Character (arts)

Figures (Latin figura, 'shape' ) are fictional creatures that are represented by fictional media services, such as oral narratives, paintings, novels or movies. It figures in each medium are created in a special way: through written language literary figures, cartoon characters through image sequences, film and television characters through motion pictures and theater figures by directly present actor. With characters in computer games, users can interact beyond, and even become virtual participants in the fictional world through avatars.

Definition

The use of the term figure is not entirely uniform. In ordinary language it is sometimes applied to all figures in the media, not just on fictional beings, but also to real people, for example in documentaries. In order to draw a clear boundary here, is common especially in the legal context, the term art figure. This generally meant are fictional characters that are closely connected with public performers or occurring Stars: So the Kazakh journalist Borat in the eponymous film is a fictional character by the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, because it occurs outside of the film as Borat. In the humanities, the term art figure is unusual; one speaks of fictional characters, or simply of figures, but trying to find a more precise way than using in everyday speech. What figures are accurate, is controversial in at least three respects:

1 Ontology: characters like Sherlock Holmes can not meet on the street, but somehow it seems to give them yet. To what kind of articles are, then? Semiotic theorists hold figures for characters in the text. Psychological theorists hold, however, for ideas in the mind of readers or viewers. A third group of theorists holds for products of the communication between authors and their audience. These views lead to different methods and results of the study: It was in literary studies longer time than wrong to worry about the psyche of characters, because these are indeed only text modules. Nowadays, however, is the assumption that the figure- looking statements that are explicitly set in a text, in the imagination of writers and readers are systematically supplemented. Similarly, in the film we see a character laugh, but suspect from our everyday experience that it is extremely sad in reality.

2 fictionality: characters are fictional, they exist not in concrete reality. But in some fictional stories come before historical figures like Napoleon or Kennedy that are not fictitious, but similar to the reality. Through the context of a fictional work, which makes no direct claim to truth, but they are fictionalized self. So Napoleon is depicted in movies of actors who at least look a little different and behave differently from their historical precedent, and John F. Kennedy in a novel is understood as a fictional character.

3 Personality: Sometimes it is assumed that characters always meet human people. However, this is incorrect: It may also be animals ( Lassie ) to supernatural or artificial characters ( gods, monsters, aliens, robots) or mixed forms ( werewolves, cyborgs, etc.) act. The key design features that distinguish shapes from other elements of fictional worlds, are above all their ability to lead an inner life ( to mental processes such as thinking, feeling, willing, etc.) and usually also to act within an illustrated world.

Characters can therefore be approximated defined as notional, communicative constructed objects, which in media texts, the ability is attributed to an inner life. This inside is very simple type ( the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street wants cookies), but also very complex in nature (such as in psychological novels ).

Functions

Figures can contribute to the fulfillment of various general features of media texts: entertainment, art experience, education, ideology, mediation or advertising ( advertising character ). Some popular figures - for example Mickey Mouse or James Bond - are present in several media and often have significant impact on their audience. This influence is also related that figures can trigger intense feelings: They laughed at her fears about her, can identify with them or view them as role models, role models or deterrent examples.

At the same time incorporate figures within a media text specific dramaturgical functions and roles, they are secondary or main characters, protagonists or antagonists. Through their motives and their behavior they drive the plot of narratives; whose plot is usually for the most part from their actions. Their properties can also provide higher-level themes and meanings, such as when figures are given as symbols, allegories or personifications. Some of these meanings are highly conventionalized - the Grim Reaper as a personification of death -, others subtle and plant-specific.

Molding

The diversity of functions and media services reflected in the variety of forms, take the figures. You can be inspired by an everyday reality or depart from it more or less. Various means, including dramatization, emotional, stylization, perspectivization comic exaggeration, contribute to such differences at the same time and increase their impact. When cartoon characters, for example, is often the face and body expression greatly exaggerated: some of them literally fall out the eyes of the head.

Figures may be typed or rather created more individualized, and the perspective of readers, listeners or viewers to the events, the perspective of the characters more or less closely approximates. This is in the film by the subjective camera especially clear: Viewers watch in about what the character sees.

Most figures are classified in the network of a constellation of characters, take in a social position and are compared by method of parallelization or contrasting other characters with whom they may come into conflict. So the cop and the gangster stand in Michael Mann's "Heat" on different sides of the law, but have similar values ​​and problems.

Investigation

In the drama, cultural criticism, media or literary analysis and interpretation of figures different methods are used. Examines there are mainly the following areas:

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

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

3 their relationships with other text elements (for example, space, diegesis, plot ),

4 their reception (understanding, empathy, identification, parasocial interaction ) and

5 their relation to socio- cultural contexts and historical developments ( Causes, Effects, People pictures, stereotypes ).

The above outlined views on ontology of figure have an impact on which of these areas is believed to be particularly important: Who keeps a character like James Bond for a text block to be analyzed very precisely, is what processes Bond presented in the text. Who Bond, however psychologically understood as an idea in the mind of the reader or viewer, will be more interested in how the reader or viewer just come to this Bond idea and what emotions they trigger.

Particularly with regard to the investigation areas 1, 4 and 5, there are also significant differences between the characters of different media: for example, fictional characters, like Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are represented by linguistic processes of the narrator and the characters' speech, while movie characters such as Scorsese's "Taxi Driver " emerge in a more complicated process: You are an actor ( here: Robert De Niro ), which makes staged by directors and their images are captured by camera crews, until the picture and sound editing, the finished figure representation arises.

As different as these agents are also the medial and cultural contexts, are influenced by the such figures, and finally the cognitive and emotional responses of readers, listeners and viewers.