Auteur Criticism, Reception Theory, and Audience-Centered Criticism

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 Palms • Steven Bochco—Hill Street Blues, LA Law, NYPD Blue • Aaron Spelling—Dynasty, 90210, Melrose Place • Norman Lear—Maude, All in the Family • David 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 meaning • Ratings • Letters to the producer/network • Chats on web sites • Obtrusive measures • Focus groups, interviews and surveys • Beware 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

Auteur Criticism, Reception Theory, and Audience-Centered Criticism