Session 3:

Politics and discourse

MA RSP
Session outline
1. Discourse
2. Case study: pre- and post-9/11 discourses
3. Discussion: Cloverfield and Four Lions
1. Discourse
● Discourse is a broad term referring to the way ideas are presented and
circulated in society
● This includes adverts, magazines, TV shows, films, art, and other platforms
● All of these things are ‘texts’
● Texts are what construct a discourse
Analysing discourses
● The way we think about the world is filtered through discourses
● As practitioners, it is important for us to think about the way that all of these
texts contribute to our perspective of the world
Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
Foucault and discourse
● Demands that we see every cultural production, or ‘text’, as political
● What is being represented here as truth or as norm?
● How is this constructed? What ‘evidence’ is used? What is left out?
● What is normal and what is seen as marginal or obscene? Something that
must be rejected?
● Discourse is a culturally constructed representation of reality, not an exact
copy
‘What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it
doesn't only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that it traverses and
produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It
needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole
social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression.’

- Power/Knowledge, 118-9
Discourse: summary
● Enables us to think about the meaning of a text (film) in relation to other
elements of culture(s)
● It considers wider social, political and linguistic conditions in which the topic is
situated
● The analysis of a discourse in screen studies addresses not only the basic
level of what is seen or written about on screen, but also the surrounding
socio-historical contexts in which the film exists
2. Case study
Pre- and post-9/11 discourses: representations of
terrorism
Pre-9/11 representations of terrorism
Question
● How are the three main characters in this scene presented? Define their key
characteristics.
● What types of discourse might affect the way we understand these
characters?
Die Hard
Die Hard (1988) – European terrorists

● Reaction of conservative America to ‘effeminate’ Europeans.

● In Die Hard ‘This ambiguity and mistrust of “class” is exemplified in the current
debates in Congress about the importance of the arts to 'average' Americans
and the demonization of the so-called 'cultural elite' in the 1992 presidential
election.’

— Robynn Stilwell
Post-9/11 representations of terrorism
Post-9/11 representations of terrorism
• E.g. 24, Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker, The Kingdom, United 93, Green
Zone

• Consider: what are the current, socially determined implications of the word
‘terrorist’?
● Before September 11, 2001 white protagonists were the dominant terrorist
ethnicity in Hollywood movies (63.8% versus 36.2% non whites)
● After 2001 non white terrorists in Hollywood spiked to 77.8% and white
terrorists became 22.2%
How do I research a discourse?
● The researcher might look at the representation of Muslims on screen over a
given period
● Include news, film, television, etc.
● Consider the relationship between how these texts reflect the social world and
how they construct the social world
Why is it important to practitioners?
● Awareness of audience
● Understanding cultural weight of signifiers
● Ability to engage with other discourses: political, artistic, social, etc.
Coffee break
3. Discussion
Post-9/11 discourse: Cloverfield (2008) and Four Lions (2010)
Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
Cloverfield follows five New Yorkers from the perspective of a hand-held video
camera. The movie is exactly the length of a DV Tape and a sub-plot is
established by showing bits and pieces of video previously recorded on the tape
that is being recorded over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin
destroys a building. As they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of
the Statue of Liberty come raining down. The movie follows their adventure trying
to escape and save a friend, a love interest of the main character.

— Pip Carlson, IMDb

Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2010)
Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract
dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing
ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible)
farce. In a storm of razor-sharp verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four
Lions is a comic tour de force; it shows that-while terrorism is about ideology – it
can also be about idiots.

— Sundance festival review

Questions for discussion
● What does the film style remind you of? What is it referring to?
○ Dialogue
○ Framing
○ Camera height and movement
○ Symbolism
○ Lighting
○ Mise-en-scène
○ Genre: realism?
● How does the film reflect upon and contribute to post-9/11 discourse?