“The Monster at the End of This Book”: Intermedial Metalepsis and Fandom in Contemporary TV Series Valentina Re, Link Campus University of Roma Introduction Let me begin my presentation with a very interesting and somehow provocative claim drawn from an essay by Tisha Turk, included in a collection edited by Karin Kukkonen and Sonia Klimek and devoted to the study of the use of metalepsis in popular narratives. “Most media fans”, writes Turk, “would not use or recognize the term ‘metalepsis,’ but they are familiar with the concept of crossing diegetic or textual boundaries”. And she continues: “Participatory culture is inherently, if metaphorically, metaleptic; the transgressive impulse that it represents is being effectively mainstreamed”. 1 When she defines participatory culture as “inherently metaleptic”, Tisha Turk refers to the use of metaleptic strategies in fan works, and especially in fan fiction and fan vids, 2 within the wider framework of convergence culture defined by Henry Jenkins. 3 In my presentation, I would like to extend the scope of Tisha Turk’s reflections: more precisely, I would like to discuss how metalepsis is used in contemporary popular narratives such as TV series to interact with fandom. My paper will be structured into three parts: firstly, I will provide a multi-faceted definition of metalepsis and of its main effects; secondly, I will discuss how the relationship between metalepsis and participatory culture can be interpreted and analyzed; and finally, I will focus on the case of the TV series Supernatural. 1 Turk, T. (2011). Metalepsis in Fan Vids and Fan Fiction, in K. Kukkonen, S. Klimek S. (eds.), Metalepsis in Popular Culture, Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, pp. 83-103. For the quotations see p. 96 and p. 100. 2 “Vidding is a form of grassroots filmmaking in which clips from television shows and movies are set to music”. Coppa, F. (2008). Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding, in “Transformative Works and Cultures”, vol. 1, http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/44/64. 3 Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture, New York: New York University Press.