La fantascienza transmediale come dispositivo territoriale: processi di territorializzazione nel worlbuilding di Star Wars = Transmedia science-fiction as a territorial device: processes of territorialization in Star Wars worldbuilding

Abstract

In this paper we aim to show how science-fiction as a medial genre can take on the function of a territorial device analyzing the construction of the fictional worlds of Star Wars, observing in it two trajectories of territorialization: an extradiegetic one, in which the narrative is developed on an ecosystem level; and a diegetic one, in which different planet-worlds are constructed by modulating the three configurations of territoriality (landscape, place, environment) in ecosystemic and transmedia terms. From the analysis emerges the construction of an exploration and scalar sci-fi territoriality, with different steps: the distinguishability of the worlds with respect to space, their landscape iconicization, the construction of social systems in which the different declinations of technology have an impact on an environmental and socio-political level, their positioning and the individualization for the spectators. The transmedia use of science-fiction in Star Wars thus assumes a territorial function that has contributed to imprinting the saga in the imaginary and making it a myth of mass culture, capable of intercepting different instances of our world thanks to the construction of territories that oscillate between the second and third order of simulacra.