Representing the Stranger: Film and Television

Abstract

The stranger, conventionally understood, has long been a staple of several film genres, notably westerns and science fiction. The figure of the stranger works well within the structure of film dramas, allowing for the introduction of new characters and scenarios with an economy of narrative development (a stranger rides into town and disturbs the status quo in some way, being perhaps the most tried and tested narrative device). The figure of the stranger also allows us to view the familiar workings of society with fresh eyes and encourages an examination of taken-for-granted norms and values. The stranger can be represented as a threat, as a catalyst for change, or as a dispassionate judge of human behaviour. The stranger that is so represented is inevitably the stranger which emerges from the work of Simmel; someone who ‘comes today and stays tomorrow’, and in doing so brings about changes to the host community, perhaps fracturing a previous unity or alternatively redoubling the ties that bind a community.