Paper short abstract:

Series writing is a multiemotional endeavor that requires the management of personal sensitivities and the ability to suffer, as well as the craft of affecting the audiences. Based in cultural anthropology, this paper examines the share of emotional labor in present-day German TV series production.

Paper long abstract:

Series writers in present day television industries are confronted with emotions in a variety of ways during the collaborative production of a TV series. Uncertainty and risks that result from an ever growing level of (inter-) national competition form further emotional catalysts during the acquisition of contracts, and the developing and writing of plots, story arcs, character traits and dialogues. Passion for storytelling, as well as the capacity for suffering, is considered a necessary qualification. Nevertheless, the hierarchical and sometimes highly divided production process requires a controlled and strategic expression of sensitivities. The craft of serial storytelling furthermore involves the masterful emotional manipulation of audiences through narratives.

The paper asks which emotional highs and lows series writers experience in the creative process of serial storytelling. How are emotions—both in negotiation with other "creatives" and in and through serial narratives—managed? What does the share of "emotional labor" as sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild describes it for flight attendants look like in present-day TV series production in Germany?

Nathalie Knöhr (M.A.) is a research assistant in the project "Writing Series: The Occupational Culture of Present-Day German Televised Entertainment" that is part of the interdisciplinary Research Unit "Popular Seriality—Aesthetics and Practice." Based on the methods and theories of cultural anthropology, the project seeks to understand the occupational culture of German TV series production from an insider perspective through biographical interviews, participant observation as well as the analysis of teaching materials, ego-documents and fictional sources.