Character engagement and digital community practice: a multidisciplinary study of “Breaking Bad”
Kuupäev
2018-01-18
Autorid
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Abstrakt
Kuidas suhestab vaataja end narratiivse karakteriga? Kirjandusteadus, folkloristika, narratoloogia, psühholoogia, ja meediauuringud laiemaltki on antud seoses rakendanud käsitlusi samastumisest, empatiseerimisest ja (väljamõeldud maailma) sukeldumisest. Kuna väljamõeldud inimesed, kas kirja- või pildisõnas, polevat rohkemat autori(te) ettekujutuse viljast, siis püüdvat vaataja/lugejagi neis kas ära tunda iseend või siis teisalduda jälgitavasse situatsiooni, end vaadeldava tegelaskujuga samastades. Kui karakteriga suhestumise analüüsis lähtuda aga igapäevasuhtlustasandist, näib olevat ebapiisav eelistada üksnes taaskujutavat ja sissepoole pööratud vaadet inimteadvusele, kuna ideedel inimesest kui „sotsiaalsest olevusest“ ja tähenduse „sotsiaalsest karakterist“ (Võgotskii) on oht jääda tahaplaanile ja „karakteriga suhestumine“ taandub omamoodi sisedialoogiks: vaataja mõistab teist inimest iseenda põhjal kohandatud mudeli kaudu. Ehkki teatud olukordades on see vajalik mõistmis- ja tähendustamisstrateegia, ei saa eirata, et suhestumine kui selline on ometi suunatud. Haaratud ollakse kellestki, „sukeldutakse“ maailma, mida keegi omas-maailmas-iseseisvalt-eksisteerivana asustab. Käesoleva doktoriväitekirja avapeatükk sünteesib väga mitmekesist teaduskirjandust ja töötab välja kohase teoreetilise mõisteraamistiku, mis käsitleb suhestumist teleseriaali tegelaskujudega argiteadvuslikust sotsiaalsest kogemusest lähtuvalt. Keskne on siin käsitlus pärisustamisest: kogukondliku arutelu kontekstis lihtsalt lähenetaksegi tegelaskujudele kui päris inimestele. Narratiivsest tegelaskujust saab persoon. Internetiarutelud opereerivad kolmandas isikus (mina/tema) ja narratiiv-ajalooliselt (väljamõeldud süžee kui narratiivse persooni elu lugu). Individuaalsed kommentaaritekstid on siinjuures mõistetavad kui narrtseptid, s.o. narratiivse teis(t)e-taju tähendusloomelised saadused. Narrtseptid toovad esile narratiivsetele persoonidele suunatud tõlgenduste kogukondlikult jagatud, mitmehäälset mõõdet. Väitekirja teine peatükk tutvustatab originaalmõistet majakas. Majakal on internetikommunikatsiooni analüüsis struktureeriv roll. “Heites valgust“ kommunikatsiooni erinevatele külgedele, majakas kas liigendab narrtseptiivseid looilmu (retseptiivne, „populaarne“ dimensioon) või komponeerib neid reaalajaliselt avalduvateks ’lahtiste otstega’ diskursuseilmadeks (analüütilis-metodoloogiline, „akadeemiline“ dimensioon). Siinkohal pakubki antud peatükk ühtlasi ka kriitilisi kohandusi juba käibelolevatele mõistetele võimalike maailmade ja narratiiviteooriast ning diskursuseanalüüsist, s.o., looilm, kavatsemis-ilm, tekstiloojate-ilm ja diskursuse-ilm. Doktoriväitekirja kolmas peatükk keskendub ameerika teleseriaali “Halvale teele“ (Breaking Bad) internetikommentaaride illustratiivsele lähianalüüsile. Eelkirjeldatud teoreetilisel mõisteaparatuuril on analüüsis keskne roll.
How does the viewer engage herself with narrative characters? Literary theory, folkloristics, narratology, psychology, and media studies more widely have generally found guidance in the treatments of identification, empathy, and immersion. For if fictional people, be it by the written or audiovisual depiction, are nothing but the fruits of authors’ imagination, then the viewer or the reader similarly attempts to recognize herself in, immerse herself into the world of, and identify herself with the observed character. While analyzing character engagement from the perspective of everyday communication, however, the exclusively representational and inward approach to the human mind can prove an inadequate preference. For the respective ideas of human as a „social being“ and the „social character of meaning“ (Vygotsky) hazard to become backgrounded due to „character engagement“ becoming proportionate to a kind of inner dialogue: viewer makes sense of the other through the model she has adapted about herself. Although it can be, at times, a necessary strategy for comprehension and sense-making, one cannot disregard the engagement being—even toward “fictional” people—always directed. You are absorbed by someone, you become “immersed” in a world that is inhabitated by someone autonomously-existing-with-their-world. In synthesizing diverse literature, Chapter One of the present dissertation develops appropriate theoretical framework that approaches engagement with the characters of television serials from the stance of common sense social experience. Of focal significance here is the notion of realitization: in the context of communal discussion, characters just are approached as if real people. Accordingly, a narrative character becomes a person. For Internet discussions operate in third person (me/her) and historio-narratively (“fictive” plot as narrative person’s life story). Individual commentary texts become hereby considered as narrcepts; that is, they are the sense-making products of the narrative perception of the other (narrative+precept). Through narrcepts, the distributed and polyphonic dimension of the construals directed toward narrative persons becomes acknowledged. Chapter Two of the dissertation introduces a succeeding original notion: beacon. Beacon enacts a structuring role in the analysis of online communication. Beacon „throws light“ onto the different aspects of Internet discourse, decomposing narrceptive storyworlds (reciprocal, „popular“ dimension) and composing the latter into „open ended“ discourse worlds emerging in real time (analytical-methodological, „academical“ dimension). Consequently, critical adaptations of current terminology in possible worlds theory, narrative theory, and discourse analysis are presented; that is, storyworld, intend-world, text makers’ world and discourse world. Chapter three of the dissertation concentrates on the illustrative close analysis of the online commentaries with regard to the American television serial Breaking Bad. The previously established theoretical apparatus serves a central role in the analysis.
How does the viewer engage herself with narrative characters? Literary theory, folkloristics, narratology, psychology, and media studies more widely have generally found guidance in the treatments of identification, empathy, and immersion. For if fictional people, be it by the written or audiovisual depiction, are nothing but the fruits of authors’ imagination, then the viewer or the reader similarly attempts to recognize herself in, immerse herself into the world of, and identify herself with the observed character. While analyzing character engagement from the perspective of everyday communication, however, the exclusively representational and inward approach to the human mind can prove an inadequate preference. For the respective ideas of human as a „social being“ and the „social character of meaning“ (Vygotsky) hazard to become backgrounded due to „character engagement“ becoming proportionate to a kind of inner dialogue: viewer makes sense of the other through the model she has adapted about herself. Although it can be, at times, a necessary strategy for comprehension and sense-making, one cannot disregard the engagement being—even toward “fictional” people—always directed. You are absorbed by someone, you become “immersed” in a world that is inhabitated by someone autonomously-existing-with-their-world. In synthesizing diverse literature, Chapter One of the present dissertation develops appropriate theoretical framework that approaches engagement with the characters of television serials from the stance of common sense social experience. Of focal significance here is the notion of realitization: in the context of communal discussion, characters just are approached as if real people. Accordingly, a narrative character becomes a person. For Internet discussions operate in third person (me/her) and historio-narratively (“fictive” plot as narrative person’s life story). Individual commentary texts become hereby considered as narrcepts; that is, they are the sense-making products of the narrative perception of the other (narrative+precept). Through narrcepts, the distributed and polyphonic dimension of the construals directed toward narrative persons becomes acknowledged. Chapter Two of the dissertation introduces a succeeding original notion: beacon. Beacon enacts a structuring role in the analysis of online communication. Beacon „throws light“ onto the different aspects of Internet discourse, decomposing narrceptive storyworlds (reciprocal, „popular“ dimension) and composing the latter into „open ended“ discourse worlds emerging in real time (analytical-methodological, „academical“ dimension). Consequently, critical adaptations of current terminology in possible worlds theory, narrative theory, and discourse analysis are presented; that is, storyworld, intend-world, text makers’ world and discourse world. Chapter three of the dissertation concentrates on the illustrative close analysis of the online commentaries with regard to the American television serial Breaking Bad. The previously established theoretical apparatus serves a central role in the analysis.
Kirjeldus
Märksõnad
Breaking Bad (seriaal), teleseriaalid, tegelaskujud, narratiiv, digitaalne narratiiv, virtuaalkogukonnad, psühholoogia, television serials, literary characters, narrative, digital storytelling, virtual communities, psychology