“Normal Is What We Make It, Right?” Ordinary Aesthetics and Uncanny Twists in Contemporary TV Series

IF 0.3 0 PHILOSOPHY Open Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1515/opphil-2022-0257
Jeroen Gerrits
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Abstract

Abstract Contemporary TV shows, characterized by their complex narrative form, are designed to reveal the simple. They enable characters and viewers alike to discover the ordinary by coupling the everyday to an underworld populated by criminals, demons, vampires, and other kinds of “lowlifes.” I will argue here that the structure of the Möbius strip, or Escher twist, draws a particular aesthetic appeal at the intersection of these worlds. I call these twists uncanny in the Cavellian sense that the underworld, looking strangely familiar, has the capacity of making the ordinary look unfamiliar, inherently strange, and unstable. Rather than allowing us to judge the demonic or illegal, they disclose what is normally inaccessible to us precisely because it is so ordinary and simple, so familiar and in plain sight. I will support this idea of Escher-twisting from one world to another by analyzing examples from Twin Peaks (ABC 1990-2, Showtime 2017), The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007), Awake (NBC 2012), and Ozark (Netflix 2017–2022).
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“正常是我们创造的,对吧?”当代电视剧中的普通美学与离奇转折
当代电视节目以其复杂的叙事形式为特征,旨在揭示简单。通过将日常生活与充斥着罪犯、恶魔、吸血鬼和其他“下层社会”的黑社会联系起来,他们使角色和观众都能发现平凡。在这里,我想说的是,Möbius条的结构,或埃舍尔扭曲,在这些世界的交叉点上吸引了一种特殊的审美吸引力。我把这些曲折称为卡维尔意义上的离奇,即黑社会,看起来奇怪地熟悉,有能力使普通看起来不熟悉,本质上奇怪,不稳定。他们没有让我们去判断恶魔或非法,而是揭示了我们通常无法接近的东西,正是因为它是如此普通和简单,如此熟悉和显而易见。我将通过分析《双峰》(ABC 1990-2, Showtime 2017)、《黑道家族》(HBO 1999-2007)、《清醒》(NBC 2012)和《欧扎克》(Netflix 2017 - 2022)中的例子来支持埃歇尔扭曲从一个世界到另一个世界的观点。
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来源期刊
Open Philosophy
Open Philosophy Arts and Humanities-Philosophy
CiteScore
1.40
自引率
20.00%
发文量
25
审稿时长
15 weeks
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