STEREOTYP AKO OBRAZ

The concept of stereotype is closely linked with the concept of image. First, the authoress elucidates the concept of stereotype with respect to its anchoring in collective imaginary, where, according to Homi K. Bhabha, it functions as a fetish pendant. Later, she focuses on the use of stereotypes in audio visual media. She draws the reader’s attention to deconstructing the stereotype as a component part of representation strategies, the role of which is maintaining the power structures. The emphasis is especially laid on stereotypes of the race as a specific kind of social stereotypes. These, due to an obvious visibility of the difference in skin colour (and the impossibility of cover-up) count on a specific set-up of the visual field. An individual with a different skin colour functions as the object of the gaze. His/her image (for instance, in various audio visual and visual media) oftentimes behaves as a synecdoche, metonymy or metaphor. The paper contains examples of Slovak documentary films and TV series, which illustrate some other forms of stereotype functioning – as recognised caricature, or, as distorted, „incorrect“ reality image.