Role of Television in Consumer Society, Night Train and About a Boy

Year 2017, Volume: 41 Issue: 2, 189 - 204, 26.12.2017

Halil İbrahim Arpa

Abstract

Since the
Frankfurt School, essential points of cultural studies have changed rapidly up
to zeitgeist. While cinema and radio were primary concerns of those studies for
their early stages, television and internet have replaced them in our
postmodern world. However, academic researches for cultural effects of internet
are still fresh; television has been subjected even to criminology after
Birmingham School. This study examines relation between television and ideology
in respect of their effects for fictional characters of Martin Amis’s Night Train (1997) and Nick Hornby’s About a Boy (1998). When Amis’s Mark and
Jennifer realizes author’s dystopic world, they evaluate suicide as a foremost
option. On the other hand, Hornby’s cosmos is clearly more open to utopian
dreams but there is still suicide in his world. Within consumer society and
popular culture all the characters of the novels live, society is more prone to
suicide and crimes for Strain theories. As consumerism and culture ideology’s
most crucial ‘apparatus’, television triggers various negative attitudes
leading to eventual peak, suicide, just like the study shows in lives of the
novels’ characters.

Keywords

Consumer society, popular culture, television, strain theories

Tüketim Toplumunda Televizyonun Rolü, Gece Yarısı Treni ve Bir Erkek Hakkında

Abstract

Frankfurt Okulun’dan bu yana kültürel çalışmaların ana unsurları zamanın
ruhuna göre hızla değişmiştir. Erken dönemde sinema ve radio bu çalışmaların
temelindeyken, post-modern dünyada televizyon ve internet bunların yerini
almıştır. İnternetin kültürel etkileri üzerine akademik çalışmalar hala çok
taze olsa da; Birmingham Okulun’dan sonra televizyon kriminolojiye bile konu
olmuştur. Bu çalışma, televizyon ve ideoloji arasındaki ilişkiyi Martin Amis’
in Gece Yarısı Treni (1997) ve Nick
Hornby’nin Bir Erkek Hakkında (1998)  kitaplarındaki karakterlere etkisi bağlamında
incelemeyi amaçlar. Mark ve Jennifer Amis’in distopik dünyasının farkına
vardıklarında, intiharı öncelikli bir seçenek olarak değerlendirmeye başlarlar.
Hornby’nin dünyası ise ütopik rüyalara çok daha açıktır fakat yine de bu
dünyada intihar da vardır. Gerilim teorisine göre, romanların tüm
karakterlerinin içinde yaşadığı tüketim toplumunda ve popüler kültürde, toplum
intihara ve suça daha çok meyillidir. Tüketim ve kültür ideolojisinin en hayati
aparatı olan televizyon bu çalışmanın karakterlerin hayatlarında gösterdiği
gibi toplumu nihai noktası intihar olan bir çok olumsuz davranışlara iter.

Keywords

Tüketim toplumu, popüler kültür, televizyon, gerilim teorisi

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