A Lecture on Realism

Top Boy : Cultural Verisimilitude and the Allure of Black Criminality for UK Public Service Broadcasting Drama

“…Such films were defined by Kobena Mercer (1994: 239) as dialogical, in that they offered a counterhegemonic response to racist stereotypes, engaging with the lived politics of racism and representation in a way that produced a 'critical dialogue'. Many of the issues addressed by early Channel 4 with regard to black television production -the ontology of multiculturalism, the question of television as social practice, and issues of narrative choice and authorship -fed into ideas being explored by scholars and cultural theorists of the time, in particular questions of televisual representation and television's socio-cultural significance as a form of expression (Fiske 1987;Williams 1977).…”

Resistance through realism: Youth subculture films in 1970s (and 1980s) Britain

“…Social realist films are guided by the reforming, if not revolutionary spirit of their writers and filmmakers in their attempts to show life as it really is. This is why Raymond Williams (1977) famously argued that social realist dramas extend dramatic narrative to the hitherto ignored working-class in order to interpret that class’ social action for a wider audience and for itself. Another aspect of realism is aesthetic, with Higson (1984) arguing that the New Wave films made use of the tension between the drabness of the films’ settings and those settings’ aesthetic and poetic qualities.…”

“…Another aspect of realism is aesthetic, with Higson (1984) arguing that the New Wave films made use of the tension between the drabness of the films’ settings and those settings’ aesthetic and poetic qualities. Realist drama creates an air of authenticity by having real-life situations reproduced in the real-life accents and modes of speech of the people that the films portray (Williams, 1977). The notion of realism was problematised during the 1970s in the radical film journal Screen (Leach, 2004; Turner, 2002), particularly by Colin MacCabe (1985).…”

“…The sort of financial pressure experienced by Tony here is described by Willis in Learning to Labour : The pressure to go out at night, to go to a commercial dance rather than a youth club, to go to pubs rather than stop in, to buy modern clothes, smoke, and take girls out – all these things which were felt to constitute ‘what life is really about’ – put enormous financial pressure on ‘the lads’. (1977: 39)…”

Richard Hooker, l’hérésie papiste et un protestantisme anglais de la continuité

“…Or, celles-ci ont une histoire, histoire de corruptions sans doute, le plus souvent, mais qui n'empêchent pas Dieu d'y opérer le salut.Comme le suggère Rowan Williams, Hooker affirme quelque chose qui détonne peutêtre avec le discours protestant habituel, mais qui est néanmoins ancré dans les principes les plus fondamentaux de la Réforme, à savoir la priorité de l'action de Dieu sur celle des hommes dans l'économie du salut. La manière dont celui-ci s'opère dans le concret de la vie de l'Église est quelque peu brouillonne, et c'est la raison pour laquelle Hooker est en mesure de voir plus de continuité entre l'Église médiévale et l'Église élisabéthaine que d'autres théologiens réformés29 . Il demeure, ce faisant, dans une conversation constructive avec l'orthodoxie protestante : il en élargit peut-être les termes, mais il n'en sort pas véritablement.Conclusion22 C'est une Réforme dans la continuité historique contre une Réforme de la rupture que défend Hooker dans le cadre d'une théologie qui ne doit rien au Concile de Trente.…”