TY - JOUR
T1 - Intimate distractions
T2 - Fleabag’s manipulations of audience attention
AU - Ven, Inge Van De
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank Lucie Chateau for her insightful comments on an early draft of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021/3/19
Y1 - 2021/3/19
N2 - Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s series Fleabag (BBC/Amazon Prime, 2016-‘19) has been praised for its revitalization of direct address. Whereas this device is often used to foster intimacy between character and audience, I argue that Fleabag problematizes this. I examine the nature of Fleabag’s address through the lens of habits of constant connectivity in online attention economies in conjunction with gendered norms of self-representation on social media, and their impact on the nature and modes of human attention. Through a textual and cinematic analysis with attention to editing, camera, mode of address, and acting, I claim that Fleabag’s attention-seeking performance enforces an intimacy that is gradually revealed to serve as a distraction, and that this is reinforced by the show’s entire aesthetic. By foregrounding these issues, and through its aesthetic of distraction, Fleabag investigates the relational implications of multi-tasking lives and probes the boundaries of contemporary attention.
AB - Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s series Fleabag (BBC/Amazon Prime, 2016-‘19) has been praised for its revitalization of direct address. Whereas this device is often used to foster intimacy between character and audience, I argue that Fleabag problematizes this. I examine the nature of Fleabag’s address through the lens of habits of constant connectivity in online attention economies in conjunction with gendered norms of self-representation on social media, and their impact on the nature and modes of human attention. Through a textual and cinematic analysis with attention to editing, camera, mode of address, and acting, I claim that Fleabag’s attention-seeking performance enforces an intimacy that is gradually revealed to serve as a distraction, and that this is reinforced by the show’s entire aesthetic. By foregrounding these issues, and through its aesthetic of distraction, Fleabag investigates the relational implications of multi-tasking lives and probes the boundaries of contemporary attention.
KW - Attention
KW - distraction
KW - self-representation
KW - social media
KW - television series
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102949686&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10304312.2021.1889465
DO - 10.1080/10304312.2021.1889465
M3 - Article
VL - 35
SP - 455
EP - 467
JO - Continuum
JF - Continuum
IS - 3
ER -