‘Realityism’ as melancholic storytelling to cope with contemporary risk

Abstract

In this article I examine the hypothesis that many young people’s propensity to participate in a reality show is related to social risk and uncertainty in planning their lives. This hypothesis underpins the concept of ‘realityism’ as a strategy hybridising the real and the imaginary. In this article I draw on data from a study of 719 video interviews of aspiring participants in the 2011/2012 ‘Big Brother’ reality show (Italian edition), conducted by the audition team. I show that ‘realityism’ is a form of aesthetic reflexivity among individuals who respond mimetically, copying or appearing to be the same as someone else and is a response to a fragmented and precarious social experience, brought about by both neo-liberalism and the failure of societal institutions. Participants aim to keep the promises and hopes of modernisation alive amid the suspended space of the Big Brother House, via a melancholic therapy for survival.

Keywords:

• risk
• realityism
• social risk
• aesthetic reflexivity
• jouissance

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Ian Condry and William Uricchio for the invitation to deliver an early version of this paper at MIT and for their helpful and incisive comments. My thanks also to Giovanni Boccia Artieri, Lucia Corso and Roberto Serpieri, invaluable interlocutors for my research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.