Sites of value? Discourses of religion and spirituality in the production of a New Zealand film and television series

Hardy, Ann

Sites of value? Discourses of religion and spirituality in the production of a New Zealand film and television series

dc.contributor.advisor	Weaver, C. Kay
dc.contributor.advisor	Donovan, Peter
dc.contributor.advisor	Hight, Craig
dc.contributor.author	Hardy, Ann
dc.date.accessioned	2018-08-27T23:33:00Z
dc.date.available	2018-08-27T23:33:00Z
dc.date.issued	2003
dc.date.updated	2018-08-27T23:30:39Z
dc.description.abstract	This interdisciplinary study examines the nature of the discourses of religion and spirituality circulating in and around the production of a feature film, Saving Grace and a television mini-series, The Chosen, made and released in New Zealand during the period 1997-1999. Its interest is in the manner in which discourses of religion and spirituality are enlisted and modified in the process of mediation for public screening. Drawing on various insights derived from post-structuralist theory, and informed by recent work in the sociology of religion, the study operates within a modified tripartite model which balances information about the production context of the projects with text-interpretation, and analysis of media constructions (or reviews) of the text. Initially, a description of the complex socio-historical context in which the texts are situated, both globally and locally, is developed. The manner in which selected members of the production teams for the two projects understood meanings around religion and spirituality is then explored through the discursive analysis of material gained by the process of depth-interviewing. The production of the projects was followed over an extended time-duration, in order to ascertain whether those understandings changed under the many influences constituting the conditions of production. The second aspect of the analysis is interpretation of the texts themselves through an analysis of their narrative and generic structures, as well as their discursive content. Finally, responses and evaluations of the text by, in the case of Saving Grace, a series of 'interim' audiences, and for both projects, by media reviewers, are outlined and analyzed. On the basis of this research it is argued that investigation of the production of these projects provides valuable insights both into the changing nature of constructions of religion and spirituality within New Zealand culture and into the tensions involved in their textual encoding. These insights are to be found not just in the texts themselves, where professional norms of 'good' production, constrained and limited the ways in which discourses of religion and spirituality could be encoded, but also in the 'personal' speech of the research participants, marked both by a strong disapproval of institutional religiosity, and a wide-spread interest in informal varieties of spirituality.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Hardy, A. (2003). Sites of value? Discourses of religion and spirituality in the production of a New Zealand film and television series (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12040	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12040
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	The University of Waikato
dc.rights	All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
dc.subject	New Zealand
dc.subject	file and television series
dc.subject	religion and spirituality
dc.subject	New Zealand culture
dc.title	Sites of value? Discourses of religion and spirituality in the production of a New Zealand film and television series
dc.type	Thesis
pubs.place-of-publication	Hamilton, New Zealand	en_NZ
thesis.degree.grantor	The University of Waikato
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)