scholarly journals The Empath and the Psychopath: Ethics, Imagination, and Intercorporeality in Bryan Fuller'sHannibal

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Stadler

The long-form television drama series Hannibal (Fuller 2013–2015) thematises the embodied imagination and the elicitation of empathy and ethical understanding at the level of narrative and characterisation as well as through character engagement and screen aesthetics. Using Hannibal as a case study, this research investigates how stylistic choices frame the experiences of screen characters and engender forms of intersubjectivity based on corporeal and cognitive routes to empathy; in particular, it examines the capacity for screen media to facilitate what neuroscientist Vittorio Gallese terms intercorporeality. As a constitutive aspect of intersubjectivity and social understanding that works through embodied simulation, intercorporeality invites a reconceptualisation of empathy and its association with ethical motivation and insight. Hannibal also introduces cannibalism as a dark metaphor for the incorporation of another into oneself, reflecting on empathy's ill-understood potential for negative affect and unethical consequences.

Author(s):  
Eva Novrup Redvall ◽  
Katrine Bouschinger Christensen

This article explores the strategies for fictional content of the Danish children’s channel DR Ultra through a qualitative case study of the production framework behind its successful series Klassen (2016–now). Building on studies of television production and theories of co-creation, the analysis investigates the use of co-creative initiatives during the development and writing as well as the production of programmes. The analysis highlights the value of involving children more closely in content targeting them, not only to ensure that what is told and how it is told is relevant and appealing, but also to create a sense of participation and co-creation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942110086
Author(s):  
Siao Yuong Fong

There is a long history of television and film research that highlights the essential roles audiences play in everyday production decisions. Based largely on Western media industries, these studies’ investigations of producer–audience relationships have revolved predominantly around the market concerns of liberal media models. So how do producer–audience relationships work when it comes to illiberal contexts of media production? Using Singapore as a case study, this article argues that existing approaches to producer–audience relations largely based on liberal media industries like Hollywood are insufficient for thinking through audience power in everyday media production in illiberal contexts. Drawing on insights from affect theory, I examine the materials gathered during an immersive ethnography of the writing process of a Singaporean television drama and propose conceptualizing audiences as an ‘affective superaddressee’, as a productive way to think about the work that situational audiences do in everyday media production in illiberal contexts.


Author(s):  
Tessa Dwyer

This chapter focuses on the emergent, participatory practice of fansubbing (‘fan subtitling’), examining its origins within anime subculture and its ongoing evolution. Fansubbing is examined as an informal translation practice that emerged as a subset of media piracy with its own ethical standards and rules of conduct. Much early anime fansubbing focused on redressing the domesticating tendencies of professional services, and in this sense highlighted the gatekeeping, controlling function of translation. Hence, this case study further demonstrates links between piracy, censorship and subversion introduced in the previous chapter. It also demonstrates how fansubbing’s intervention into screen media points to the growing significance of translation as a mode of cultural participation responsive to the intensifying multilingualism of global media and technologies. Fans are discussed as ‘lead-users’ of new technologies that trial functionality and uncover emergent uses, demands and desires along the way—exemplifying the increasingly active and unruly ways in which people currently consume and engage with media. Proposing that fansubbing’s communal, errant tendencies are vital to its re-evaluative function, this chapter identifies a point of difference between the reconceptual program of this book and the notion of ‘abusive subtitling’ (Nornes 1999).


Author(s):  
Joseph Oldham

This Introduction begins by exploring how key production personnel on both Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (BBC 2, 1979) and Spooks (BBC 1, 2002-11) drew inspiration from the BBC itself when developing a fictionalised version of an intelligence service for the screen,. This is used to frame a brief overview of the histories of British intelligence, broadcasting and spy fiction through the early and mid-20th century, noting numerous intersections and parallels. In particular, it describes the expansion in all three areas in the post-war years, resulting from a complex blend of Cold War paranoia and the growth of an affluent, consumer society. Surveying the book’s methodology, it discusses how this account blends case study analyses with broader examinations of television institutions and British cultural history, in particular considering problems of 'realism' in relation to both the spy genre and British television drama. An overview of the main chapters is provided.


Author(s):  
Eva N. Redvall

The chapter explores the successful meeting of “mainstream trends” and “masterpiece traditions” in the commissioning and production of Downton Abbey (2010–2015), and the way in which this “postheritage drama” marks a significant transatlantic encounter between different broadcasting cultures and storytelling traditions. Drawing on recent research on the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States in television drama, the analysis first details how this period drama became a collaboration between the commercial UK broadcaster ITV and the American PBS station WGBH and its Masterpiece series. The chapter then investigates how the long-form narrative with soap opera elements was designed to tap into the UK tradition of heritage drama, while drawing on the speed and storytelling style of US television series. The chapter closes with a discussion of Downton Abbey’s production story in relation to the series’ remarkable popularity in the United Kingdom, the United States, and beyond.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-399
Author(s):  
Monika Bednarek

Abstract This article presents a corpus-driven sociolinguistic study of Redfern Now – the first major television drama series commissioned, written, acted, directed and produced by Indigenous industry professionals in Australia. The study examines whether corpus linguistic keyword analysis can identify evidence for type indexicality (social demographics, personae) and trait indexicality (stance, personality), with particular attention paid to the potential indexing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity. More specifically, the study’s goal is to retrieve and analyse words that are associated with varieties of English in Australia, and with Australian Aboriginal Englishes in particular. To this end, a corpus with dialogue from Redfern Now is compared to a reference corpus of US television dialogue. Results show that Redfern Now features the use of easily recognisable and familiar words (e.g. blackfella[s], deadly; kinship terms), but also shows clear variation among characters. The case study concludes by evaluating the use of keyword analysis for identifying indexicality in telecinematic discourse.


Author(s):  
Marco Caracciolo

This chapter surveys some of the key issues in the study of embodiment in literary reading. Recent research in psycholinguistics has called attention to the role of motor resonance and experiential models in understanding language—two psychological mechanisms often brought together under the heading of “embodied simulation.” How does literary reading, and particularly reading literary narrative, leverage these embodied phenomena? Does embodiment always matter in reading or only in specific circumstances? Building on linguist David Ritchie’s scalar account of embodied simulation, and using Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho as a case study, this chapter distinguishes among various types of embodied involvement and shows how they shape the experience of reading Ellis’s novel. It also draws attention to the question of consciousness, calling for empirical research on the interplay between unconscious processes and lived experience (mental imagery, bodily feelings, etc.) in engaging with literary narrative.


Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Andrew Crome

This article examines the “new visibility of religion” thesis through a case study of recent depictions of priests and ministers in British television drama and comedy. It focuses on four award-winning shows produced between 2009 and 2019 with clergy as central characters: Broadchurch, Broken, Fleabag and Rev. Clergy on these shows are depicted positively, in ways that contrast with portrayals in the 1990s and earlier 2000s. The shows demonstrate an active sympathy for, and engagement with, theological themes, and awareness of the important social role that clergy play in inner-city parishes. While some elements of these depictions support the idea of a “new visibility”, at the same time, they reiterate narratives of continuing religious decline in Britain. Rather than unproblematically celebrating faith, the shows use religion to critique neoliberal welfare policy and sacralise notions of community. This “new visibility” is also shown to contribute to the continued invisibility of some religious viewpoints in the media. This article concludes that despite these limitations, recent portrayals of clergy offer new opportunities for religious debate and conversation, particularly within media and fan commentary.


Kultura ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
Maša Seničić ◽  
Ognjen Obradović

Applying interdisciplinary theoretical analysis within a framework that cross-references studies in the fields of performance, cultural policy, film and screen media, this paper examines transformations of festivals in digital environment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Festivals are cultural and artistic showcases that present and value certain content, as well as places of public gathering and critical debate, on which we particularly focus in this study. After a brief theoretical remark on what theatre and film encounters represent as places of real physical meetings, we move on to online festivals and events of similar nature which take place in digital surroundings. We then set out to analyse two online festivals, using the case study method on FIST - Festival of International Student Theatre (2020) and my Darling Quarantine - Short Film Festival (2020). These examples help us examine the potential advantages and disadvantages of online festivals, and also their specifics: by moving to the digital realm, online festivals lose their exclusivity given by space-time and geographical limitations. Thus, it is necessary to find new models of functioning that can contribute to having quality collective discussions and transnational exchanges of knowledge and ideas. FIST has accomplished this through opening a space for debate through live online chat, making viewers an integral part of the performance. Likewise, my Darling Quarantine has proven itself as a place of collective effort through its creative cooperative programming. We conclude that the critical and socio-cultural potential of online festivals is exceptional, therefore they should not necessarily be thought of as surrogates or extensions of live events, but as authentic cultural practices.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul De Silva

Prime-time narrative is the most watched and influential genre of television. It creates a sense of belonging and contributes to identity formation. It also receives the largest amount of publicly mandated funding in the form of investment, subsidies, and tax incentives in Canada. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that despite legislation requiring equitable representation in all aspects of screen media, and over thirty years of many “special initiatives” and training and mentorship programs, little progress has been made in the area of equitable representation in narrative programming. This dissertation investigates the representation of diasporic people of colour in the screen-media industry in Canada. In particular, it studies how “authentic voices” from these communities are finding expression in the area of prime-time television narrative programming (scripted comedy and drama) and feature films, which ultimately find their largest audiences in broadcast screen platforms on television and increasingly via the Internet. The focus is on the legislative frameworks pertaining to the reflection of “diasporic communities of colour” in the production of screen media, specifically for prime-time broadcast in narrative, or what is referred to in the industry as “scripted programming,” as well as on the current realities faced by creators of screen media from diasporic communities of colour in telling their stories in this arena. Through a case study of the television series Little Mosque on the Prairie, it examines the issues that affect the expression of “authentic voice” from individuals who have had the opportunity to work in the area of narrative screen media in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s public broadcaster, which has as one of its key priorities the reflection of the cultural diversity of Canada. The issues involved in the production of feature films by diasporic people of colour is examined through a case study of the film Heaven on Earth, written and directed by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta. Mehta’s film presents a unique situation in which the filmmaker, due to the previous international success of her film Water, was able to access the financial resources to produce the film in Canada and maintain her “authentic voice” without mediation in the production from external players. Part of this case study includes a documentary film featuring an interview with Deepa Mehta conducted in 2017 about her film Heaven on Earth.


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