英语论文网

000, pg.3). In this introductory chapter to his book Caughie also talks about how we stereotype genders to certain television dramas, for example women are more associated with soap operas whereas men are seen as more likely to watch action dramas. Then, because of this we then slip into what he calls a “natural order”.

To put Ellis' theory about how there is no one ‘realism' into context I am going to be looking at and analysing the television drama that is Desperate Housewives (fig.1). I will be talking about what the drama is about, where it is set and the characters in it. As well as this I will be exploring how this supports the opinion of Ellis that this drama will only be representative of one type of realism and portray one aspect of live. Desperate Housewives is a drama made mainly for the purpose of entertaining its target audience. It is based around four main female characters, and narrated by a woman who used to be in their circle of friends but committed suicide in the first episode. The programme follows these women through their lives and the challenges and traumas that they face in the weekly episodes. Like a soap opera the events that take place are usually the type of situations that people are confronted with in every day live. However, the frequency of the events is exaggerated immensely in order to make the programme more appealing and entertaining to its audience. This means that Desperate Housewives both does and does not display realism, because the events and the way they and handled are realistic, yet the regularity at which they are occurring are not realistic for a setting such as the one in which this drama is situated. This location of this programme is another aspect to consider in terms of realism. By this I mean that Desperate Housewives is set in a quiet col-de-sac called Wisteria Lane (fig.2) in the fictional town of Fairview. This is another issue that could be deemed realistic or not because the town itself is not a real place, but it is realistic in the sense that it is representative of suburban towns and streets in America. Looking at even these view issues we can begin to unravel what Ellis means when he says that there can be no one definition of what realism is. This is because even in this one television drama there are many different areas that we have to look when considering if it is realistic. We cannot declare that the programme is realistic as a whole when some areas may lack in realism. In certain ways Desperate Housewives does relate to some aspects of the ‘Classic Realist Text'. I mean this is the sense that it will quite often use ‘dominant specularity', where we as the viewer know more than the main characters. This will happen in the majority, if not all of the episodes because even though the main characters are a group of women who are best friends, they still have many secrets from each other. As the audience we are aware of everything that happens on Wisteria Lane, whereas if there is a scandalous event occurring that involves one of these women no one else will be conscious of it. Desperate Housewives also deals with some of the issues raised within ‘Social Realism', but not in the sense that it deals with working class characters because the families are very middles class. However, in the way that it deals with contemporary issues such as homosexuality, suicide and racial issues.

I also decided to examine Ellis' theory in relation to a differen