"Screen Narratives" Literature film quarterly [0090-4260] 34.1 (2006). 2-.

 

Jan Baetens’s article “Screen Narratives” sets out to define the term “screen” and its existence as a construction by the viewer. One definition that he posits is taken from Patrick Maynard, who states that every surface that is marked somehow by some type of sign is a screen. But screens also obscure things as well; Baetens acknowledges this contradiction as an inherent characteristic of a screen. He notes too, perhaps most importantly, that screens cannot be separated from the concept of “looking.” The emphasis on the visual here fits in well with what I want to explore in my paper, and gives me a source that actually looks at the screen itself (as opposed to a technology such as television or computers) and how one potentially interacts with it.

However, one drawback to this approach is precisely that no difference seems to appear between a television screen and a computer screen. Baetens, in endorsing a theory by Anne-Marie Christin as well as his own views (which align rather closely with Christin’s), renders the material aspect of a screen virtually immaterial. I agree that there’s more to a screen than the technology to which it’s tied; but, nonetheless, we do see new technologies through this screen, and thus it has to have something to do with the technology itself. Utilizing Maynard’s definition for his argument may cause some of the problem here, because a screen might constitute more than “a surface with a symbol.” His definition also clearly encompasses more than I’d care to discuss (windows, maps, playing cards, etc.), which enters into metaphorical areas of screen culture and thus guide him even further from any discussion of possible physical connections between screen and culture.

Overall, however, I do like the fact that the theory links screens with visual elements, and with the act of looking at something. This is the only source I have that explicitly examines the concept of a screen, and I think it would provide a good background (and healthy opposition to) my own ideas on what a screen is in different media. His idea of screen-thinking, or a dialogue on thoughts about screen, as a technology whereby several meanings are constructed at once, holds much relevance (and much potential discussion!) for ideas about the place of the screen as a one-way or multiple-way medium of information release.