Auteur Criticism, Reception Theory, and Audience-Centered Criticism
February 15, 2005
Prof. Nick Burnett
So what’s this auteur stuff?
Strongly influenced by film studies, the director/writer as author:David Lynch—Twin Peaks, Wild PalmsSteven Bochco—Hill Street Blues, LA Law,
NYPD BlueAaron Spelling—Dynasty, 90210, Melrose
PlaceNorman Lear—Maude, All in the FamilyDavid E. Kelley—The Practice, Boston Public,
Ally McBeal, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope
Definitions?
Draws from a view that art is a manifestation of the emotions, experience and worldview of the individual artist
What do they look at? A close visual and textual examination of two aspects of the work 1) the mis en scene (all the means available to a director to express her attitude toward the character—pacing, camera movement, cuts, angle and distance of the camera, content of the shot, etc.), and 2) the pattern of thematic motifs across an author’s entire work
Some comments about Happy Days and Gary Marshall
Questions that auteur critics might ask…
How does this work differ/share similarities with previous works?
Is there evidence of growth, evolution, or regression?
Is this an homage?
Auteur criticism caveats
The intentionalist fallacy TV isn’t really an individual artistic creation,
TV is the quintessential team production…who’s the auteur?The writer?The director?The executive producer?The network?
Some early works using reception theory
Janice Radway and women reading romance novels
Ethnography as criticism Vande Berg and Halualani’s blended
approach…All American Girl Early work by Modleski on soap
operas
Reception theory/Audience-centered Criticism
Privilege the audience’s point of view An answer to the intentionalist fallacy, aka the
scholastic fallacy Audiences are active and thinking rather than
passive and unthinking A rhetorical approach to television criticism? Influence of literary studies, particularly
reception theory
Applying audience centered approaches to criticism
Looking for unobtrusive measure of audience meaningRatingsLetters to the producer/networkChats on web sites
Obtrusive measuresFocus groups, interviews and surveysBeware of influence: “Do you think the
lesbian subtext hurts the Xena series?”
The echoes of audience centered criticism
Uses and gratification theory The acceptance of ethnographic
methods The use of focus groups The willingness not to make
judgments regarding taste, ie. those idiots who watch Survivor
Beware the tyranny of the audience!
Denial
Ignorance
False consciousness
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