• “Identity is complicated - everybody thinks they've got one”- David Gauntlett • “Most people think of themselves as individuals, that there’s no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food and walk around like nothing’s wrong. My name is Oliver Tate.” – Oliver Tate
Sometimes I wish there was a film crew following my every move. I imagine the camera craning up as I walk away, but unless things improve, the biopic of my life will only have the budget for a zoom out.
Youth, Identity and Fandom Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012 G D Seal
PROLOGUE
Youth, Identity and Fandom Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012 G D Seal
Conclusions/ Key Themes Narrative and Identity • We create our identity as a narrative/ as a journey. A “narrative of the self” • Media texts place emphasis on the notion of narrative of the self • Media texts provide us with a narrative. OR Media texts provide a way to understand our own narrative/ our own journey
Conclusions/ Key Themes Fandom and Identity • In a postmodern world, we express (find?) our identity through fandom • Fandom is a form of collective identity • Fandom is a way of creating our narrative/ identity • Fandom is being corporatised, and as a result our identities are increasingly defined through consumerism • We are all a target market • Otherness is a target market • Our identity is being sold back to us
Youth, Identity and Fandom Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012 G D Seal
PART O N E
E4
fans
identity youth
media texts target market
fandom
film TV
The gleeks shall inherit the Earth The corporate incorporation of fandom The corporatisation of fandom
Defining Otherness • Based on binary opposition • Used to define oneself and ‘the Other’ • ‘The Other’ is a tool of repression and ideological dominance • Minorities; Outcasts; Less powerful; Disenfranchised • Gays; Women; Ethnic minorities; Goths; Geeks • Negative representation • The Other = the mocked; the repressed; the “what we’re not”
Embracing Otherness • Embrace difference. Celebrate Otherness. • Embrace the Gays/ the minorities/ the Geeks/ the outcasts • Re-appropriation of the Other • “Gay”; “Queer” • “Geek”, “Loser” • “I’m a gleek” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWR3UQCRSTY • Is it empowering, or reasserting hegemony?
“I’m a gleek” “You’re a geek”
‘The Other’ becomes a marketing tool The corporate incorporation of Otherness
Narrative of the Self • • • •
Our identity is a story We create a narrative of the self We create a biography We form our identity through this narrative and its reassertion • Always being added to. Never completed; always changing and reflexive
Narrative of the self • Paul Ricouer • French • Philosopher
• Anthony Giddens • British • Sociologist/ political thinker • Self identity is reflexive. It is a process
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard • French theorist • Postmodernism • Sociologist/ cultural theorist/ philosopher • Simulacra and Simulation • Hyperreality
• ‘the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.' – there is no such thing as first-hand reality – Instead all we have are copies of copies of copies, mediated experiences, perfect replicas without an original. – Nothing has an innate essence anymore; everything is surface.
Jean Baudrillard • French theorist • Postmodernism • Sociologist/ cultural theorist/ philosopher • Simulacra and Simulation • Hyperreality
• ‘the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.' – there is no such thing as first-hand reality – Instead all we have are copies of copies of copies, mediated experiences, perfect replicas without an original. – Nothing has an innate essence anymore; everything is surface.
Henry Jenkins • American • Professor of Communication • Fans are ‘textual poachers’ • Take meanings that are useful to them and leave the rest • @HenryJenkins
Youth, Identity and Fandom Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012 G D Seal
Conclusions/ Key Themes Narrative and Identity • We create our identity as a narrative/ as a journey. A “narrative of the self” • Media texts place emphasis on the notion of narrative of the self • Media texts provide us with a narrative. OR Media texts provide a way to understand our own narrative/ our own journey
Conclusions/ Key Themes Fandom and Identity • In a postmodern world, we express (find?) our identity through fandom • Fandom is a form of collective identity • Fandom is a way of creating our narrative/ identity • Fandom is being corporatised, and as a result our identities are increasingly defined through consumerism • We are all a target market • Otherness is a target market • Our identity is being sold back to us
PART T W O
Key Themes of this Part 2 • Submarine is a rite of passage/ coming of age text. It is all about identity. Adolescence is identity formation • Oliver constructs his identity/ experience of life through narratives learned from media texts • In Submarine, identity is ephemeral and transient
Most people think of themselves as individuals, that there's no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food and walk around like nothing's wrong. My name is Oliver Tate.
I’ve already turned these moments into the Super8 footage of memory
Music can make things a bit more real, if you know what I mean
Music can make things a bit more real, if you know what I mean
This was one of those vivid memories of youth that I would cherish when I was old and frail.
I don’t quite know what I am yet. I’ve tried smoking a pipe; flipping coins; listening exclusively to French crooners. Other times I’ll go to the beach and stare at the sea. I saw it in a documentary about a prominent thinker who struggled with unspeakable loss. I even had a brief out phase, but nothing stuck.