Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 2005 | Page 52

48 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