Jane Barnwell 2022. Returning Home: How the Byers’ Home in Stranger Things (2016—Duffer Brothers, PD Chris Trujillo) Reflects Narrative and Character Interior Landscape. in: Production Design & the Cinematic Home Springer Nature. pp. 67-87
| Chapter title | Returning Home: How the Byers’ Home in Stranger Things (2016—Duffer Brothers, PD Chris Trujillo) Reflects Narrative and Character Interior Landscape |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jane Barnwell |
| Abstract | The Byers’ home in Stranger Things is designed as a transition space, both physically and metaphorically. Situated on the edge of the woods on the outskirts of Hawkins, it is a liminal space between the town, the forest and the Upside Down. Throughout the course of the first season, its small, simple, neutral-coloured interior transforms as Joyce becomes increasingly desperate to communicate with her son and bring him home from another dimension. Although the site of struggle, pain, terror and violence, the Byers’ home is also incredibly resilient, like the family it prevails. It is in the house that traditional boundaries are broken and temporary ones created, rupturing and subverting conventional entrance and exit points. The quiet, small-town community of Hawkins in its everyday familiarity functions as the backdrop to the supernatural events that subsequently unfold, but at the end of season three, the Byers’ home is left behind, its contents packed into boxes, the empty house resonating with self-referential nostalgia for the show’s characters and its fans. This poignant departure suggests a family ready to move on, but how do these transitions reflect on the myth of home? |
| Book title | Production Design & the Cinematic Home |
| Page range | 67-87 |
| Year | 2022 |
| Publisher | Springer Nature |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 2022 |
| ISBN | 9783030904487 |
| 9783030904494 | |
| 9783030904517 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90449-4_4 |
| Web address (URL) | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90449-4_4 |
| Journal | Production Design & the Cinematic Home |