Widdowson's Claim That Television and Film Cannot Produce an Aesthetic Effect Essay

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Aesthetics

Widdowson claims that television and film do not fit the definition of "literary" objects. For one, a script for film or television production has no autonomy. As Widdowson points out, "while there is always a script on which the finished product is based, the script is granted little status or autonomy as an object of reading in and for itself" (124). Of course, an interested party can seek out the script for study but scripts are rarely encountered for their literally literary function: as pieces of writing that exist for the sole purpose of being read as texts.

Moreover, Widdowson notes that the finished product in film or television is "always already mediated/interpreted" in order to become a motion picture. In other words, the director, actors, and cinematographers alter the original script in fundamental ways. These fundamental means of altering the original (or, as Widdowson calls it, "originary") product, the script, are exactly what makes film and television not have the same aesthetic effect as other literary forms like poetry.

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With film and television, the problem of interpretation exists. The same script can be interpreted in a number of different ways, just as a poem written by an ancient Greek can be interpreted (translated) in different ways. What one person believes to be the original intent of the poet might not be what another believes: this is why there are differences in aesthetic effects when reading different versions of the Bible, or Homer, or other seminal pieces of writing in archaic languages. Interpretation problems occur even with living languages, as two different translators will render the poetry of Borges or Rilke in completely different ways, using different diction. A resulting aesthetic effect will be unique for each reader, too. The same script in the hands of two different directors will also be rendered totally differently.

As Widdowson notes, the….....

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