The two panorama readings connect panoramas to other artistic media: Melissa Gniadek connects them to serial fiction, while Allison Griffiths connects them to early cinema.
In “Seriality and Settlement,” I am particularly interested in the way in which Gniadek connects panoramas to serial fiction. The most interesting connection she makes is when she’s talking about how readers of serial fiction can follow from cliffhanger chapter endings and out of nowhere chapter beginnings, when the author leaves out the narrative information occurring in between. She compares this to the viewers of panorama, who transition from scene to scene without any transitional information.
“Shivers Down Your Spine” offers a history of panoramas, including things we talked about in class: Robert Barker’s building and cycloramas. Then, she goes on to link panoramas to early cinema, in a fairly convincing manner. The strongest link she makes is the comparison to documentary panoramas with early cinematic news reels. While, the most intriguing exploration is in reception and the gendered audience.