This morning we are delighted to welcome 2 presenters and an in absentia replay of a famous paper. First up we have Abi Pattenden with “Seeming, seeming: ‘Othello’, The Archers, and Rob Titchenor. Picking up the theme of intertextuality developed in the Jarman and Baker paper last week where Freya warned us that extended work comparing Rob Tichenor to TJ Mackie of Magnolia would be another “mostly mad” enterprise (game on Freya!!) we have seen over the years some wonderful papers which arise from cultural and literary references far beyond Borsetshire.
Finding reference points and developing this comparison requires familiarity with both TA and other source material. So for these purposes TA becomes a text which then encounters another text, hence intertextuality. The term rose to prominence in the 90s as the condition of postmodernity led to cultural loops and remixes as norm;
Julia Kristeva’s definition, in her essay “Word, Dialogue and Novel,” reads: intertextuality is “a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another. The notion of intertextuality replaces that of intersubjectivity, and poetic language is read as at least double” (Kristeva 85, cited in Moi 37)
As for example the film work of Quentin Tarantino is viewed as intensely intertextual as the references to; blaxploitation, spaghetti westerns, epic cinema and videogaming telegraph immersion and sophistication to those familiar with those sub=genres. A feature of an intertextual approach is the use of jump/cut. With Playfulness as regards references. The approach encourages collapsing of the distinction between high and mass culture…. So boy do we have a jump cut for you this morning…
@Abi Pattenden used to tweet as @muchadoaboutambridge as she saw Shakespearean references threaded through the life of the village. This is another paper from the deep back catalogue presented at Finsbury Square in the first year and Abi has followed up in subsequent years with papers on death and in reading virtually on the Funeral of Joe Grundy. This vein of interest is because IRL Abi is a funeral director and the most recent past president of the national association of funeral directors. This work, particularly in this moment is intense and emotional (just like abi) she has been explaining some fo the challenges on her twitter account. Abi has an emotional support stuffed animal called piglet who travels with her (fun fact, so does reader in music dr freya jarman… a mouse) the meeting of these avtars at the Lincoln conference was one of those academic archers moments which truly makes you think about your life choices.
The paper is in the first book The Archers in Fact and Fiction: Academic Analyses of Life in Rural Borsetshire, which was published by Peter Lang in 2016
Available in all good bookshops.
Remember the high/mass jump cut… Before he had even presented the paper at this year’s AA we had awarded Gary Gilday with a prize. A retro stopwatch for the “”we’ve been waiting for you” category. ” I think maybe Gary was surprised by the lovebombing he received at Reading as he firmly buddied up with kindred spirits. His first conference we hope will not be his last.
With a 30 year run under its belt The Simpsons is, like the Archers so familiar as to be part of the wallpaper – it is the longest running scripted drama in the US much as TA is the longest running here. The Simpsons appealing brand of liberal subversion (and position on the Fox network) in preparation I watched an episode this morning about Homer trying not to expose Bart to gay men and was laughing out loud! “modern culture has a distinctly swishifying effect on boys and men” Clearly AA has a similarly swishifying effect although heterosexuals are tolerated. We have had a series of papers over the years on Queer Ambridge, from Karen Pollock “Queering Shula” to how TA reflects heteronormativity by Bill Patten. Anyway I digress.
Gary curates the inherited the archers blog https://archersfan.blogspot.com/
and has recently received content from Timothy Bentick and Susie Riddell regarding the hiatus and when Coronavirus will come to the village. All this has been helpfully shared with us on our facebook page to thanks for sharing Gary. This paper, which serves to underscore that small communities, whether Ambridge or Springfield share many (many) common features… The Archers Vs The Simpsons: What would happen when two very similar worlds collide?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo77rNjhEuc