3. What is representation?
Representation is about understanding the choices that are made
when it comes to portraying something or someone in a mass media
text. Certain features of personality and appearance get highlighted,
and are often enhanced, when it comes to constructing the
representation.
When representing a person, media texts often focus on their:
Age
Gender
Race/Ethnicity
Financial Status
Job
Culture/nationality
5. Find as many things as possible that
connote and denote the horror genre.
6.
7.
8. Write down 10 things
that are associated with
the horror genre
9. Representation Theory
The term refers to the processes involved as well
as to its products. For instance, in relation to the
key markers of identity- Class, Age, Gender and
Ethnicity. Representation involves not only how
identities are represented within the text but also
how they are constructed in the processes of
production and reception
10. Representation Theorists
Gill Branston and Roy Stafford state that there are
characteristics to representation such as:
A categorising and evaluation of the group being
stereotyped. Emphasise on specific features
which are easily recognised by the audience for
them to draw the conclusion of the represented
group. The evaluation is often but not always a
negative one.
11. Representation Theorists
Representation can be linked to horror films such
as the representation of genre. This is because
women are represented as vulnerable and an
easy target within horror films. However the
horror genre also allows this stereotypical view
of women to be challenged, because as the
story progresses we can see how the woman
can become stronger and overcome the villain.
Laura Mulvey, gaze and feminist, is a
representation theorist. Her theory is that she
believes that in film, audiences have to view
characters from the perspective of heterosexual
male.
12. Activity
Do you know any horror films that are linked
to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory?
