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Plausibility

In your novel study section of the unit, you learned about the concept of plausibility.  For an audience to be genuinely interested in a story, that story has to be plausible, or believable.  The same is true for the characters within a text.  Characters have to seem realistic to the audience in order for the audience to feel connected to them and care about what happens to them in the story.

It is important to understand that even texts within genres such as science fiction or fantasy can be plausible.  The stories don’t have to be true.  They just have to feel as if they could be true.  Characters must behave in ways that seem reasonable within the world of the story.

Take, for example, the 2014 film Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey.  Take a moment to visit this site and watch the trailer for the film.  Interstellar is a science fiction film set in the future.  It deals with travelling into deep space and landing on far distant planets—things that are not possible at this time.  However, filmmakers want the audience to believe that the world of the film is realistic, that the events happening in the film could happen.  Notice that the film is set in the not-too-distant future, so the world looks and seems familiar to the audience.  Notice that the scenes have a gritty look about them—people and objects look a bit worn and dirty.  We are looking at futuristic spaceships, but they don’t look much different from equipment that might exist today.  The characters seem realistic as well.  They speak in a way that we would speak today.  These cinematic details all help to create a plausible film that keeps the audience members engaged.  The dramatic experiences of the characters feel real.

In your next assignment, you will turn your attention back to Bradley Hayward’s play Selfie to examine its plausibility as a text.