電視時裝劇類型與情節公式

電視劇情節多以社會大眾所能接受的思想與視聽符號為基礎，顯現多數人的願望和意志。不同類型的電視劇不但反映了社會大眾認知結構中對該類型的理解與期待，更展現社會對該類型電視劇內在結構的迷思。本研究取樣於民國八十三年第二季之八十七件電視時裝單元劇，以戲劇結構理論搭配卜羅普（V. Propp）敘事結構概念為主要研究依據，針對電視劇之情節進行分析，並嘗試將出現最多次數的故事單元，歸納成為電視劇情節公式。本研究發現，時裝單元劇之特定類型包括警匪劇、醫護劇、社區劇、師生劇、家庭劇、法律劇等。這些類型各自具備不同的情節公式，而這些情節公式又都分別反映了該類型的內容特徵。整體來說，電視單元劇內容著重描寫正義與仁愛，劇中普遍充滿照顧和愛護，如家庭具備了和諧與歡樂，學校充滿道德與智慧，社區則展現互助和禮讓。然而這些電視劇的情節內容，顯然與新聞媒介所紀錄的社會現象並不契合。本研究也發現，卜羅普敘事結構雖然能夠用於解析一般類型的電視劇，卻比較難以應用在本地電視劇中的師生劇和家庭劇。此種差異似乎凸顯了我國電視劇文化有異於西方電視劇之處:台灣的電視劇刻意藉重該類劇種以顯示道德教條與仁人思想，顯現了矮化觀眾心智的製播心態。此外，電視時裝劇中理想化的人倫與社群關係，強化了「人情」在電視時裝單元劇的角色。易言之，電視劇中的「天理」，傳達了中國人的最高理想，形成理想化的人倫關係，或是理想化的社群與集體關係。電視劇中對「天理」的實踐，可謂正是電視劇積極建構的社會集體夢想與現代神話。

Television drama programs are always originated from the immediate society where the stories portray. By utilizing common social values and shared sign systems, television drama programs represent the mental structure and life styles of the audience to whom they are aimed to influence. Following the same line, we may say that different drama genres also reveal varied social myths embedded in the human cognition. Dramatic theories from K. Burke, E. Scribe, V. Sadour, and structural methods from V. Propp were employed here to analyze 87 television dramatic programs collected in 1994. It is found that current drama episodes, which were generally developed to depict the modern lives in Taiwan, have included such major genres as gangster, medical, community, campus, family, and law types. Interestingly, each of these genres has its unique formula in the story structure, while each formula also reflects the characteristic of the genre to which it belongs. Our data show that stories of justice and benevolence were represented most frequently in Taiwan's television drama series. Humanities, harmony, care, as well as right courses, wisdom, cooperation, and joy were the themes that could most commonly be found in TV drama stories. The way how such contents were presented, however, was quite different from the daily life that the news media have presented. The study concludes that television drama programs did reconstruct the Taiwan society by using a specific linguistic form to describe the ideal relationships of the community with the Heaven. It seems that the final success in life and idealized relationships with the external world were the myths constructed by the television drama programs in Taiwan.