Berättelser om andra : Narrativa konflikter och författarskap i Meeting the man: James Baldwin in Paris 

Sammanfattning: Documentaries are often understood as authentic representations of reality. Ignorance when it comes to the constructive and sometimes manipulative nature of documentaries can lead to a continued reproduction of historically dominating ideologies, affecting the representation of certain people and issues. The aim of this study is therefore to contribute to a deeper understanding of how narratives are and can be constructed in documentary films (RQ1) as well as what this type of analysis can teach us about documentary authorship (RQ2). By looking at the documentary Meeting the man: James Baldwin in Paris as a specific case, the study attempts to draw conclusions about authorship and narrative constructions in documentaries in general. The theoretical framework is based on a social constructivist understanding of the field and consists more specifically of narrative, discursive and semiotic theory. The methods for analysis are narrative analysis and multimodal critical discourse analysis, as well as semiotic analysis.  The study found that there is a distinct conflict between the narrative constructed by the film's director Terrence Dixon and the film's subject, James Baldwin. The different narratives are realized through a combination of visual and verbal discourses. Following things could be concluded; Dixons narrative strives to exclude Baldwin as an author, from his sociocultural and historical context. Baldwin, on the other hand, constructs a narrative which argues for its impossibility. In addition to this, documentary authorship is dependent on how much context the different discourses are given as well as what the context reveals. The ability to serve as an author is then determined by the power given to conduct reflexive narratives.