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Article Dans Une Revue GRAAT On-Line Année : 2009

“‘So many traps to set’: Subversion and Subversiveness in Profit”

Résumé

Profit, created by David Greenwalt and John McNamara, produced by Stephen J. Cannell and starring Adrian Pasdar as Jim Profit, was first aired on Fox Broadcasting Company in April 1996 and axed after just four episodes(out of the eight originally filmed and scheduled). Probably one of the most controversial and category-defying television serials ever, it portrays Jim Profit, a ruthless and ambitious junior executive, whose hidden agenda is progressively unveiled as he climbs the corporate ladder of the multinational conglomerate Gracen & Gracen (G&G).While throwing into sharp relief the shadowy recesses of corporate America, the series also distorts the dominant ideological and aesthetic patterns of traditional television series, as it develops a subversive discourse on American society. Profit mirrors the complex cultural currents and counte currents that run through American society, provocatively depicting such aspects as the workplace, family values and sexuality. Profit is probably one of the most tantalizing and riveting dramas in television‘s recent history, not only on account of the themes it discusses, but because of its reversal of traditional televisual codes, which contributes to the viewer‘s entrapment in a complex and elaborate narrative structure. This paper will, therefore, discuss the narratological implications of the show‘s Chinese box narrative pattern, highlighting the way in which it subverts the traditional textual structures of television series. I will then examine the camera‘s discourse which, in conveying an impression of fragmentation, imparts a puzzle-like dimension to the narrative overall. Finally, I shall study how characterization reveals and subverts mainstream ideological and sociological stereotypes.
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hal-03986977 , version 1 (13-02-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03986977 , version 1

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Jean DU VERGER. “‘So many traps to set’: Subversion and Subversiveness in Profit”. GRAAT On-Line, 2009. ⟨hal-03986977⟩
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