`What the Hell is That?': The Representation of Professional Service Markets in The Simpsons
通过分析《辛普森一家》中律师和医生的讽刺形象,探讨了专业服务市场的表现,并指出该剧既反映了对专业项目的批判,也提供了对专业身份的矛盾看法。
This paper makes productive connections between two forms of representation—formal scholarship on professional service workers and their depictions in The Simpsons cartoon series. In considering the show's representations of Attorney Lionel Hutz and Dr Nick Riviera, I ponder the ways in which the market-based behaviours of these `expert' individuals are so repeatedly targeted for satire. Through a detailed dissection of The Simpsons' scripts, I demonstrate how, on the one hand, the show to a large degree reflects critical thinking on the nature of the `professional project' yet, on the other, offers some rather more ambivalent, even sympathetic, notions of professional identity.