Manchester University Press
4 Representing mediated identity and consciousness in The Good Wife
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Ariane Hudelet
Abstract
This chapter connects one of the central themes of The Good Wife – new technologies and the impact of the digital revolution – to the stylistic choices made by the series to represent virtuality. It focuses on the way the long duration of the Network show allows it to show how characters’ identities are increasingly mediated, and how thought processes, memories and fantasies are connected to, and sometimes modelled on, new media and communication technologies. After detailing the stylistic features that connect the characters’ perceptions, memories or fantasies to the language of new media, the analysis focuses on S6E14 (‘Mind’s Eye’), as Alicia Florrick is getting ready to face the editorial board interview in her campaign to become State’s Attorney. The fact that she cannot speak is used as a narrative and aesthetic tool to displace the action within her mind and the editing and camerawork of the episode stress the connection between imagination and digital media or communication tools, consciousness being thus represented as a series of internal, dialogical mises-en-scène. This chapter thus suggests that the series offers a nuanced exploration of the connection between psyche and media, elaborating a form of audiovisual stream of consciousness that accounts for the familiar and uncanny dimension of these digital technologies, a representation that is neither a catastrophic, dystopian denunciation, nor a mere glorification of technological prowess.
Abstract
This chapter connects one of the central themes of The Good Wife – new technologies and the impact of the digital revolution – to the stylistic choices made by the series to represent virtuality. It focuses on the way the long duration of the Network show allows it to show how characters’ identities are increasingly mediated, and how thought processes, memories and fantasies are connected to, and sometimes modelled on, new media and communication technologies. After detailing the stylistic features that connect the characters’ perceptions, memories or fantasies to the language of new media, the analysis focuses on S6E14 (‘Mind’s Eye’), as Alicia Florrick is getting ready to face the editorial board interview in her campaign to become State’s Attorney. The fact that she cannot speak is used as a narrative and aesthetic tool to displace the action within her mind and the editing and camerawork of the episode stress the connection between imagination and digital media or communication tools, consciousness being thus represented as a series of internal, dialogical mises-en-scène. This chapter thus suggests that the series offers a nuanced exploration of the connection between psyche and media, elaborating a form of audiovisual stream of consciousness that accounts for the familiar and uncanny dimension of these digital technologies, a representation that is neither a catastrophic, dystopian denunciation, nor a mere glorification of technological prowess.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Figures vii
- List of contributors ix
- The Television Series xii
- Moments in Television, the collections xiv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Layers of style 18
- 2 New uniforms! Costume and the 1950s/60s in Call the Midwife 42
- 3 When style is substance and beyond 64
- 4 Representing mediated identity and consciousness in The Good Wife 86
- 5 Performing laughter in Friends 109
- 6 ‘You’re what’s wrong with America, Simpson’ 132
- 7 Resurrection, revelation, reception 156
- 8 Police Squad! The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker style versus the substance of early 1980s television 178
- 9 Grand designs 202
- Index 225
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Figures vii
- List of contributors ix
- The Television Series xii
- Moments in Television, the collections xiv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Layers of style 18
- 2 New uniforms! Costume and the 1950s/60s in Call the Midwife 42
- 3 When style is substance and beyond 64
- 4 Representing mediated identity and consciousness in The Good Wife 86
- 5 Performing laughter in Friends 109
- 6 ‘You’re what’s wrong with America, Simpson’ 132
- 7 Resurrection, revelation, reception 156
- 8 Police Squad! The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker style versus the substance of early 1980s television 178
- 9 Grand designs 202
- Index 225
