Figure (fiction)

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Figures ( Latin figura , 'shape') are invented beings that are represented by fictional media offerings, such as oral stories, paintings, novels or films. Characters in each medium are created in a special way: literary characters by written language, comic characters by sequences of images, film and television characters by moving images and theater characters by actors who are present . Users can also interact with characters in computer games and even become virtual participants in the fictional world through avatars .

definition

The use of the term figure is not entirely uniform. In everyday language, it is sometimes applied to all characters in the media, not just to invented beings, but also to real people, for example in documentaries. In order to draw a clear line here, the term artificial figure is used, especially in the legal context . As a rule, this refers to fictional characters that are closely linked to actors or stars who appear in public: For example, the Kazakh journalist Borat in the film of the same name is a fictional character of the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen , because he also appears as Borat outside of the film. In the humanities, the term artificial figure is rather uncommon; one speaks of fictional figures or simply of figures, but tries to use them more precisely than in everyday language. What figures are exactly is controversial in at least three respects:

1. Ontology : You can't meet characters like Sherlock Holmes on the street, but somehow they seem to exist. So what kind of objects are they? Semiotic theorists consider figures to be symbols in the text . Psychological theorists, on the other hand, consider them to be ideas in the mind of readers or viewers. A third group of theorists considers them to be products of communication between authors and their audience. These opinions lead to different methods and results of the investigation: For a long time it was considered wrong in literary studies to think about the psyche of characters, because these are only text modules. Nowadays, however, it is assumed that the figure-related statements that are explicitly included in a text are systematically supplemented in the imagination of authors and readers. Similar to film: we see a character laughing, but assume from our everyday experience that he is in reality deadly sad.

2. Fictionality: Figures are fictional, they do not exist in concrete reality. But in some fictional stories historical figures such as Napoleon or Kennedy appear who are not invented, but based on reality. However, they are themselves fictionalized through the context of a fictional work that makes no direct claim to truth. Napoleon is portrayed in feature films by actors who at least look and behave differently from their historical role model, and John F. Kennedy in a novel is understood as a character in a novel.

3. Personality: Sometimes it is assumed that figures always correspond to human persons . But this is incorrect: it can also be about animals ( lassie ), supernatural or artificial forms (gods, monsters, aliens, robots) or mixed forms (werewolves, cyborgs, etc.). The decisive features that distinguish characters from other elements of fictional worlds are above all their ability to an inner life (to mental processes such as thinking, feeling, willing, etc.) and mostly also to act within a depicted world.

Figures can therefore be approximately defined as fictional, communicatively constructed objects, to which the ability to have an inner life is ascribed in media texts. This inner workings can be very simple (the cookie monster from Sesame Street wants cookies), but also of a very complex nature (for example in psychological novels).

Functions

Figures can contribute to the fulfillment of various general functions of media texts: entertainment, art experience , clarification , conveying ideology or advertising ( advertising figure ). Some popular characters - for example Mickey Mouse or James Bond - are present in several media and often have a considerable influence on their audience. This influence is also related to the fact that characters can trigger intense feelings: You laugh at them, fear for them, identify with them or see them as role models, role models or even deterrent examples.

At the same time, characters take on specific dramaturgical functions and roles within a media text, they are secondary or main characters , protagonists or antagonists . It is through their motives and behavior that they drive the action of narratives; their plot mostly consists mostly of their actions. Their properties can also convey overarching themes and meanings, for example when figures serve as symbols , allegories or personifications . Some of these meanings are highly conventionalized - the Grim Reaper as the personification of death - others are subtle and work-specific.

to form

The variety of functions and media offers corresponds to the variety of forms that the characters assume. They can be more or less based on an everyday reality or deviate from it. Various means, including dramatization, emotionalization, stylization , perspective, comic exaggeration , contribute to such deviations and at the same time increase their effect. In the case of comic characters, for example, the facial and body expression is often greatly exaggerated: some of them literally have their eyes popping out of their heads.

Figures can be more or less typified or designed more individually, and the perspective of readers, listeners or viewers of the event can be more or less closely approximated to the perspective of the figures. In the film, this becomes particularly clear through the subjective camera : the viewers see roughly what the figure sees.

Most figures are classified in the relationship network of a figure constellation , take a social position in it and are contrasted with other figures with whom they can come into conflict by means of parallelization or contrasting. The cop and the gangster in Michael Mann's film " Heat " stand on different sides of the law, but have similar values ​​and problems.

examination

Different methods are used in the dramaturgical, cultural, media or literary analysis and interpretation of characters. The following areas in particular are examined:

1. their representation and characterization in the media text (direct and indirect, internal and external characterization; media-specific strategies),

2. their mimetic properties and structures ( body , psyche , sociality ; behavior ; dimensionality, development ),

3. their relationship to other text elements ( e.g. space, diegesia , plot),

4. their reception (understanding, empathy , identification , parasocial interaction ) as well

5. their connection with socio-cultural contexts and historical developments (causes, effects, images of people, stereotypes ).

The views on the ontology of the figure outlined above have an impact on which of these areas is considered to be particularly important: Anyone who considers a figure like James Bond to be a text module will examine particularly carefully the procedures with which Bond is represented in the text. Anyone who understands Bond psychologically, on the other hand, as an idea in the mind of the reader or viewer, will be more interested in how the reader or viewer comes to this Bond idea and what feelings it triggers.

There are also considerable differences between the characters in different media, especially with regard to areas of investigation 1, 4 and 5: for example, fictional characters such as Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are represented using linguistic methods of narration and character speech, while film characters such as Scorsese's “ Taxi Driver ” are created in a more complicated process : They are embodied by actors (here: Robert De Niro ) who are staged by directors and whose images are recorded by cameramen until the final figure is created in the image and sound montage .

As different as these means are the media and cultural contexts by which such characters are shaped, and ultimately the cognitive and emotional reactions of readers, listeners and viewers.

See also

literature

  • Jens Eder: The character in the film. Basics of figure analysis . Schüren, Marburg 2008.
  • Fotis Jannidis: figure and person. Contribution to a historical narratology . De Gruyter, Berlin 2004.
  • Thomas Koch: Literary representation of people. Studies on their theory and practice . Stauffenburg, Tübingen 1991.
  • Lothar Mikos: heroes, failures and other types. Structure-functional film and television analysis , part 7. In: medien practical , issue 4, 1998, pp. 48–54.
  • Manfred Pfister: Personnel and Figure . In: Ders .: The Drama . 6th edition. Fink, Munich 1988, pp. 220-264.
  • Ralf Schneider: Outline of the cognitive theory of figure reception using the example of the Victorian novel. Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2000.
  • Thomas Schick, Tobias Ebbrecht (eds.): Emotion - Empathy - Figure. Game forms of film perception. Vistas, Berlin 2008.
  • Murray Smith: Engaging Characters. Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995.
  • Henriette Heidbrink; Rainer Leschke (Ed.): Forms of the figure. Figure concepts in the arts and media. UVK, Constance 2010.
  • Jens Eder; Fotis Jannidis; Ralf Schneider (Ed.): Characters in Fictional Worlds . De Gruyter, Berlin 2010.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fictional media offers are written, audiovisual or other texts in various media , by means of which fictional objects and worlds are represented, cf. z. B. the Wikipedia article "Fiction" ; Uri Margolin : Character. In: David Herman, Manfred Jahn, Marie-Laure Ryan (Eds.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory. London / New York 2005, pp. 52-57; or Wolfgang Künne : Abstract Objects. Frankfurt 1983, p. 291 ff.
  2. ↑ See Fotis Jannidis: Figure and Person. Contribution to a historical narratology . De Gruyter, Berlin 2004, pp. 151-196; or: Jens Eder: What are characters? A contribution to the interdisciplinary theory of fiction . Mentis, Paderborn 2008.
  3. ↑ See note 1.
  4. ↑ Jens Eder: The character in the film. Basics of figure analysis . Schüren, Marburg 2008, pp. 28-30.

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