This book gives an account of characterization in moving image fictions. Areas of investigation include the importance of performer and stars, the societal contexts of types, the constraints of the medium, the role of a specific genre and the question of emotional and moral engagement.

CONTENTS ; ;List of Figures ; ;Acknowledgments ; ;Notes on Contributors ; ;Foreword: Consorting with Characters ; Murray Smith ; ;Introduction: Screening Characters ; Johannes Riis and Aaron Taylor ; ;Part 1: The Importance of Actors ; ;1. Seeing and Hearing Screen Characters: Stars, Twofoldness, and the Imagination ;Ted Nannicelli ; ;2. Character and the Star Vehicle: The Impact of Casting Cary Grant ;Kathrina Glitre ; ;3. Character Collaborations: The Writer-Actor Relationship in Mad Men ;R. Colin Tait ; ; ;Part 2: Social Types, Social Contexts ; ;4. Being Typical and Being Individual ;Henry Bacon ; ;5. The Mark of the Social: Stereotypes, Folk Psychology and Metonymy in Mainstream Film ;Tico Romao ; ;6. Racialized Disgust and Character in Film ;Dan Flory ; ; ;Part 3: Medium-Specific Features and Constraints ; ;7. Impossible Characterizations ;Paisley Livingston ; ;8. Performative Metamorphosis: Animated Characters and Spectator Proximity ;Pete Sillett ; ;9. Social Media as Interface, or How Characters Enter Our Everyday Reality ;Philippe Gauthier ; ;10. Owning Our Actions: Identification with Avatars in Video Games ;Andreas Gregersen ; ; ;Part 4: Emotional and Moral Engagement ; ;11. Ethical Criticism and Fictional Characters as Moral Agents ;Carl Plantinga ; ;12. Absorbed Character Engagement: From Social Cognition Responses to the Experience of Fictional Constructions ;Katalin Bálint and Ed Tan ; ;13. "Familiarity Breeds Contempt:" Why Fascination, Rather than Repeat Exposure, Better Explains the Appeal of Antiheroes on Television ;Malcolm Turvey ; ; ;Part 5: The Character within Genres ; ;14. Girls Who Can Leap Through Time: Shojo and Time Travel in East Asian Media ;Jinhee Choi ; ;15. Action and Affordances: The Action Hero’s Skilled and Surprising Use of the Environment ;Birger Langkjær and Charlotte Sun Jensen ; ;16. Introducing Characters in Television Crime Series: Stylistic and Narrative Strategies ; Lennard Højbjerg ; ;Index ;