Big Brother - from Simulation Towards the Contemporary Myth - (Reading / Watching Matjaž Zupančič´s Play "Hodnik" [The Corridor]) Cover Image

Big Brother- od simulacije prema suvremenom mitu (čitajući /gledajući dramu Hodnik Matjaža Zupančiča
Big Brother - from Simulation Towards the Contemporary Myth - (Reading / Watching Matjaž Zupančič´s Play "Hodnik" [The Corridor])

Author(s): Ivan Majić
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku
Keywords: reality show; simulation; supervision; contemporary media; Baudrillard; contemporary myths

Summary/Abstract: The role and significance of the reality show in the context of the current media situation is examined in this article through analysis of the contemporary Slovenian playwright Matjaž Zupančič’s play, Hodnik. This drama is one that enables exemplification of Baudrillard’s theoretical deliberations on simulation as the consequence of media images that offer recipients a full circle stripped of a referential. The seductiveness of play in the reality show spectacle utilises elements of mythological patterns, in which the privileged position is that of the authority having the greatest supervisory power. Simulation of mythological patterns within the show in the form of survival, organisation, and lack of technological devices is actually nostalgia for the reality that has disappeared from digitalised society, while also being a potential for regeneration of new contemporary mythological representations.

  • Issue Year: 46/2009
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 147-159
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Croatian