The Real World

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Television, possibly the most prolific of these technologies, is a mechanism of representation in pursuit of something purportedly lacking in postmodernity: authenticity. To use Fredric Jameson’s words, postmodernity’s “approach to the present by way of the pastiche of the stereotypical past, endows present reality…[as] increasingly incapable of fashioning representations of our current experience” (21). It is in this unnerving search for the ‘real’ through media of simulation, in this case the television, that a glorification of narcissism, with all its celebrations of the self, is fostered. By doing so, Real World television reflects the hunger of a populace for something intimately spectacular, a desire for television to captivate the conscious by way of shared experiences. It will then become more apparent that The Real World’s content is symptomatic of the overall effect of this postmodern condition, which is where the second part of this discussion will be centered. Focusing on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the content of the program that shows that the experiences The Real World offers up for viewing to be centered around the cast’s ability to explore themselves through therapeutic discourse; moments so common and rote in nature that we recognize them as holding some truth, if for no other reason than some personal association with them due to their position within the domestic realm. The attention paid to the individual by way of these personal insights, and the self-regulated leisure 3
and personal disputes that surround them within this televised space, are depicted as being the essence of what it means to be ‘real.’ The following study consists of five parts: first, an examination of the house as the physical setting that dominates so much of the program’s mise- en-scène; followed by an assessment of the cast, paying special attention to the character stereotypes present with each season; proceeded by discussion of the confessionals within the context of celebrity; continuing with a look at the program’s production in the context of both the actual formulation of the program and the automated relationship between audience and apparatus; ending with a statistical analysis of the observed relationship between personal insights, leisure and consumption of brand name commodities. Ultimately, The Real World’s role as a provider of televisual authenticity, which it inhabits within today’s youth culture, is an indictment of the culture from which it resonates. The Real World shows us a place not based in any arguable reality. Therefore, the issue of its authenticity is not rooted in its physical structure – accoutrements such as the city, the house, the characters and the toys. Instead, it is in its very attempt to reflect the ‘real’ by soliciting individual exploration, among these accoutrements, that creates a type of projected reality. It is the fact, and way, that these individuals are showing us the ‘real,’ something inherently associated with televisual representation, that simultaneously compliments, and is complimented, by an environment 4
Page 1 and 2: THE REAL WORLD A Thesis Submitted t
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction…
Page 5: members tells us in the opening seq
Page 9 and 10: Knowledge in Service of Capital Cha
Page 11 and 12: power for itself; and the theoretic
Page 13 and 14: foregoing of questions as to how ra
Page 15 and 16: It is under the flag of innovation
Page 17 and 18: This workforce is both engaged in t
Page 19 and 20: after the political turmoil of the
Page 21 and 22: sense of reality is constructed”
Page 23 and 24: [this] is the logic behind the appe
Page 25 and 26: puts so much value on what can be i
Page 27 and 28: else, the production of an active,
Page 29 and 30: similar events, which are then avai
Page 31 and 32: The House Chapter II The house in w
Page 33 and 34: Mise-en-scène The use of these acc
Page 35 and 36: A domestic design More interestingl
Page 37 and 38: ut it also configures a site of con
Page 39 and 40: only espouses the parameters of the
Page 41 and 42: he is wearing and what he is doing
Page 43 and 44: suburbanites. Throughout the show J
Page 45 and 46: her new celebrity after completion
Page 47 and 48: David: This village trip is the las
Page 49 and 50: Guy Debord notes these types of rea
Page 51 and 52: The technical manufacturing of The
Page 53 and 54: television’s, and particularly Th
Page 55 and 56: The simplicity of Matt’s action d
Page 57 and 58:
is not a date, in the traditional s
Page 59 and 60:
eing late. We then see a shot of El
Page 61 and 62:
Elton as actor once the season was
Page 63 and 64:
chosen character participated in on
Page 65 and 66:
participation in Non-Insightful Dis
Page 67 and 68:
Conclusion The Real World, with all
Page 69 and 70:
to be like the celebrity, that “i
Page 71 and 72:
culture, and its general accessibil
Page 73 and 74:
makes it clear that the relationshi
Page 75 and 76:
We'll take ordinary fans and transf
Page 77 and 78:
lead is unclear. The invasion of th
Page 79 and 80:
Works Cited Althusser, Louis. Lenin
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The Real World

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