XXL thresholds. The opening credits of TV shows on weight loss

Abstract

TV show opening credits can be considered as frames which delimit the borders of a filmic text. They aim at advising and attracting the audience by highlighting specific aspects of the program. In doing that, opening credits as well as other forms of intros activate specific styles of relationship between the instances of production and reception of texts. They can be considered acts of enunciation through which the enunciator establishes its own discourse and gives instructions to the enunciatee about the text. In this paper we will analyze these so called “paratexts”, in particular by focusing on the intro sequences of some weight loss TV programs from the Italian television schedule. The main themes of the collective imagery about obesity and alimentation (images of the body, the role of the experts, the morality) will be discussed and presented by these short introducing texts.