Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal for Cultural Research on 26/06/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14797585.2017.1343027
Accepted author manuscript, 373 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Life is a state of Mind' - Fiction, Society and Trump
AU - Diken, Bulent
AU - Laustsen, Carsten B.
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal for Cultural Research on 26/06/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14797585.2017.1343027
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The article undertakes an allegorical double reading of Being There and Trump as instances of what we call socio-fiction. Crucially in this respect, reality and fiction are not two opposed realms. The two realms always interact in subtle ways, which is why cinema can be a resource for diagnostic social analysis. We first articulate a general commentary on the relationship between cinema and society, introducing the concept of ‘socio-fiction’. Secondly, we analyse Peter Sellers’ Being There, an interesting film focused on the relationship between reality and fiction. In this analysis, we elaborate on different ways of approaching fiction in a sociological prism. And finally, we discuss Trump as a fallout effect of Being There. After all, a film is not just an image of a reality, a shadow or appearance of a social fact; sometimes the reality itself seems to have become an appearance of an appearance, a shadow of a shadow.
AB - The article undertakes an allegorical double reading of Being There and Trump as instances of what we call socio-fiction. Crucially in this respect, reality and fiction are not two opposed realms. The two realms always interact in subtle ways, which is why cinema can be a resource for diagnostic social analysis. We first articulate a general commentary on the relationship between cinema and society, introducing the concept of ‘socio-fiction’. Secondly, we analyse Peter Sellers’ Being There, an interesting film focused on the relationship between reality and fiction. In this analysis, we elaborate on different ways of approaching fiction in a sociological prism. And finally, we discuss Trump as a fallout effect of Being There. After all, a film is not just an image of a reality, a shadow or appearance of a social fact; sometimes the reality itself seems to have become an appearance of an appearance, a shadow of a shadow.
KW - Cinema
KW - Being There
KW - Trump
KW - fiction
KW - populism
KW - cynicism
U2 - 10.1080/14797585.2017.1343027
DO - 10.1080/14797585.2017.1343027
M3 - Journal article
VL - 21
SP - 257
EP - 267
JO - Journal for Cultural Research
JF - Journal for Cultural Research
SN - 1479-7585
IS - 3
ER -