| Abstract: | In this article, I advance an explanation to account for the exceptionally vested nature of soap opera viewers in “their stories.” After reviewing relevant literature on soap operas and fan contemporary media, I highlight the complex, co-constructed narrative intersections that contribute to powerful and multilayered experiences related to daytime dramas. In particular, I contend that soap operas matter to viewers because the multigenerational nature of audiences and mediated texts foster interconnections between viewer and textual narratives. Second, I argue that soap operas resonate so deeply with viewers due to increasingly blurred boundaries between ever-emergent personal, public, and mediated narratives. As such, the crossing of these narrative paths over time necessarily results in the very real and powerful interrelationships between the show, viewers, and actors in each other's emergent life narratives. |
