Emotions in Contemporary TV Series

Alberto N. Garcφa

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781137568847
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137568854
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Art General

                                  

Part I

Theoretical and General Approach

1

Emotional Culture and TV Narratives

Alejandro García Martínez and Ana Marta González

1 Introduction¹

The fact that emotions unveil our values as well as our position in the larger social structure makes them an important source of self-knowledge and also knowledge about the world. By producing emotional reactions, fiction may become a privileged site of self-knowledge, both for the artist and for the public, although in different ways. While fiction cannot be taken as a faithful representation of factual reality, it does register emotional reactions to the facts as they are actually conveyed. From this perspective, the kind of fiction created in a given society constitutes relevant material for the sociology of culture.

In this chapter, we propose an overview of some of the sociocultural developments that have resulted in what we call the ‘emotional culture’ of contemporary societies. Through the description of this set of cultural meanings and operational codes by which people manage, deploy and understand their emotions and actions, we will show the significant role the media plays in shaping this particular emotional regime.

Against this background, the present chapter analyses why TV series have become so pervasive and successful in this emotional culture. In doing so, we will first describe the ‘dialogical and relational’ production and reception of TV series; we will then link the characteristics of our sociocultural regime to the specific narrative that TV series carry out. Finally, we will conclude by stating that the complex and highly developed environment that the TV series format creates is especially fruitful for exploring our ‘true’ self through emotions – primary embodied judgments – suggesting that these types of narratives inspire emotion and reflection.

2 An overview of ‘emotional culture’

In contrast with previous eras in which the emotional dimension of human beings was less emphasised than today, contemporary societies are marked by the overall presence of what can be called an emotional culture. Emotions are actively present in all spheres of human and social life, including almost every academic field (Ekman; Lazarus; Damasio; Dixon).

The reduced presence of emotional aspects in scientific research during most of the twentieth century can be explained in part by the undisputed dominance that the rationalist and utilitarian paradigm has had for decades. In these paradigms, the contrast between rationality and emotionality was matched by a lack of interest in the latter dimension. However, we have recently witnessed an ‘emotional turn’ in most scientific disciplines, as they now consider emotional aspects to be fundamental, or, at the very least, relevant to their research. This recovery of emotions corresponds to a wider emotional style that pervades contemporary culture and can be described as ‘emotional culture’. By ‘emotional culture’ we mean the set of cultural meanings and operational codes (or ‘techniques’) by which people manage, deploy and understand their own emotions and actions.

The sociocultural changes that are the foundation of this emotional turn and pervade the ‘emotional culture’ in which we live are varied and complex. In terms of social structure, processes of increasing individualization in modern societies and an intensifying trend toward social differentiation (Elias; Sennett; Bauman) in cultural codes are strongly influenced by romantic thought. In Romanticism, a person’s self-knowledge and identity are made to largely depend on the very expression of his/her individuality. This ‘expressivist’ concept of identity coexists with an aspiration toward recognising the authentic self; Taylor has characterised it as the ideal of authenticity that defines contemporary Western culture.

Thus, compared to past eras in which identity – both collective and individual – was taken for granted, the processes of modernization and social differentiation have problematized identity and has transformed the pursuit of authentic personal identity into a personal task. In this sociocultural situation, a growing psychologization of personal experience progressively opened up throughout the twentieth century (Flamarique), which has consolidated as a result of cultural diffusion generated by mass media, including film and television. All these converging processes eventually resulted in a cultural ethos characterised by the prevalence of emotions not only in the public sphere, but also in self-understanding and in the expression of personal identity.

Illouz has likely been the sociologist who has most directed her efforts to explaining how, through mass media, a specific ‘emotional style’ spreads and consolidates. This style manifests in a wide variety of forms and cultural content that express an intense ‘concern’ for certain emotions. This peculiar cultural style includes specific linguistic, scientific, narrative and ritual techniques for understanding, managing and coping with emotive elements (Illouz, Saving the Modern Soul). In this regard, one of the pillars on which this new cultural style has been built includes the permeation and translation of the emotional discourse from psychology to a multitude of social spheres, eventually merging into popular culture through the media.

The spread of emotional and therapeutic resources has managed to permeate very different social contexts. Even in the economic sphere, which is supposedly governed by rational and utilitarian criteria, we can identify a transformation both in the performance of professional roles and in business management and leadership procedures: in recent years, emotional aspects identified as ‘work environment’, motivation and job satisfaction have been management’s touchstone for reflection (Kunda). The proliferation of semi-popular books in recent decades that propose a psychologised version of how to be a leader or have business success is another telling sign of the centrality of emotions and the therapeutic perspective (Booth; Furedi). In addition, an emotional style is predominant in intimate relationships: sexual, friendship and family relationships have also been redirected according to an emotional therapeutic paradigm.

In short, an appeal to the emotions and this contemporary emotional style’s set of ‘cultural resources’ constitute a privileged way by which people define both themselves and their relationships with others, and by which they establish strategies for achieving various personal and social ends. Indeed, the cultural prevalence of emotions and their management ultimately constitute what has become known as the ‘emotional style’ of our present culture. Additionally, the importance of emotions in the present cultural context has called for epistemological changes in almost every discipline.

3 The importance of emotions for cultural analysis

With some notable, though very minor, exceptions (Weber; Elias), emotions have been relegated to the background of the sociological perspective for much of modernity; in part this is because of the undisputed, decades-long dominance of the rationalist and utilitarian paradigm, in which affective aspects were labelled as irrational. In the social sciences, the recent incorporation of emotions in sociocultural analysis has been accomplished on three levels (Bericat): first, through sociological analysis of emotion, for example, in Kemper’s work (‘Towards Sociology’; Research Agendas); second, with the growing presence of emotions in social studies, for example, in the work developed by Hochschild (‘Emotion Work’; The Managed Heart); and finally through the revision of the central categories of sociological theory starting with the rediscovery of emotions (Scheff, Microsociology; Scheff, Emotions).

In all other academic disciplines, the approach to the study of emotions has been mixed. In fact, there is still no clear consensus on the very concept of ‘emotion’ and, depending on the area of knowledge, they are treated differently. It is possible, however, to propose a characterization that more or less converges on most interdisciplinary approaches: the emotions include both cultural and cognitive aspects, such as evaluative elements and physiological changes, and, ultimately, they generate practical dispositions (González, ‘Naturaleza y elementos’). Precisely for this reason, they are a particularly revealing anchor of the two instances that allow for social analysis: social structure and the system of individual motivations. The emotions establish a connection between these two elements, which acts as a nuanced meeting point for the various disciplines that study them. For example, studies in clinical psychology reveal that an emotion can be based on a situation or experience, or on a thought or image; in addition, it can be experienced with a feeling of pleasure or displeasure (affective valence) that also involves physiological and behavioural manifestations (Remplein). Interestingly, this medical approach converges with the characterization offered by the sociology of emotions, which has experienced significant development over the last three decades with relevant works by authors such as Hochschild, Scheff and Kemper. In addition, from a historical perspective, authors such as Stearns have also extensively explored the relationship between social change and emotions.

At any rate, the delimitation of the emotions that these sociological and historical analysis perspectives propose is not monolithic; rather, they have strong points of convergence with other disciplines. For example, Elster indicates that emotions rely on cognitive antecedents, induce physiological changes, are accompanied by pleasure or pain, and are directed toward an intentional object; consequently, they involve operative trends toward performing certain actions (299 et seq.). Meanwhile, Solomon claims that emotions are ‘similar to beliefs’ since ‘the emotions are judgments, normative judgments and often moral judgments’ (328). In the same line of thought, Martha Nussbaum concludes that emotions are ‘evaluative judgements’. From a philosophical perspective, the evaluation or judgment that emotion contains, as well as its dispositional character, has been reemphasised (Kenny; Roberts).

Given the above, it could be argued that emotions include an affective valence or sentiment (of pleasure or displeasure), which is often accompanied by physiological manifestations, plus a cognitive and evaluative dimension, which incorporate elements from social structures and our relationships, and often contribute to the crystallization of our concrete operative dispositions.

The last element of this characterization is especially relevant here, as it points to the dispositional and operational counterpart (motivation toward action) that the emotions contain. In fact, a large part of the reflection that originates in the sociology of emotions has highlighted the cognitive-evaluative aspects of emotions, including both their tendency toward, and promotion of, practical action (Rodríguez Salazar). Consequently, the concept of emotion simultaneously presents a capacity to trigger action and, in turn is defined, at least partially, by conditioning social structures (Ortony and Turner).

By keeping in mind that enculturation and the internalization of social structures into our personalities is not a merely passive process (Shore; Archer, Structure, Agency), and that cultural content has a certain margin of interpretation and personal experience (Spiro; Swindler; Sassatelli), we find that the cognitive, cultural and evaluative components that include emotions are interesting connectors between structure, culture, individual predisposition and agency. Precisely because of this, they possess a heuristic capacity that is highly relevant for the analysis of contemporary societies and cultural products, including TV series.

Indeed, TV series, like other cultural products, include both cognitions and perceptions as more stable assessments or judgments; they rouse emotions and are constructed from them. There are close, reciprocal and multidirectional relationships between all these elements: environmental conditions and sentiments related to our physical individuality shape our perception of reality; our judgments and reflective assessments can also have an influence on our feelings or physical affectations. The relationships and social influences in which we are immersed help us to evaluate things according to a particular perspective. The moral principles that we assume as true mediate our way of perceiving reality and relating to other human beings in specific social settings.

4 Cultural analysis through emotions in TV narratives

Behind the spontaneity of many emotional reactions, it is possible to detect culture’s hidden and silent work. Adults react to things that leave children unaffected simply because children lack the knowledge and memories that adults project upon any given situation. This simple observation justifies reflection on the cultural construction of emotions: there are many fearful things, but some of them – such as the fear of an economic depression – are only recognised by those familiar with certain experiences.

While emotions unveil, in a rather spontaneous way, the features of reality that we especially value and care about (Frankfurt), a proper understanding of those meaningful reactions often requires committed sociocultural analysis. Indeed, emotion hints at value, however, value is culturally framed. Accordingly, speaking of the cultural production of emotions amounts to speaking of the different ways in which values are effectively conveyed to us.

The fact that emotions unveil our values, as well as our position in the social structure, makes them important sources of self-knowledge and knowledge about the world. For this reason, too, art represents a particularly insightful way of understanding our changing emotional cultures: to the extent that art manages to convey messages in emotionally moving ways, an understanding of how art works – how it frames things so that it touches our hearts – represents a privileged way to understand the cultural production of emotions. This is especially true of fiction; because of its ability to elicit emotional reactions, fiction is capable of being a special site of self-knowledge, both for the artist and for the public.

The kind of fiction produced and consumed in a given society constitutes an exceptionally pertinent object for the sociology of culture, which chooses emotions as the prism for analysing its object. Tell me which stories most incite a reaction and I will tell you what you love and fear most, I will tell you who you are, or long, or fear to be. In this regard, over the last few years, TV fiction has provided us with a particularly fertile and promising ground for assessing our primary concerns; as is always the case, comparison with other eras helps us to recognise the changes our culture has experienced.

4.1 From the poetic and aesthetic approach to the critical approach

It is possible, for the purposes of the present argument, to distinguish two main approaches to artistic activity: the first approach is more poetic or aesthetic and the second has a more critical focus.

The aesthetic approach seeks to stress the poetic conditions needed to create the work of art. According to Aristotle, art imitates nature, which is not meant to deny creativity, but rather to stress it. Indeed, art imitates nature because it plays with a number of elements in order to create ideal worlds that resemble the original one; these elements incorporate a meaningful structure, even if they intend to convey an absence of meaning.

Aristotle observes that we humans are inclined to imitate and enjoy imitations, even of things that we dislike in real life. He attributes this fact to the pleasure we take in recognising things. To the extent that fiction imitates the structure of human life, we take pleasure in fiction; part of this cognitive pleasure is conveyed to us through the emotions that fiction elicits. The emotions are embodied carriers of knowledge, which result in self-knowledge, in knowledge of our bonds with the world, of what we love and what we fear. Through this knowledge, we come to recognise both our vulnerabilities and our strengths, which may have a cathartic effect on us. Thus, speaking of tragedy, Aristotle notes that through pity and fear, tragedy effects the purification of those emotions (see Aristotle 1449 b 4–28).

Thus, in his book, Poetics, Aristotle argues that art imitates character, emotion, and actions (1447 a28), that is, human agents (1448 a1 ss). From this perspective, the stuff of poetics is nothing more, and nothing less, than human life: for life is made up of actions (1450 a15 ss). In fact, speaking of tragedy, Aristotle says that its purpose is not so much to imitate characters, but rather to represent action since characters are somehow defined through their actions: ‘Tragedy is representation of action, and it is chiefly for the sake of action that it represents people in action’ (1450 b 3–4).

Accordingly, the most important aspect of fiction is the composition of action; it defines characters, which, in turn, are different from the opinions they convey. Depending on the way action is composed, the artist can make characters look better or worse than they are; the artist can do this in different ways, either by narrating stories or by introducing acting characters.

The fact that the artist can represent actions and characters in different ways is a reminder of the difference between art and nature. Indeed, by the very fact that art imitates nature, it is clear that it is not the same as nature. Thus, the standards we use to evaluate nature are different from the ones we use to evaluate the representation of nature. While good art resembles nature, they are not identical. Kant was very clear on this point when he stressed that beautiful art shows its excellence when things that are considered ugly in real life are judged beautiful in their representation (Kant 312). Only things that provoke disgust do not admit such aesthetic representation precisely because the very immediacy of that sensation precludes the necessary distance, which is a condition for art to retain its cognitive power.

A feature of good art is that it makes things look natural without hin-dering a judgment about its purpose. Yet, behind that naturalness, there is plenty of artifice. Thus, while it is true that art ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Notes on the Contributors
• Introduction
• Part I: Theoretical and General Approach
• Part II: Collective Identities and Emotions
• Part III: Genre and Emotions
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index