Polityka demoniczna versus polityka trudnych kompromisów. „House of Cards” i „Borgen” jako political fiction

Dorota  Piontek

Titles

Polityka demoniczna versus polityka trudnych kompromisów. „House of Cards” i „Borgen” jako political fiction

Abstract

Demonic Politics vs. the Politics of Difficult Trade-Offs. “House of Cards”
and “Borgen” as Political Fiction

Relationships between politics and popular culture are long-term and diverse, yet only in the recent decade or two have they been submitted to the scholarly research. They can be examined from two perspectives: the use of popular culture by the politicians to achieve their goals, and the depiction of politics in the culture itself. The article does focus on the latter, as it is centred around the political tv series being the elements of the phenomenon of the representation and negotiation of politics in the entertainment genres that can be termed politicotainment. Political tv series as depicted here do not usually attempt the dramatization of the real events, yet they do, to some relevant extent, represent the observations and experiences of their creators, thus being inspired by the real people and the real events. The article outlines typology of political films and tv series, discusses the ways of presenting politics in political fiction drama, as well as the reason for their popularity. In order to highlight the complexity of the analysed phenomenon, two popular and significantly different series are used as a reference: Netflix’s “House of Cards” and Danish “Borgen”.

Demonic Politics vs. the Politics of Difficult Trade-Offs. “House of Cards”
and “Borgen” as Political Fiction

Relationships between politics and popular culture are long-term and diverse, yet only in the recent decade or two have they been submitted to the scholarly research. They can be examined from two perspectives: the use of popular culture by the politicians to achieve their goals, and the depiction of politics in the culture itself. The article does focus on the latter, as it is centred around the political tv series being the elements of the phenomenon of the representation and negotiation of politics in the entertainment genres that can be termed politicotainment. Political tv series as depicted here do not usually attempt the dramatization of the real events, yet they do, to some relevant extent, represent the observations and experiences of their creators, thus being inspired by the real people and the real events. The article outlines typology of political films and tv series, discusses the ways of presenting politics in political fiction drama, as well as the reason for their popularity. In order to highlight the complexity of the analysed phenomenon, two popular and significantly different series are used as a reference: Netflix’s “House of Cards” and Danish “Borgen”.

Keywords

political tv series, political fiction, politicotainment, representation, tv narrative

References

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Information

Information: Media Research Issues, 2016, Volume 59, Issue 1 (225), pp. 123 - 134

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/2299-6362PZ.16.009.5186

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Polityka demoniczna versus polityka trudnych kompromisów. „House of Cards” i „Borgen” jako political fiction

English:

Demonic Politics vs. the Politics of Difficult Trade-Offs. “House of Cards” and “Borgen” as Political Fiction

Authors

Dorota Piontek

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Wieniawskiego 1, 61-712 Poznań, Poland

Published at: 29.06.2016

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Dorota Piontek (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

Polish

View count: 2019

Number of downloads: 782

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