EVALUATE: Hall (REPRESENTATION)

The only obvious weakness of Hall’s theory with regard to LFTVDs is that it is very general and reveals very little about the difference between the relationship between representation and audience across different genres and forms. Hall’s theories draw attention to the role of power in representation. He explains that stereotypes are ever present in media texts and are used to establish or reinforce hegemony. He indicates that meaning is constituted by representation; not just what is present, but also what is absent, and what is different and points toward the ideological messaging by creators of media. However, he also points to the power of the audience to form negotiated readings of texts and it is here that we might evaluate the usefulness of his theory in understanding Stranger Things and D83.  

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We might accuse Episode 1 of Stranger Things of encoding a patriarchal power structure in its gender representation. All positions of authority are held by men; the school principal, the town Sheriff, the scientists, Dr. Brennan, every representation of a figure in a position of power is male. Conversely, female representations are housewives and secretaries. However, Hall allows us to consider the socio-cultural attitudes of the 2016 audience in relation to the preferred reading of the text. Through this lens we become aware that we are seeing a representation of 1980s American society rather than an attempt to reinforce a patriarchal power structure. The script takes great pains to make it clear that male characters are deeply flawed: a montage establishes that the sheriff is a lazy alcoholic, Dr. Brenner is a stereotypically ruthless government agent, and the male scientists have unleashed a deadly force that they cannot control. Conversely, the female characters are more powerful than they might appear; Joyce is determined and warm, Nancy is fiercely intelligent, and of course Eleven literally has superpowers. So, Hall’s theory allows us to understand the polysemic nature of the text and to realise that the context of the modern audience provides a very different reading to the surface level.

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Like Stranger Things, D83 also encodes a polysemic representation of patriarchal power, and Hall’s theories of representation encourage us to address the negotiated readings available. We could argue that D83 is patriarchal as it employs a male protagonist, but unlike Stranger Things it juxtaposes him with Lenora, his ruthless and intelligent female boss. Applying Hall to this text may encourage us to see Lenora as a countertype that attempts to fix a more modern feminist reading, but which risks reinforcing the patriarchal hegemony, by unsettling the patriarchal audience through a representation that is VERY different to expectations. Hall does allow us to consider the socio-cultural attitudes of the 2015 audience in relation to the preferred reading of the text. In this context, we might see Lenora as an empowered woman ahead of her time, an echo of the freedom that women would see by 2015. However, there is a more significant reading of the text. The narrative implies that Lenora’s authority is not unusual in Marxist East Germany, but that the consumer capitalist West is entrenched in a patriarchal power structure that is exemplified by the demanding General Edel and the absence of women in positions of authority in West Germany. So, the preferred meaning may be a critique of capitalism for its reluctance to allow women positions of authority. Therefore, Hall is very useful as it encourages us to consider the socio-cultural context in our reading of a text. 

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