Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2008
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41244 |
| _version_ | 1811070188654690304 |
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| author | Bidlingmeyer, Lisa Marie |
| author2 | Wyn Kelley. |
| author_facet | Wyn Kelley. Bidlingmeyer, Lisa Marie |
| author_sort | Bidlingmeyer, Lisa Marie |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:31:04Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/41244 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:31:04Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/412442019-04-09T18:22:24Z Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series How the TV images destabilizes identity in TV spy series Bidlingmeyer, Lisa Marie Wyn Kelley. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Comparative Media Studies. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Comparative Media Studies. Comparative Media Studies. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-107). This thesis explores the intersection of the television image with the presentation of self-identity. I examine two TV series in the spy genre -- Alias (2001 - 2006) and The Prisoner (1967 - 1968) -- discussing how each employs strategies of visual representation to present its protagonist as decentered or unfixed; in so doing, these programs complicate and problematize within their narratives the terms by which "subject" and "agency" have been traditionally understood and represented to popular TV audiences. This problematizing in turn opens up possibilities for detecting new modes of subject formation. This paper argues that television, communication tool and historical and cultural artifact, must be regarded equally as a visual medium. In fact, the TV image brings the enacted identity theorized by Judith Butler into direct contact with Henri Bergson's formulations of memory and image, creating characters and spaces within TV stories that vividly illustrate the limitations to and potentials for creativity within the domains of action and identity. In addition to Butler and Bergson, this paper turns additionally to Gilles Deleuze for an understanding of cinematic image and time, and to the concept of masquerade developed within feminist theory. In The Prisoner, a modern hero must make sense of a landscape of discontinuities and repetitions that challenge his ability to act, react, move, and escape. In Alias, a postmodern heroine must master the art of changing selves in order to move across spaces that, like her own identity, are conditional and are never what they initially appear. (cont.) In both series, the television image, freed from an obligation to represent only one thing while ruling out others and made multiple by the TV episode format, assumes a resonance over its duration that creates the conditions for the depiction of fluid and changeable spaces and characters. In both cases, the TV image repeated enables a paradigm shift where the depiction of a decentered protagonist, once exceptional, now becomes a normative subject on television. KEYWORDS: Alias -- Bergson -- Butler -- decentered subject -- Deleuze -- feminism identity -- image -- Jennifer Garner -- Patrick McGoohan -- The Prisoner -- spy shows -- television -- visual theory by Lisa Marie Bidlingmeyer. S.M. 2008-04-23T14:35:01Z 2008-04-23T14:35:01Z 2007 2007 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41244 213330576 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 107 leaves application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Comparative Media Studies. Bidlingmeyer, Lisa Marie Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series |
| title | Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series |
| title_full | Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series |
| title_fullStr | Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series |
| title_full_unstemmed | Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series |
| title_short | Agent + Image : how the television image estabilizes identity in TV spy series |
| title_sort | agent image how the television image estabilizes identity in tv spy series |
| topic | Comparative Media Studies. |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41244 |
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