Style and Stylistics (Discussion)
Group 1: Be prepared to define these basic terms: "style," "stylistics". Then, pretend you are an "evaluative" stylistician. How would you study Outsourced? Devise a research project that you might attempt with this TV text. How is evaluative stylistics often connected with auteurism? Who is Outsourced"'s auteur?
Group 2: Be prepared to define these basic terms: "style," "stylistics". Then, pretend you are a "descriptive" stylistician. How would you study Outsourced? Devise a research project that you might attempt with this TV text.
Group 3: Be prepared to define these basic terms: "style," "stylistics". Then, pretend you are a "analytic" stylistician. How would you study Outsourced? Devise a research project that you might attempt with this TV text. Be sure to account for the five "functions" of style discussed in the textbook.
- symbolize
- decorate
- persuade
- hail or interpellate
- differentiate
Group 4: Be prepared to define these basic terms: "style," "stylistics". Then, pretend you are a "historical" stylistician. How would you study Outsourced? Devise a research project that you might attempt with this TV text. Be sure to account for "craft practices" and "schemas."
All groups: What elements of your stylistic approach do you see in "Televisuality and the Resurrection of the Sitcom in the 2000s"?
Auteur theory -- if time allows
- What problems does the auteur theory, which is based in film studies, have when applied to television? For example, how are "pitch sessions" a problem, according to Caldwell? Who are "showrunners"? What do auteurist critics look for in TV shows? If there are no true auteurs, can TV still be "art"?
Bibliography
- Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. NY: Routledge, 2011.
- Butler, Jeremy G. "Televisuality and the Resurrection of the Sitcom in the 2000s," in Television Style (NY: Routledge, 2010), 173-222.
