The Return of Twin Peaks: Squaring the Circle

In 2017, twenty-five years after its initial release, a new season of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s cultural touchstone Twin Peaks shook the world of television. In this volume, Franck Boulegue explores Twin Peaks: The Return through a philosophical, mythological, and spiritual lens.

Divided into three sections, the book first examines the third season as expanded storytelling through the lens of Gene Youngblood’s theory of synesthetic cinema, intertextuality, integrationist, and segregationist approaches in the realm of fiction, and focuses on the role of audio and visual superimpositions in The Return. It goes on to question the nature of the reality depicted in the seasons via scientific approaches, such as electromagnetism, time theory, and multiverses. The third and final section aims to transcend this vision by exploring the role of theosophy, the occult, and other spiritual sources. With a foreword by Matt Zoller Seitz, editor at large at RogerEbert.com and television critic for New York magazine, this book is essential reading for fans of the landmark show and anyone who studies it.