Sylvie Magerstaedt

Scripting Virtue – Building better character(s) on and off screen

University of Notre Dame, Australia

Films and television programs no doubt play a significant role in our contemporary lives. They can entertain, uplift, distract and educate us, but could they also help to make us better people? And, if so, what is the role of the creators in facilitating this process?

The rise of streaming platforms over the last two decades has given new prominence to so called long-form storytelling. As this paper will demonstrate, this format, with its strong emphasis on character, has opened new avenues for exploring the virtue and character as presented on screen. If it is right that, as Creeber (2004: 6) argues, serial television ‘drama is intrinsically better suited [than cinema] to explore and dramatise the complexity of character psychology as a whole’, television studies may offer an untapped potential to help us understand the virtues and their role in cultivating character. It is suggested that, in turn, analysing character through the lens of philosophical theories on virtues can expand the vocabulary and toolkit for both screenwriting theorists and practitioners, shifting the focus from a more schematic view of character development towards a more holistic approach. Through a discussion of examples from recent television dramas the proposed paper will outline how virtue theory and screenwriting theory can fruitfully interconnect in order to create better characters on- and possibly also off-screen.

This paper is part of a wider project exploring the interconnections between television studies and philosophy that aims to examine how television drama can help deepen our understanding of virtues, demonstrate how virtue theories may expand the conceptual vocabulary of film and television scholars, and develop practical tools for filmmakers and screenwriters to support the development of convincing and well-rounded characters.

Sylvie Magerstädt is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Her work sits at the intersection of philosophy, film and television studies, with a particular interest in storytelling, myth and character. She has published three monographs, exploring a range of topics, from the revival of epic cinema (Philosophy, Myth and Epic Cinema: Beyond Mere Illusions, 2014) and the ethics of science fiction (Body, Soul and Cyberspace in Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, 2014) to television representations of the ancient world (TV Antiquity. Sword, sandals, blood and sand, 2019). Before joining academia she also worked briefly in scriptwriting departments for two German TV productions.

Sylvie is currently completing a monograph on Ancient Britain on Screen and working on her most recent research project, which aims to investigate how fictional television and philosophical virtues can fruitfully interact and inform each other.