The Spatiotemporal Cyclicality of the Circular Narrative of The Good Place

The paper aims to pay attention to the cyclicity of space and time representation of the afterlife in The Good Place. Here the protagonists are stuck in an infernal loop and every time they discover they are in a particularly elaborate infernal circle, their memory is erased and the narration restart. When the story starts over, the demonic narrative is always slightly different from the previous one. The cyclical nature of the narration at a space-time level would seem to perfect the storytelling: through the alteration of the narrative structure, traditional expectations relating to the afterlife are demolished and a dystopian afterlife is narrated.

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Publication Details

Journal
ENTHYMEMA
Published
2025-03-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.54103/2037-2426/23952
Primary Topic
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

The Spatiotemporal Cyclicality of the Circular Narrative of The Good Place

Francesca Medaglia
ENTHYMEMA
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
article

The Spatiotemporal Cyclicality of the Circular Narrative of The Good Place

Francesca Medaglia
article en

Abstract

The paper aims to pay attention to the cyclicity of space and time representation of the afterlife in The Good Place. Here the protagonists are stuck in an infernal loop and every time they discover they are in a particularly elaborate infernal circle, their memory is erased and the narration restart. When the story starts over, the demonic narrative is always slightly different from the previous one. The cyclical nature of the narration at a space-time level would seem to perfect the storytelling: through the alteration of the narrative structure, traditional expectations relating to the afterlife are demolished and a dystopian afterlife is narrated.

ENTHYMEMA(36)
Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Openalex Percentile: Top 95%
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
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