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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
Selfhood and subjectivity are categories of identity that are both individual and social, i.e., defined by one’s own character as well as by the culture in which one lives. How the self is represented in the world has historically caught the interests of philosophers and sociologists, from Kierkegaard (1989) to Judith Butler (2005), noting that how one represents oneself to the world is not necessarily what one is, whether an authentic self exists or the self is only performance. The representation of the self in the world is complicated further when mediated by cultural representation, specifically in the audiovisual, serial, popular, and ubiquitous medium of television in the contemporary media-saturated environment.
This paper will delve into the tension between self-definition and social constructions of the self—mostly gender and sexuality—as they are expressed in reality television representation. Specifically, the paper will focus on docusoaps on 21st-century television, a cultural creation that is intertwined with technological advancements (Booth, 2011), which in turn affect both identity and self-representation. Studying series such as The Real Housewives (2006—), The Circle (2020—), Love Is Blind (2020—), I will explore how selves are constructed and represented, focusing on how gender performance and media performance are intertwined in 21st century American television. The study of self-representation on reality television exposes the ties between characterization and self-representation, authorship and performance, and their contemporary shifts, which arise from new modes of consumption, new narratological mechanisms, new platforms, etc. (Lynn Spigel, 2004).
Works cited
Booth, Paul. “Memories, Temporalities, Fictions: Temporal Displacement in Contemporary Television.” Television & New Media 12(4), 2011: 370–88.
Butler, Judith. Giving an Account of One’s Self. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005.
Kierkegaard, Søren. Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Edification and Awakening. London: Penguin, 1989.
Spigel, Lynn. “Introduction.” Television After TV: Essays of a Medium in Transition. Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson (Eds.), Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. 1-34.
Temmerman, Koen de and Evert van Emde Boas. Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Reinventing the Self: Self-Representation on Reality TV
Selfhood and subjectivity are categories of identity that are both individual and social, i.e., defined by one’s own character as well as by the culture in which one lives. How the self is represented in the world has historically caught the interests of philosophers and sociologists, from Kierkegaard (1989) to Judith Butler (2005), noting that how one represents oneself to the world is not necessarily what one is, whether an authentic self exists or the self is only performance. The representation of the self in the world is complicated further when mediated by cultural representation, specifically in the audiovisual, serial, popular, and ubiquitous medium of television in the contemporary media-saturated environment.
This paper will delve into the tension between self-definition and social constructions of the self—mostly gender and sexuality—as they are expressed in reality television representation. Specifically, the paper will focus on docusoaps on 21st-century television, a cultural creation that is intertwined with technological advancements (Booth, 2011), which in turn affect both identity and self-representation. Studying series such as The Real Housewives (2006—), The Circle (2020—), Love Is Blind (2020—), I will explore how selves are constructed and represented, focusing on how gender performance and media performance are intertwined in 21st century American television. The study of self-representation on reality television exposes the ties between characterization and self-representation, authorship and performance, and their contemporary shifts, which arise from new modes of consumption, new narratological mechanisms, new platforms, etc. (Lynn Spigel, 2004).
Works cited
Booth, Paul. “Memories, Temporalities, Fictions: Temporal Displacement in Contemporary Television.” Television & New Media 12(4), 2011: 370–88.
Butler, Judith. Giving an Account of One’s Self. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005.
Kierkegaard, Søren. Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Edification and Awakening. London: Penguin, 1989.
Spigel, Lynn. “Introduction.” Television After TV: Essays of a Medium in Transition. Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson (Eds.), Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. 1-34.
Temmerman, Koen de and Evert van Emde Boas. Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Bio
Yael Levy is a television scholar and a teaching fellow at the Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University, where she teaches courses in film, television, feminist, and race theories. She holds a PhD in Film and Television from Tel Aviv University and has published articles regarding gender, race, sexuality, and textuality in film and television in publications including Feminist Media Studies and Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. Her co-edited anthology (with Dr. Miri Talmon) Israeli Television: Local Visions, Global Contexts was published by Routledge in 2020, and her book Chick TV: Antiheroines and Time Unbound is forthcoming with Syracuse University Press in 2021.