«Безумцы» и условность социальных норм

Логос. 2013. Т. 3. С. 118–138.

Khitrov A.

In this paper, I propose a hypothesis about possible audience responses to the Matthew Weiner’s TV show Mad Men. In particular, I focus on several types of visual pleasure and model two readings of the show, a progressionist one and a critical one. The progressionist reading consists in regarding Mad Men as a source of criticism of certain social norms specific to the American society of the 60s and overcome by the 2000s. The critical reading sees in the show attacks on both norms of the 60s and of the 2000s. I verify this hypothesis through the close reading of several scenes that touch upon issues of gender, class, and environment.

In this paper, I propose a theoretical model of the audience reaction on the Matthew Weiner’s TV show Mad Men. It specifies four kinds of visual pleasure and offers two testable implications. First, under progressivism approach the viewer takes the show as a source of criticism of certain social norms specific to the American society of the 60s overcome by the 2000s. Second, under critical approach the viewer interprets the show as the attack on both norms of the 60s and of the 2000s. I test these approaches by analyzing a number of scenes that involve issues of gender, class, and environment. I find that the second approach is more plausible because both the filmmaker and the viewer belongs to the same epoch.

Keywords: экология, гендер, gender, TV, ТВ, social norms, социальные нормы, ecology, melodrama, мелодрама, class, класс, телесериал, сериалы, mad men, matthew weiner, безумцы, мэтью вайнер, социальное конструирование, TV show, social constructionism