According to the philosophies of Plato, art imitates life where as Aristotle states, life imitates art. According to our popular culture, Seinfeld is a reflection of radical romance which breathes life into our daily existence and is an art form created for the masses. It attaches itself to the philosophies of the philosophers from previous generations. George resonates sounds of Beauvoir, while Elaine echos the words of Saussure and Derrida, Jerry provokes thoughts of Baudrillard and Kramer, well Kramer, he might be an excellent case study for Foucault and Judith Butler's article "Imitation and Gender Insubordination" addresses them all when she states that "there is no "proper" gender."
I have a voice and that voice is speaking about radical romance. In speaking about radical romance we must speak about language. Saussure, a Swiss linguist, speaks about structuralism. A structuralist understanding of culture is concerned with a "systems of relations" of an underlying structure (usually language) and the grammar that makes meaning possible. Does Elaine, from the show Seinfeld, live in a culture where there are shared meaning practices? Is Seinfeld a cultural phenomena? What signs does Elaine give and does her meaning only exist in relation to her groups meaning? Language is social and essential. Speaking is individual and accidental. According to Saussure language is not a function of the speaker, it is a product that is passively assimilated by the individual. It never requires premeditation. Speaking is an individual act. Elaine is carving out a place for women by shedding light on the condition when she gets inside the language of the male. She is being defined by "what she puts out there" and what she "puts out there" is being heard by the other male members of her community.
The language of Seinfeld is created by the group. Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer reflect what they perceive to be true and then reflect their ideals onto a larger cultural group. Their "social side of speech" is associated with a concept that is "outside" each individual in the show because it exists as a result of an unwritten contract by the members of, not just the community of their group of 4, but the community at large. We all understand what they are saying and what their meaning is so Seinfeld is a reflection of our society.
Language is concrete, not abstract, according to Saussure and although Seinfeld appears to be abstract, it is not, because we here in the United States have collectively understood and approved what is stated on the show. The language of the show has become a reality, as a result of association through the characters brain functions, because we understand the signs they use to express ideas.
These four characters have created a Seinfeld society with Seinfeld signs and symbols creating not only a social psychology amongst these four characters but a general psychology which is perpetuated through the mass media of television. Television created a cultural convention and our culture works like a language.
In contradiction, Derrida does not follow all the beliefs of Saussure. In relatiion to Seinfeld the show always has a trace of previous articulations. The differences of the characters and their articulations show that meaning is never fixed and their words that they use to express ideas to each other carry echoes and traces of other meanings. The show itself follows some sort of radical pattern and then traces this pattern back to previous language weaving other language in so the viewer picks up on innuendos and we are inundated with subliminal thought from each of the characters and eventually we relate these thoughts to other textual locations.
What appears to be innocuous, the articulation of unstated expectations, is actually an organized set of rules psychologically contracted and organized by the four characters of the show.
In the true meaning of Derrida, Seinfeld is like a postcard that has gone astray. Seinfeld has become the true metaphor for subliminal thought. There is a stream of consciousness conveyed through each character in every episode that we do not allow ourselves to become privy to in everyday life. This in turn is exploited through the mass media of, again, television. Seinfeld reaches many people and generates meanings to others that it is not intended for and who may not understand the concept. The true meaning may be displaced but who are we to say what true meaning is. We understand the character's thoughts but do we apply them to ourselves and our everyday lives?
Oh, one more thing: From Shakespeare's "As You Like It":
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwilling to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow...
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