Commentary on Proposal 4 Derek Paget Seven theses about border genres / five modest proposals about docudrama Five modest proposals about docudrama   Uploaded 20 September 2002  Abstract
Particular news events shape contemporary history and society in profound ways. There are certain qualifications for an event and its subsequent dramatisations in whatever medium to reach a level of widespread public significance [Janelle Reinelt]: the originary event must be of sufficient gravity to affect the 'nation' (or significant segment of the population seeing itself as this).  there is a critical mass of public attention to the event, the event can be readily apprehended as narrative (there are protagonists, a structural shape, preliminary - though usually not final - closure). the event will 'have been perceived by the public as the symbolic staging of other, quotidian, features of their national or local lives - embodying a certain kind of ethical critique of their ways of living. I think there's a 5th feature: significance accrues as a result of events, not an event. There is a process of event-accretion. By their very nature these events trigger multiple connections and complex emotional outcomes. Uncontrollable through reason alone, these event-chains find expression in theatricalisations that go beyond the fact. In doing so, these factual-fictions (impossible category!) tell us we can understand. For example: USA - O J Simpson case; UK - Stephen Lawrence case. There is a level at which the claim on the public is a performative one. The moment or moments of 'Actuality Display', used to intensify the drama, play beyond - into the public sphere. 'The mixing of the filmed real with the imagined constitutes the very interest of fiction film' (Charles Warren). Comment on this section The seven theses The five proposals