Saturday, 25 April 2020

PAST PAPER - 2020

‘Long form television dramas lack originality; no matter which country they are made in, they all use intertextuality in the same way.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

In your answer you must:

• consider the contexts in which long form television dramas are produced and consumed

• explain how media contexts may have influenced the use of intertextuality in the set episodes of the two long form television dramas you have studied

• refer to relevant academic ideas and arguments

• make judgements and reach conclusions about reasons for similarities or differences in the use of intertextuality between the two episodes.


THIS FIRST SECTION OF THE POST IS TAKEN FROM THE MARK SCHEME 

SECTION ONE: CONTEXTS

Social Contexts

• US and foreign language LFTVDs often reflect society. Changes in social attitudes (e.g. gender roles) may influences the codes and conventions of the television programmes. However, it is possible that conventions are used in reaction to other media rather than in reflection of society.  The subjective nature of intertextuality makes it difficult to tell the motivation behind its use.  

• Social values and/or contested social ideologies may influence the codes and conventions of television programmes: e.g. diminishing trust in institutions (Stranger Things), revisionist responses to history (D83).  These may reflect society or be simple copying of conventions that have worked well in other LFTVDs. Intertextual references may be deliberate or evidence of broader tropes which drive fictional narratives.

Cultural Contexts

• TV dramas have significant cultural importance in reflecting and re-enforcing or challenging and subverting national cultural values, attitudes, and ideologies. In this process, there is likely to be a high degree of intertextuality as they reference wider cultural codes.

• Globalisation and hybridisation has had a significant influence on television programmes and values, attitudes and ideologies may share certain intertextual similarities in their influence on codes and conventions across Western television culture; these may well be propagated through intertextual references within the LFTVD (either directly or sub-textually).

Historical Contexts

• Historical events may influence the values, attitudes and ideologies demonstrated by television programmes. Key historical events/situations may be referenced in LFTVDs to form recognisable/ intertextual motives/ tropes for audience enjoyment and may be regarded as unoriginal, archetypical or counter-typical.

Political Contexts

• Television programmes can reflect, reinterpret, amplify or satirise the values, attitudes and ideologies of and towards national political institutions. Western programme makers have the freedom to celebrate, criticise and satirise their own domestic politicians and political systems. Intertextual references may illuminate the political context, allowing audiences to access the messaging in political dramas from different countries.

Economic Contexts

• Budgets and sales have a significant influence on flagship television programmes from different countries, Intertextual reference / generic conventions may ensure that there are audiences for high budget/high risk or niche projects.

• The disparity between production budgets for US and European T.V. dramas can influence the codes and conventions available to represent the values, attitudes and ideologies of those countries.

Intertextual references to popular texts simply reflect the business model of LFTVDs as a bankable model.


SECTION TWO: SPECIFIC SHOWS

Stranger Things:

• Episode one is shaped by nostalgic exploration of what America was like socially in 1980s; it is deliberately littered with intertextual references to films of the same era (ET, Predator, Aliens, The Thing, Star Wars). From the opening, Stranger Things is very obviously intertextual due to the meta-referential nature of the first episode. The intertextuality is clearly deliberate rather than unoriginal, though it may be argued that it is influenced by the financial need to recoup a huge budget by jumping on a nostalgia bandwagon.  

• Marketing emphasised the intertextual nature of the show, with music and mise en scene recalling many of the intertextual references that would be present throughout the first season.

• The narrative mirrors traditional family values using familiar tropes to establish these ideas (nuclear family, picket fences, green lawns, etc.). However, it subverts the familiarity constructed by these tropes in order to challenge traditional patriarchal systems. It is not clear if this is due to the influence of generic tropes familiar in 80s media/ society or a deliberate reference to social changes since the 1980s.  It may be more concerned with referencing the Spielbergian model of suburban family life through the intertextual use of media language than with any commentary on social conventions.

• Nancy is arguably a nod to fourth wave feminism as she subverts cultural and social codes and conventions; however, the school setting in which we find her is clearly a reference to the culture of similar teen movies in the 80s and the subversion of stereotypes may be used as a form of cultural shorthand.

• The “Conspiracy theory” elements codified through use of sinister agents has global recognition for audiences who are used to being positioned as Americans due to the domination of global culture by American media.

 

Deutschland 83

• Intertextuality is embedded through choice of music and costume to reflect the time period. While these intertextual references add to the hyperreal nature of Stranger Things, we could argue that they are intended to create a more realistic diegesis in D83. That said, they may be a deliberate attempt to construct a more subtle simulacrum in order to comment on the social contradictions in divided 1980s Germany and to ignite debate about perceptions of that time from a modern German perspective. This may reflect the influence of contemporary social anxieties about facing up to Germany’s divided past as well as the idea of telling the story from the point of view of “the other side.” This is arguably very original as most Western spy dramas take a NATO-centric viewpoint.

• D83 is one of the most successful subtitled TV dramas screened in the UK, largely thanks to marketing which referenced other spy-dramas. We might argue that its success was reliant on intertextuality through its use of generic conventions, though there is valid argument that it subverted generic conventions by featuring a ‘hero’ that is communist, reluctant, and initially incompetent.

• The cultural focus on fashion and style which has global influence on ideologies and values of audiences, may play a significant part in attracting interest from European viewers by tapping into the same 1980s nostalgia as Stranger Things.

• D83 reflects the highly competitive nature of US cable and satellite television in which channels such as Sundance Channel seek quality programming to maintain the brand, by moving into international cooperation to produce and premiere foreign-language programming. The pressure on these types of programmes to perform financially leads to a use of intertextual referencing as a form of marketing (e.g. the soundtrack, which can be accessed via Spotify playlists – a meta-level of intertextuality).


A RESPONSE

‘Long form television dramas lack originality; no matter which country they are made in, they all use intertextuality in the same way.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

One of the ways that we can evaluate this statement is to consider the social context around Stranger Things and D83. Both US and foreign language LFTVDs often reflect society, so by looking at changes in social attitudes to a universal like gender roles we might decide if intertextuality is used in an un-original way. In, Stranger Things, the representation of Nancy embraces some values of fourth-wave feminism. Intertextual references to familiar high school T.V. and movie tropes establish her as a stereotypical teenage girl. Neale might argue that she is an example of repetition, allowing audiences to quickly locate the stereotype as a kind of narrative shorthand. However, she countertypically excels at science. Gauntlett might argue that these contradictory messages represent an increasingly open attitude to gender identity that is valued by modern audiences. So, the intertextual referencing is unoriginal in the way it builds a stereotype, but the contrast with the countertype constitutes an original take on gender norms.  In D83, the most significant female representation is Lenora. Strong female characters are not unusual in the spy genre, but Van-Zoonen would point out that they are often objectified to make them palatable to the male gaze. Lenora is evidently not an intertextual reference to ‘bond girl’ type spies, but she may be an intertextual reference to Judy Dench’s M (The Bond Franchise). Like M, she is clever, competent and ruthless. Again, we might apply Neale, assuming that, like Nancy, Lenora is an example of intertextuality used as narrative shorthand. However, unlike M, who is a modern woman in a modern world, Lenora lives in the same period as Nancy, a time of patriarchal ideas about women.  Applying historical context may reveal that she represents a comment on the social contradictions in divided 1980s Germany and on the tension between capitalist and communist ideologies at the time (communist regimes were much more likely to promote women to positions of power). So, what might seem to be an unoriginal intertextual reference to the spy genre, may be an attempt to construct a revisionist historical representation of 1980s Germany. The difficulty is that the subjective nature of intertextuality makes it impossible to tell the motivation behind its use. Maybe we are finding originality where none exists or missing it where it does.

Another approach to the statement may be to consider the impact of economic contexts on both originality and intertextuality. It may also provide some illumination on the importance of national identity, given that the statement asserts that all LFTVDs “use intertextuality in the same way” regardless of “which country they are made in.”  D83 may be a German production, but it was jointly funded by AMC’s Sundance TV. The series premiered on 17 June 2015 on the Sundance TV channel in the United States, becoming the first German-language series to air on a US network. Sundance has a reputation for commissioning prestige drama and seeks quality programming to maintain the brand. As such, it seems likely that the programme creators may have had a sense of the significance of this audience in the production process. If we accept this premise, then it becomes hard to judge whether other German productions without this same revenue stream would use intertextuality in such a familiar way. Knowing it's intended audience, it is not surprising that D83 makes intertextual use of codes and conventions of spy narratives, which have global cultural resonance and will therefore appeal to its Sundance audience. However, it also unconventionally positions a communist protagonist, allowing socio-political values and ideas to be scrutinised. In one scene from Episode 1, Lenora passes a Puma t-Shirt, Adidas trainers and Levi jeans to Martin (a close up highlights the brands). These brands represent the East German attempt to simulate the appearance of a capitalist West Germany. More deeply, these labels are worn by West Germans because they are simulacra of the freedom of consumerist culture. A copy, of a copy, of a copy. In these clothes, Martin decides to escape, and finds himself in a supermarket, the perfect simulation of freedom when viewed through the lens of Baudrillard’s theories. Here he is surrounded by signifiers of abundance and choice, meanwhile the intertextual diegetic sound features Sweet Dreams, a song expressing feelings of nihilism in a world filled with too many choices. The use of intertextuality then is a convention with clear appeal to an international audience that have come to enjoy 1980s nostalgia, but it also appeals to the more media literate Sundance audience seeking a subtler, more original exploration of cultural, political, and historical context.

While D83 appeals to a fairly large but essentially niche audience, Stranger Things, with its estimated $6million dollar budget per episode of Season 1, reflects a significantly greater risk for its producers. Hesmondhalgh points out that cultural industries rely on repeatable conventions, like the use of genre or the appeal to intertextuality, to minimise risk. However, successful streaming services such as Netflix, need to maintain brand identity by creating innovative and original programming that integrates high end production values. As such, Stranger Things walks a tightrope between appealing to conventional tropes and presenting fresh and exciting new ideas. The marketing for the episode reflects that tension. The trailer for Season 1, established the shows credentials as a high quality, high budget production, even culminating in the now famous telekinetic truck flip scene. The use of generic conventions for intertextual effect also drew comparison to other famous cultural and media texts, which would have appealed to a wide and established audience. We might suspect that creative business managers at Netflix commissioned a series explicitly designed to ‘cash in’ on the 1980s nostalgia present since the turn of the 21st century. However, Hesmondhalgh points out that symbol creators are often given enough freedom by industry controllers to excite audience interest. So, it seems more likely that Stranger Things is less concerned with recycling conventions that appeal to audience pleasure in noting intertextual references and more of an homage to Speilberg’s late 20th-century classics like Goonies, E.T. etc (the programme even uses Leica Summilux-C lenses to capture Speilberg’s visual style. Of course, the success of Stranger Things is due in large part to the use of conventions that appeal to its audience, and to the inherent pleasure in shared cultural references, but it is impossible to tell if this is deliberate, or if it is a side effect of affording artistic freedom to symbol creators steeped in 1980s cinema.

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