THE DEPICTION OF MASS MEDIA IN “NOTES ON A SCANDAL” BY ZOE HELLER
THE DEPICTION OF MASS MEDIA IN “NOTES ON A SCANDAL” BY ZOE HELLER

Author(s): Antonina Bulyna
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Biblioteca Ştiinţifică a Universităţii de Stat Alecu Russo
Keywords: novel character; reader; mass media; the language of alienation; imaginative resistance
Summary/Abstract: The current study is based on the British novel «Notes on a Scandal» in the spotlight of which there is an affair between Bathsheba Hart, a pottery teacher and Steven Connolly, an underage male pupil. In this paper an endeavour has been made to determine the representation of media in «Notes on a Scandal» which is a 2003 novel featuring the involvement of mass media. The paper touches the interaction of the reader and the fictional media. P. Lyndon’s vision related to mass media as society’s psychic regulator and literature as the psychic unregulator is argued. It is shown how ethical matters are covered by mass media and the way it impacts the novel characters. The study also elucidates the mass media as a tool of producing alienation that is connected with the specific language employed by them. The interpretation of the outlined points is supported by a close reading of the text fragments. The work on the topic involves the consideration of the phenomenon of imaginative resistance. It becomes quite evident that society is weakened if empathic imagination is excluded due to the mistake-determinant approach towards its members.

• Details
• Contents