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Popular Culture Review
insignificant differences, it is no stretch to see a more general threat emanating
from modem critical theory’s questioning of the signification value of difference
and the superiority it confers. It makes a powerful argument that any society
needs to rethink the differences it values and examine their implications. Where
does this leave average American viewers? Few would be comfortable viewing
themselves as mongers of power and privilege oppressing helpless women and
minorities for their own selfish benefit. But, from modem critical theory’s point
of view, acceptance of a value system that valorizes insignificant differences to
disenfranchise the many for the benefit of a few makes those wiio fail to
question the validity of these differences—or unwilling to relinquish them—
complicit in cultural oppression.
It is this concept of differance that is interrogated by the Northern
Exposure episodes, and in both, viewers are reassured that they really have
nothing to be concerned about. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the
particular Northern Exposure episodes that take up these concepts or who do not
remember them in detail, I offer lengthy but useful summaries of the relevant
storylines.
The Death of the Author
The most explicit resi