Pepis, Sinclair, Dumont. Literary Analysis Installing the TV set

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October 18, 2019
Literary Analysis – Installing the Television Set
The Television has been one of the technologies that revolutionized the way people around the world live and interact with one another. Additionally, it also paved way for the creation of the modern day media, which is enjoyed by every people today. However, contrary to notion that America has readily accepted this medium with open arms (merely due to its technological promise) a closer look at the events would show that he incorporation of the television during the Post-war Period would have taken a longer time if not for the boom of modernist and isolationist approaches to living back then.
The Modernist and Isolationist Approach
In the article written by Spigel (1988), entitled Installing the television set: Popular discourses on television and domestic space, she discussed some of the main reasons as to why the television dominated the American homes when it was introduced. Particularly, it was due to the rise of the modernist ideologies in living and architecture that conincided with the televisions’ characteristic as a “global village”. The Modernist approach in architecture is dominated by ‘ranch-style homes’, which has subsequently became widely accepted due to its popularity brought about by the media. In relation to this, the Isolationist approach was the phenomenon during the post-war era where most Americans has migrated towards the suburbs in order to escape the stress and chaos that dominates the cities.
In this article, the resonance between these two would be discussed in great detail. Additionally, it would also delve on how did Spigel used literary mechanisms to support his own arguments. Nevertheless, I believe that despite the soundness and organization of Spigel’s argument, his strategic usage of these literary mechanisms have contributed greatly to its own persuasiveness.
The Global and the Modern Villages
The Global Village
The Television is also called as ‘The Global Village’. This term was coined by Marshall McLuhan in the sixties as he wanted to describe how the TV transports the individual from one place to another thereby exposing them to other people, culture, and society right inside their own domestic spheres CITATION Spi88 \l 1033 (Spigel, 1988). Accordingly, the American’s exposure to other ideas and norms has led to an increasingly homogenous and interconnected society regardless of geographical or time constraints.
In describing the television’s role as the ‘Modern village’ Spigel used literary mechanisms such as descriptions that relate the wide open environment with the Television box. For example, she described advertisements for televisions (i.e., Arvin’s advertising campaign) with the device depicting a scenic scene or vice versa. Additionally, she repeatedly used the words ‘utopian’ in describing how the television provides less-affluent audiences the chance of experiencing the high-class life. A literary mechanism that bolstered her claim that television is also an escape from both the geographical and social constraints in life.
The Modern Village...