The Good, the Bad or the Ideal and ‘the Other':

Faheem Abrahams

204021480

LMC410-semiotics and film

1st October 2007

Lecturer: Wozniak. J

The Good, The Bad or The Ideal and ‘The Other’:

An essay on Hollywood cinema and its representations of Western or American social ideologies as mainstream culture while portraying the abject ‘other’ as deviant or evil.

I promise that all the work in this review is my own and I know all about the laws surrounding plagiarism and promise that I did not plagiarise.

Signed.

“Since ancient times, people have been intrigued by the seductive powers of story-telling. In The Poetics, Aristotle distinguished between two types of fictional narratives: mimesis (showing) and diegesis (telling). Mimesis is the province of the live theatre, where the events “tell themselves.” Diegisis, the province of the literary epic and the novel, is a story told by a narrator who is sometimes reliable, sometimes not. Cinema combines both forms of storytelling and hence is a more complex medium, with a wider range of narrative techniques at its disposal.” (Giannetti: pg 350: 2005)

As a result, the question comes to mind: ‘just how far do these seductive powers resonate in the viewer and to what extent does it influence the viewers’ perceptions in society?’ Furthermore: ‘how do these powers influence the viewer and where or how do they achieve this?’

Since it is safe to say that, “it cannot be denied that, due to its popularity […] mainstream Hollywood film does have an influence on contemporary opinion, ranging in scope from fashion to gender roles, democracy, justice and religion” ( Jordaan: pg118: 2004), in the following essay