Neural narratives and natives: cognitive attention schema theory and empathy in Avatar
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Authors
Hills, Paul R.
Issue Date
2020-01
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Cognitive – cultural studies , Theory of mind , Empathy , Polysemy , Film analysis , Avatar , James Cameron
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study offers a fine-grained analysis of James Cameron’s film, Avatar (2009), on several
theoretical fronts to provide a view of the film from a cognitive cultural studies perspective.
The insights gained from cognitive theory are used to situate the debate by indicating the value
cognitive theories have in cultural criticism. The critical discourse analysis of Avatar that
results is a vehicle for the central concern of this study, which is to understand the diverse,
often contradictory, meaning-making exhibited by Avatar audiences. A focus on the
construction of empathic responses to the film’s messages investigates the success of this
polysemy. Ihe central propositions of the study are that meanings and interpretations of the experience of
viewing Avatar are made discursively; they are situated in definable traditions, mores and
values; and this meaning-making takes place in a cognitive framework which allows for the
technical reproduction and reception of the experience while providing powerful, emerging and
cognitively plausible narratives. In an attempt to situate the film’s commercial success and its
plethora of awards, including an Oscar for best art direction, the analysis takes a critical view
of Cameron’s use of cultural stereotypes and the framing of the exotic other, and considers the
continuing development of these elements over the whole series and product line or, as Henry
Jenkins (2007) defines it, “transmedia”. In drawing the theoretical boundaries of the
methodologies used in this study and in arguing for their complementarities, the study
contributes to a renewal of Raymond Williams’ (1961) mostly forgotten claim of the cross-disciplinary cognitive dimension of cultural studies and demonstrates an affirmation of this
formulation as cognitive cultural studies.
Description
Text in English