TY  - THES
AB  - With its contemporary TV series on its Indigenous Inhabitants, called the First Nations, Canada possesses a unique mediascape, especially in the view of the fact that these shows make it their business to propagate a realistic representation of Aboriginal culture. The interaction between First Inhabitants and Western conquerers offers many opportunities to create profound storylines indeed. At the same time commercial mass media like television shows with their penchant for stereotyping – in the case of the American Aboriginals e.g. the 'Stoic Indian,' the 'Noble Savage' or the 'Naive Pocahontas' – do not seem to qualify for a differentiated historical revision of a colonized country with obvious winners and losers. At first glance the wide and very heterogeneous audience of a whole country needs to be entertained. Yet, it is the declared goal of these progressive TV shows to subtly convey a new more positive self- and public image of the Canadian Aboriginals. Hence, the television series constantly have to maintain the balance between presenting enthralling fiction appealing to the masses and sensitively handling the often painful reality of a people at the periphery of society. To illuminate this walk on a tightrope this study at first concentrates on the socio-cultural history of the First Nations shaped by tribal gender roles, a reciprocal relationship to nature, oral traditions and the final destruction of this cosmos. Based on this historical background as well as ideologies like Westo- and Mediacentrism and TV production techniques, this work then examines how the Canadian First Nations manage to employ seemingly hostile television mechanisms for their own benefit. Therefore, the subtexts of the drama series Moccasin Flats (2003-2006) and renegedepress.com (2004-2008) as well as the sitcoms The Rez (1996-1998), Hank Williams First Nation (2006) and Moose TV (2007) are analysed.
AU  - Maslona, Katrin
DA  - 2011
KW  - Fernsehserie
KW  - First Nations
KW  - TV series
KW  - Canada
KW  - indigenous
LA  - eng
PY  - 2011
TI  - The only good 'Indian' is a screened 'Indian'! : First Nations culture and its representation in contemporary Canadian TV series
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:467-7458
Y2  - 2024-11-24T02:25:02
ER  -