This thesis explores the possibilities, and limits, of social and political resistance within consumer society. It questions whether it is possible to resist a culture that readily commodifies and incorporates opposition and difference. The thesis concedes that incorporation of resistance into the dominant social structures may be inevitable, but argues that some resistance is still possible. The thesis consists of a creative work-a novel-and an exegesis. The research process, consisting of theoretical and critical analysis, provided material for the creation of the novel, and the creative process raised further research questions. The methodology therefore took the form of both practice-led research and research-led practice. The exegesis is an analysis of characters and themes in the films Before sunrise (1995) and Before sunset (2004), the novel Eat the document (2008) by Dana Spiotta, and the TV show The Simpsons (1989 - present). The time-period of these texts is contemporary neo-liberal capitalist consumer society, and the focus is limited to American texts, as a prime example of this society. My novel, Behind the yellow (Meyer 2013), is set in the near-future, and constructs a consumer society that is abundant in goods and services, but is nevertheless a totalitarian society where resistance is categorised, controlled and punished through a contradictory ideology of 'balance'. Resistance and its limits are explored in the texts under analysis through a multidisciplinary conceptual framework that draws on the work of Bauman (2007), Hutcheon (1988) and Fiske (2010). Particularly important in the work of these theorists are ideas about modes of resistance, limits to resistance, and the insidious aspects of capitalist society, such as notions of commodification, obsolescence and the shrinking of the category of normal. Central to the conceptual framework is sensidictoriness, a term I have constructed from a conjunction of the words sensitive and contradictory, that helps to explain subjects who are attuned to contradiction in society. Sensidictoriness is a response (by the subject, by a character) to his/her social and cultural position, or situation, leading to resistant thoughts and activities. In the thesis each text is examined in relation to resistance and its limits in consumer society, and the concepts are developed, with futuristic speculation, in my novel, Behind the yellow (Meyer, 2013). Through the characters Jesse and Celine in Before sunrise (1995) and Before sunset (2004), I introduce the idea of dissatisfaction with dominant ideas in consumer society. The path towards, and the sustaining of, resistance is also discussed, in relation to the concept of sensidictoriness. A close reading of the films introduces the argument that it is difficult to sustain resistance, as consumer society is perpetually limiting. An examination of Dana Spiotta's Eat the document (2008) takes a broader, comparative view of resistant characters in two different eras (the 1970s and the 1990s). Direct and militant action is compared with strategies such as minor protests, appropriation and performance-as-protest, and the overall limits to resistance in both eras (with a focus on the latter) are explored. An analysis of The Simpsons (1989 - present) returns to a close character focus, but this time character is discussed as a device, in a popular, yet subversive, text. Here the argument is that both the character of Lisa, and the show itself, are 'double-coded', in that both collude with, and resist, the norms of consumer society. The novel manuscript Behind the yellow expands upon the conceptual framework and explores-and satirises-the idea of resistance and its limits in contemporary consumer society. The novel is speculative, and considers also what could occur if trends in diagnosis and commercial pharmaceutical treatments of mental 'disorders' were to escalate. At the centre of the story are two characters, Henry and Ava, who-at different times and on different levels-are attuned to the hypocrisies of the fictional society, and who struggle against the dominant system. In addition to exploring modes of resistance in consumer society, this thesis suggests that due to the contradictory features of consumer society, complicity is, for the most part, inevitable. However, by representing the tension between social resistance and compliance, creative texts have political value, denying political hegemony and ensuring heterogeneity within Western consumer society.
| Date of Award | 2013 |
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| Original language | English |
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