way by stating that he feels that emotions are coded as much as the signs for them and not just human feelings' as Langer suggests. He continues, "modes of experimental art and entertainment correspond to different culturally and historically determined sensibilities".
Dyer suggests that entertainment gains emotional significations by acquiring this significance "in relation to the complex of meanings in the social-cultural situations in which they are produced." I would agree with this suggestion, partly because the musicals I am basing this essay on are both post-war films full of US values but at the same time, are escapism since they are set in the exotic locations of Paris and the Scottish Highlands, places where most of the audience members have only dreamed about.
He quotes Hans Enzensberger as saying "consumption as spectacle is in parody form the anticipation of a utopian situation" therefore suggesting that categories of utopian sensibility are related to specific inadequacies in society. He sees "the categories of the sensibilities as temporary answers to the inadequacies of the society which is being escaped from though entertainment". Dyer suggests his own analysis offers an explanation of why entertainment works, this is because it responds to "the real needs created by society".
Indeed deep social needs were essential in the post-war era where musicals became set in exotic places, far from the stresses of New York. The comparison is even shown in parody form on screen in Brigadoon when Tommy (Kelly) returns from Brigadoon/Utopia to New York/Reality, after having experienced the wonder of the Scottish Highlands. His return home is to a place most audience members will recognise as a stereotypical view of New York. Full of noise, activity, plush restaurants, diamonds, furs, latest fashions, alcohol and smoke filled air.
The complete contrast of the two opposite worlds is shown when Kelly sits at a table with his fiance who is talking constantly. He tunes her out and instead hears what he wants to hear, Fiona's (Cyd Charisse) voice in his head, his lost love from Brigadoon. He knows he cannot go back to her because Brigadoon has vanished forever. Therefore the audience, dreaming of a utopian world, watches the character also dreaming of a utopian world. The only difference is that when he goes back to see where Brigadoon once was, utopia actually becomes reality when he watches in disbelief as the village rises miraculously from the mist. Tommy (an
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I will attempt to address this misconception by taking a textual analysis approach to musicals in relation to Richard Dyer's
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