Appendix 3.1: Analytic methods - 6 films from 1954
difference between using texts as evidence with which to
substantiate a set of propositions already in existence, and
drawing propositions from comparisons of texts which thus
maintain a primary position in the research. This primary
position is justified by the careful and systematic sampling
method detailed in Appendix 2.
With this reguirement in mind I approached each text in turn,
considering no methodological approaches to the group as a
whole until certain analytic tasks had been completed for each
film. These tasks were as follows. I viewed the film, noting
the narrative content and development and paying particular
attention to all representations of, or utterances about
women. Following the viewing I made a brief synopsis
summarising the film and referencing its underlying themes.
Then, using the viewing notes, I identified and numbered all
the female characters in order of appearance, and wrote an
outline of each character recording her initial presentation,
her diegetic experience and the extent to which audience
complicity with her point of view was constructed through the
narrative and mise en scene. It became clear during the
course of this work that in each film the characters fell
quite neatly into clearly defined groups as far as their
narrative functions were concerned.
A discussion of characters drawn from a group of films entails
the development of a method of differentiation between various
characters in one film which makes sense in terms of all the
other films in the group. The method cannot, clearly, depend
on generic classification since the films are not all drawn
from one genre, nor can it have anything to do with star
personae since all the characters are performed by different
actors, some well known, some obscure. The directors, studios
and national sources of the films are no more consistent. The
differentiation must be in terms of the narrative function of
the character - the work of the character in the unfolding of
the narrative, and also in terms of the audience access to the
character. It is after all the relation between the film and
the audience which is at issue: the basis for selection of the
sample of films for analysis is their popularity with
contemporary audiences as expressed at the box office and via
fan magazines. The general enquiry is, precisely, concerned
with the dynamic relation between fictional and actual
conventions concerning female behaviour - with the social
positioning of women and the ideological construction of the
feminine.
By means of a comparison of the narrative functions of
characters in all the six films I was able to define four
groups by means of which the narrative functioning of all the
characters might be described. In the subsequent work with the
main sample of eighteen films I also numbered and allocated to
groups all male characters, thus enabling recognition of the
relative frequency with which male and female characters
appeared.
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