COMP 1B: Spectatorship terminology Flashcards
Active Spectatorship
Active spectatorship refers to the engagement of the audience in interpreting and making meaning from a film, rather than passively absorbing content. Viewers actively analyze characters, themes, and narratives, bringing their own experiences and perspectives into their interpretation1
Passive Spectatorship
Passive spectatorship involves the audience consuming a film without critical engagement or deeper reflection. Viewers accept the film’s content at face value, without questioning or analysing its underlying themes or messages.
Alignment
Alignment in film spectatorship refers to the process by which a film aligns the audience’s perspective with that of a particular character or narrative viewpoint. This is often achieved through techniques like point-of-view shots, narrative focus, and emotional cues.
Allegiance
Allegiance involves the moral and emotional investment of the audience in a character. It is the process by which viewers come to support or sympathise with a character based on their actions, motivations, and the film’s portrayal of them.
Identification
Identification is the psychological process by which viewers relate to or see themselves in a character. This can involve empathizing with the character’s experiences, emotions, and perspectives, often facilitated by cinematic techniques like close-ups and subjective camera angles
Recognition
Recognition in film spectatorship refers to the audience’s ability to identify and understand characters, settings, and narrative elements. It involves acknowledging familiar tropes, genres, or character types within the film
Focaliser/Focalisation
Focalisation refers to the perspective through which a narrative is presented. The focaliser is the character or entity through whose eyes the story is told, influencing how the audience perceives events and characters.
Preferred Reading
Preferred reading is the interpretation of a film that aligns with the intended meaning or message as encoded by the filmmakers.
Negotiated Reading
Negotiated reading occurs when viewers accept some aspects of the film’s intended message but modify others based on their own experiences and beliefs. This involves a mix of acceptance and resistance to the film’s main messages.
Oppositional Reading
Oppositional reading involves viewers completely rejecting the preferred reading of a film. Instead, they interpret the film in a way that contradicts the intended message, often from a critical or resistant perspective.
Aberrant Reading
Aberrant reading is an interpretation of a film that deviates significantly from the intended or dominant readings. This can occur due to cultural differences, personal experiences, or unique perspectives that lead to unconventional understandings of the film.
‘Occult’ Symbolism
Occult symbolism in film refers to the use of symbols, imagery, and themes associated with the occult, mysticism, or esoteric traditions. These symbols often carry hidden or deeper meanings that contribute to the film’s narrative and thematic complexity.
Post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a theoretical approach that challenges the idea of fixed meanings and structures in texts, including films. It emphasizes the fluidity of meaning, the role of the viewer in interpretation, and the instability of language and symbols. In other words, we all get different readings of films.
Limited Pluralism
Limited pluralism in film spectatorship refers to the idea that while there are multiple ways to interpret a film, these interpretations are still constrained by dominant cultural and ideological frameworks. It acknowledges diversity in readings but within certain limits.
