| This dissertation uses textual analysis (narrative and rhetoric analysis, specifically) to discover the ways in which the construction of a mixed race rhetoric in situation comedy, soap opera, and science fiction assists the process of hegemony through the existence of polysemy. The programs selected for analysis (one in each genre) each featured at least one mixed-race main character (in science fiction, the characters follow the concept of species-as-race---species is used as a metaphor for race), and the researcher analyzed the narratives and rhetoric involving those characters.; This dissertation argues that the existence of polysemy in these texts assists the process of hegemony by allowing the socially conscious readers/viewers to believe they are participating in a resistant text, lulled by the existence of a dialogue on mixed race. In reality, the images and discussions of biraciality in the three selected programs resemble the most abhorred biracial stereotypes (especially the most infamous, the tragic mulatto type, an unfortunate contemporary favorite). As a result, situation comedy, soap opera, and science fiction use different methods and techniques to construct mixed race within their texts, but they each take blame for communicating advocacy for the continued marginalization of mixed-race people in television, an entirely hegemonic consequence. |
