ghost Dog.

- by Avi Santo
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- Masculinity, Television, The Sopranos, HBO Series
- by Cinzia Scarpino
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- Television Studies, Auteur Theory, Series TV, The Sopranos

I approach this cultural apprehension through a three-pronged
reading of Pierre Bourdieu’s examination of taste regimes, Erving
Goffman’s understanding of stigma, and Robert Viscusi’s discussion of the internalized colonialism afflicting self-esteem. I begin
by tracing the sociolinguistic formulations of the term cafone in
Italy, in particular Southern Italy, and then among Italian immigrants in the United States. My cultural history continues with a
look at the emergence of the Italian American word gavone in
popular discourse, literature, and consumer culture, with a focus
on an episode of the TV show The Sopranos (HBO, 1999–2007). Finally, I examine contemporary ethnic spokespeople’s public critiques of media images concerning perceived breaches in behavior
through the lens of the 2017 Anthony Scaramucci scandal. My intention is to shed light on the supremacy of the endemic concept
of gavone for Italian Americans so as to illuminate the ways by which group identity is shaped, managed, and policed in the public sphere.

- by Joseph Sciorra
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- Media Studies, Sociolinguistics, Stigmatization, Italian American Studies

Hollywood’s appropriation of the works of Shakespeare is a widespread and well-documented phenomenon, and the presence of Shakespearean themes, characters and language can be discerned throughout the many genres of Western cinema. The influence of Shakespeare’s texts on the genre of gangster film within this ‘new wave’1 is pronounced, as is the genre’s influence in turn on modern film adaptations of Shakespeare plays. The plays appear to be irresistible to filmmakers wanting to translocate them into the milieu of a criminal organisation. My focus in this project is to analyse where and how Shakespeare’s work has been so interpreted by examining two of the plays, Richard III and King Lear. I show how both of these texts have presences in several films and television series set in the criminal milieu: these texts influence the genre, and in turn classic gangster films influence the new wave of Shakespeare adaptations.

- by Nic Hayman
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- Film Studies, Literature and cinema, Shakespeare, Shakespeare and film

In this paper we aim to discuss the father-son relationship in the TV-series Sopranos, from a gender -and class perspective. Aspects of masculinity and class as seen represented in the characters of Anthony Soprano and Anthony "A.J." Soprano will be discussed. The father -Anthony/Tony -and his son A.J. -can be seen as critical investigations of the emotional and often violent limitations of two separate masculinities. The father, born into the Italian-American working class, grows up to become a made man (a Mafioso) like his own father. His money makes his own family settle in the upper middle class. His own son thus grows up in a different class -with different views on and ideas about what a man should be. The show depicts constant clashes and negotiations between the two men in their mutual efforts to understand and get closer to the other. The negotiations involve what Sara Ahmed would call a push and pull relationship: they push against each other and pull away for various, contradictory reasons that involve for example, issues that involve the concept of masculinity and various forms of capital. This paper looks closer at some of the instances where the series depicts contemporary masculine ideals that simply are not working out. We argue that the series show the difficulties with adapting to a strict gender regime and that it will lead to depression, violence, self-loathing, and anxiety.

- by Katarina Gregersdotter
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- Psychoanalysis, Television Studies, Masculinity, Masculinities

Roberto M. Dainotto’s The Mafia: A Cultural History offers something unique in the somewhat overcrowded category of books about the Mafia and its pop culture representations: a Sicilian intellectual’s historically informed yet personal... more

- by George de Stefano
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- Film Studies, Television Studies, Italian Studies, Popular Culture

The Family Racket: AOL Time Warner, HBO, The Sopranos, and the Construction of a Quality Brand This paper examines HBO's The Sopranos in the context of several industrial factors. I begin with the series'generic inscription. As a gangster program, The Sopranos comes to us in the form of a pedigreed pre-sold product, a television text of esteemed cinematic lineage. This leads to the examination of branding. In order to corral The Sopranos into the slogan, "It's Not TV, It's HBO," HBO seeks to differentiate its product from lowest common denominator, broadcast fare. The separation results in the construction of the "quality" brand, a problematic concept academics have linked to demographics. HBO's branding strategy has also intensified the claim of competition between pay cable and broadcast television in popular discourse. This claim is problematized by the ratings gathering methodology of A.C. Nielsen and by AOL Time Warner's tiering strategies. By examining the aforementioned strategies, I uncover the materialistrather than auteurist-foundations of The Sopranos.

- by Deborah Jaramillo
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- Television Studies, Branding, The Sopranos, HBO Series

Izrezao lZ razml;!., n.O~!I1.il, u.koJlma sepisalo 0 tim licnostima. -Nadalje'. . . sam .spo.menu,1l u gore oznacenom spisu, da nisu sve biografije toga slovnika joste posve iz radjene, ali da je materijal na okupu. Posto se ne nadam, da cu mocl sve te biografije sam izraditi i stampi predati, t. . o sa: ~retkom ove rdine sabrani materijal tako urediQ, Qi biro w:ealednjji --Dosav tako do slova "M", naSao sam puno podataka za hrvatsku opernu pjevacicu Mat i I duM a rIo v u j II muM U r sku. Ali koliko i imadem za te dvie pje vacice biografskih podataka, ipak sam opazio, da dosta toga manjka, e da budu te biografije potpune, vjerne j istinske. Osobito u Murskinom zivotopisu manjkalo je mnogo, sto bi trebalo de se znade, iznese i tako zaboravi otme.

- by Franjo Ksaver Kuhač
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- The Sopranos, Sopranos, Opera Singers

Don Draper (Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, AMC: 2007-2015) participa del nacimiento y consolidación dela sociedad de consumo sin ser consciente de la gran ficción que intenta creerse. Tony Soprano (TheSopranos, David Chase, HBO: 1999-2007) se agarra desesperadamente a los últimos restos de un idealde superación y esfuerzo que no solo está agotado sino que nunca fue verdaderamente coherente. Estetexto realiza un análisis textual, sociológico y discursivo comparativo de ambas figuras en cuantorepresentativas de la evolución del discurso capitalista en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, es decir, laartificialidad del discurso hegemónico de búsqueda de la felicidad como uno de los grandes mitos delneoliberalismo norteamericano de postguerra.

- by Jordi Revert
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- Media Studies, Series TV, The Sopranos, Mad Men

This paper examines ecopsychology and the impact of removing nature from everyday experience---specifically through the urban sprawl of northern New Jersey. The paper begins and ends with analysis of local New Jersey poets, and in between examines the psychological effect of removing nature from the life of Tony Soprano, and the sudden entry into nature for Paulie and Chris in The Pine Barrens.

- by tim wenzell
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- Popular Culture, Ecopsychology, Ecocriticism, Television
- by Frank P Tomasulo, Ph.D.
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- Ethnic Studies, Television Studies, Italian Studies, Italian Cinema
- by Ivan Mirnik
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- Opera, The Sopranos
- by Jordi Revert
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- Mafia, The Sopranos, Series

This 3rd year seminar in continental philosophy draws links between biopolitics and philosophical problems of evil/violence/morality. Each of the three units culminates in a close analysis of a film or tv episode (The Sopranos; Even the Rain; Nurse Jackie). The assignments, including dialogue excerpts from the tv episodes and film, are included here.

- by Ada Jaarsma
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- Continental Philosophy, Biopolitics, The Sopranos, Syllabus

One should leave behind a perspective of seriality as purely "industrial" (Adorno/Horkheimer) or "in fabula" (Eco) to account for the semiotic and hermeneutic potential of the serial interval. A "double repetition" (Soulez), structural (through genre, for example) and connected to the matrix (through the unresolved question at stake throughout the series), determines a double interval and different (but complementary) involvements of the spectator. This approach makes it possible to better identify the meaning of certain bifurcations and peculiarities of the episodes, and one can see the very important role of the intervals that come to occupy intermediate, floating spaces. Intervals may be constituted as such even though they did not seem "secondary" (e.g. regarding to the main storyline) or, on the contrary, crucial, depending on whether one changes one's point of view or interpretation plan. We will consider that the serial interval is a space of possible porosity between diégesis and spectator from the point of view of temporality, indicating that complex temporal circuits (projections, rereading, cutting and re-cutting, etc.) are at work to guide or stimulate spectator activity. Secondly, we will show that the interval is different depending on whether it is caught in structural dynamics or in dynamics connected to the matrix, including when intertextuality matters. Thirdly, we can note that there is inside spectator activity a more or less virtual capacity for intervallisation, or the creation of intervals.

- by Guillaume Soulez
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- Media Studies, Television Studies, Series TV, Seriality

TV series such as The Sopranos and Breaking Bad with their antihero protagonists (Tony Soprano and Walter White) have brought narrative, aesthetic and thematic innovations, broadening the cinematographic horizon beyond standards that, until recently, were more or less homogeneous. In this study, it is argued that such narratives and their antiheroes conform allegories to the fortune of contemporary morality — drawn by analysts such as Lipovetsky (1994) and Bauman (1997). This material contrasts with the singular typology of the American anti-hero of the literary fictional romances of the 1960s, developed by Simmons (2008). If this anti-hero emerged in a countercultural context and had an important role of social and political criticism, his postmodern double is antagonistic, extolling, in turn, aspects dictated by the mainstream in contemporary times, such as individualism, consumerism and the weakening of moral responsibility. From a theoretical survey and the comparative analysis of the communicational products and the antiheroes inserted here, it is observed that these, as well as the conflicts, polemics, representations and provocations that evoke, have potency, by allowing the audience to dialogue and philosophical exercise on the issues they develop.

- by Guilherme Pereira
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- Moral Philosophy, The Sopranos, Social Communication, Antihero

Breaking Bad‘s final three episodes, “Ozymandias”, “Granite State” (5.15), and “Felina” (5.16) successfully critique a perverse escalating narrative strategy, perfected by HBO’s The Sopranos and the similarly complex serialized television narratives, wherein viewers find vicarious pleasure in the ultimate success of the straight middle-class white male psychopath.

- by Brandon Taylor
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- Media Studies, Film Studies, Television Studies, John Milton

Drawing on game theory and interviews that were personally conducted with pinball pioneers-from CEOs of independent and corporate pinball companies to notable designers and historians-this essay argues that pinball machines are not solely collector's items but complex games that contain original narratives. The narratives in the pinball games are not direct adaptations from the urtext, but rather narratives that arise through gameplay-the player's use of the pinball to hit the various lights, toys, and ramps that represent the game's narrative.

- by Ryan Banfi
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- Narrative, Video Games, Video Game Design, Narrative Analysis
- by Ivan Mirnik
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- Opera, The Sopranos, Milka Ternina

ACOMA 36 RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI STUDI NORDAMERICANI ESTATE 2008 ANNO XV UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI BERGAMO s h a k e e d i z i o n i * Cinzia Scarpino ha concluso il dottorato di ricerca presso l'Università degli Studi di Milano e fa parte della redazione di "Ácoma". Si è occupata di narrativa statunitense contemporanea e dell'evoluzione del romanzo americano tra Ottocento e Novecento. Sta scrivendo un libro su spreco e rifiuti nella cultura americana. Ha di recente pubblicato, sempre per "Ácoma", Goodbye and Good Luck. Scrittura e dintorni nella vita di Grace Paley. 1. "[…] Hai a disposizione un quadro più ampio con la 'nonfiction'…e gli americani vogliono grandi quadri perché l'America si sta facendo così confusa. La gente vuole più informazioni di quante si possano ricavare da un romanzo. […] Ci vuole qualcosa come I Soprano, che riescono ad agglutinare più aspetti della cultura americana. […] L'idea di un grande quadro potrebbe essersi trasferita alla televisione, con le sue ore infinite […]". Norman Mailer in Margo Hammond, Interview, 6 febbraio 2004, http://poynteronline.org/dg.lts/id.57/aid.60488/column.htm. Da qui in avanti, tutte mie le traduzioni, dove non diversamente indicato. Le citazioni delle puntate si daranno con il numero della stagione (S) seguito da quello dell'episodio (E). 2. Quasi la metà degli attori della serie sono del New Jersey, con l'altra metà proveniente da New York City, soprattutto Brooklyn. Tra i volti più conosciuti, Lorraine Bracco (Quei bravi ragazzi), Frank Vincent (Casinò) e Steve Buscemi. Per un'analisi del "gangster movie" si veda Martha P. Nochimson, Waddaya Lookin' at? Re-Reading the Gangster Genre through 'The Sopranos', Se vuoi fare dei film come quelli che facevano nei primi anni Settanta, farai televisione via cavo. Blake Masters Non stupisce che lo scrittore Norman Mailer abbia riconosciuto nella serie televisiva I Soprano (1999-2007) una possibile versione del Grande Romanzo Americano di inizio millennio. 1 Ideata da David Chase, la saga malavitosa trasmessa dalla HBO sembra infatti appartenere, per respiro culturale e compiutezza estetica, al novero delle narrazioni epiche del paese. Sulle orme del magistero di Francis Ford Coppola -Il Padrino I, II, III (1972, 74, 90) -e Martin Scorsese -Mean Streets (1973, Quei bravi ragazzi (1990), Casinò (1995) -David Chase seleziona il proprio cast italoamericano attingendo al territorio di New York e New Jersey: si tratta di volti poco noti ai più; James Gandolfini, il futuro protagonista Tony Soprano, viene pescato grazie a una piccola parte in Una vita al massimo (1993) di Quentin Tarantino e Roger Avary. 2 Le sceneggiature nascono dalle penne di un pool di scrittori della costa orientale avvezzi al gergo cameratesco del demi-monde della Tri-State Area. 3 Per una resa credibile dei codici lin-

- by Cinzia Scarpino
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- The Sopranos

El presente trabajo suma comentarios breves de acerca de Gossip Girl, 24, Breaking Bad, Girls, Mad Men y The sopranos desde los cuales se ensaya una reflexión en torno a las nuevas series americanas de TV y un contexto del lazo social... more

- by Juan Pablo and +1
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- Jacques Lacan, Series TV, Girls, Psicoanálisis
- by Franco Ricci
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- Art, The Sopranos
- by Martin Fradley
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- Cultural Studies, American Studies, Media Studies, Film Studies

Die HBO-Serie The Sopranos ist zur Recht für ihre erzählerische Komplexität und moralische Ambivalenz in die Fernsehgeschichte eingegangen: Die Zuschauer leiden und fiebern mit Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) mit, einem kaltblütigen und grausamen Mafiaboss, obwohl sie seine Taten eigentlich verurteilen müssten. Im Zentrum der Poetik von The Sopranos ist die psychotherapeutische Praxis von Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). Dr. Melfi ergeht es wie den Zuschauern: Sie ist entsetzt von Tonys Lebensstil, aber fasziniert von seiner Persönlichkeit. Mal galanter Macho, mal trostbedürftiger kleiner Junge, zieht der Mafioso die Psychiaterin im Lauf der sieben Staffeln mehr und mehr in seine Welt hinein. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, wie die Serie moralische Fragen verhandelt, indem sie den eigentlich neutralen Bereich des psychotherapeutischen Settings zu einer Kampfzone jenseits von Gut und Böse macht.

- by Christine Lötscher
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- The Sopranos

A Study into the meaning of the word post-modern in regard to genre in television, specifically examining The Sopranos

- by James Wallis
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- Film Studies, Television Studies, Roland Barthes, Structuralism/Post-Structuralism
- by Ivan Mirnik
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- Opera, The Sopranos, Milka Ternina

A presente pesquisa para conclusão de curso traz o tema: Product Placement em Cenas Controversas da Série Televisiva The Sopranos. O trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o contexto dos product placements das marcas que aparecem em cenas controversas da série, classificando-os e comparando os mesmos com seus posicionamentos por meio de um estudo de caso sobre a série televisiva. A importância da série no universo da ficção seriada também foi trazida como um dos objetivos deste trabalho. A pesquisa é qualitativa e conta com a ajuda da metodologia de análise de produto para o levantamento de dados e interpretação dos placements.

- by Henrique Pavin
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- Qualitative methodology, Advertising, Case Study Research, Cinema

I wi sh to tha nk all the frien dly peop le in Eu ro pe and Ame ri ca, so me li vi ng, so me de cea sed, who for ma ny yea rs ha ve tried to he lp me in my re sear ch on Mil ka Ter ni na and her ca reer:

- by Ivan Mirnik
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- Opera, The Sopranos, Milka Ternina

Tanj a Mi chai sky «The mother country. Here they make it real» Serienhelden auf der Suche nach ihren Wurzeln: THE SOPRANOS: COMMENDATORI David Chases Fernsehserie THE SOPRANOS, die von 1999 bis 2007 von HBO pro duziert wurde, verdankt ihren Erfolg sowohl bei den amerikanischen Fernsehzu schauern als auch in der medienwissenschaftlichen Forschung der autoreflexiv gebrochenen Fiktion eines Einblicks in die intimen Verhältnisse der zeitgenössi schen Mafiosi in New Jersey. 1 Dieser Einblick wird aus der Perspektive des am bivalenten Helden Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) gegeben, und der entschei dende Kunstgriff besteht darin, Tony zu einer Psychologin (Lorraine Bracco) zu schicken, mit der er seine Panikattacken besprechen kann, so dass auch auf nar rativer Ebene motiviert wird, die Analyse seiner persönlichen Probleme mit jener der MafiaStrukturen zu verknüpfen. 2 Darüber hinaus wird um Tony nicht nur der übliche Herrschaftsbereich eines Clanchefs konstruiert, sondern er erscheint als ein durchschnittlicher, von weit verbreiteten Problemen gequälter, wohlhaben der amerikanischer Familienvater in einer Vorstadtvilla, so dass aktuelle Themen der amerikanischen Gesellschaft innovativ mit dem Genre des Mafiafilms ver knüpft werden konnten. 3 Kennzeichen der Serie ist neben der pointierten und Da die Serie in Deutschland keinen Erfolg hatte, sind die meisten Interpretationen bislang in Amerika erschienen. Vgl. insb. David Lavery (Hrsg.): This Thing of Ours, (nvestigating the SOPRA NOS.

- by Tanja Michalsky
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- Film Studies, Naples, Mafia Movies, The Sopranos
- by Bruno Dorneles
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- Television Studies, Japanese Anime, Film Analysis, Series TV

- by tim wenzell
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- Popular Culture, Ecopsychology, Ecocriticism, Philosophy of Nature