Time and the Text of Sex and the City: The Last Conversation among the Four Female Characters in the American TV Series

摘要

In HBO’s Sex and the City (1998-2004), such topics as sex, love and friendship are discussed by four Manhattan-based white middle-class women in their late thirties who typify varied and contrasting role models. In this article, through conversation analysis, pragmatics and stylistics, the author examines the text of the final conversation among the four characters, which occurs in the penultimate episode of the last season (2004). The objective is to identify the linguistic features through which the four protagonists’ different personalities and ideologies are delineated, to study whether their identities and worldviews on sex, love and life have changed since the 1997 pilot show, and to reveal how and why their distinct value systems have altered over time. Linguistic scrutiny, validated by a more extensive consideration of the text of the entire TV series, uncovers that Carrie, throughout the six seasons, evolves from an open-minded inquisitive nature to a value-laden traditionally female dramatis persona. What is more, the fact that even the ideologically groundbreaking figures of Samantha and Miranda, along with Charlotte and Carrie, are finally provided with a regular partner and family and with a standard white middle-class lifestyle clearly conveys that, over time, the text of Sex and the City has gradually incarnated a mainstream value system and has increasingly come to represent more stereotypically female characters.