Identification (literature)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Identification is the process by which the reader or viewer associates with a character or work of fiction in film and literary studies. Identification is usually subconscious. A reader may consider a character likeable, but it would be a mistake to think all protagonists foster identification, or that all villains inhibit identification—many characters elicit some degree of identification on the part of the reader or spectator.
Alfred Hitchcock exploited the traits of casual identification certain villainous characters. Hitchcock explained that in Psycho while Norman Bates was disposing of the car containing Marion Crane's body in a swamp, he had the car stop sinking: "When Perkins is looking at the car sinking in the pond... the public are thinking, 'I hope it goes all the way down!' It's a natural instinct."
However, Sigmund Freud claimed there were three types of identification. The three most prominent concepts of identification as described by Freud are: primary identification, narcissistic (secondary) identification and partial (secondary) identification.
Film theorist, Christian Metz built on Freud’s theory of identification in his final work, Impersonal Enunciation. Metz "uses the concept of enunciation to articulate how films 'speak' and explore where this communication occurs, offering critical direction for theorists who struggle with the phenomena of new media."
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