“ None of You Cared Enough ”: The Problematic Moralizing of 13 Reasons Why
For its methodological approach , this critical essay utilizes textual analysis , a prominent research method used to analyze the content of media texts . Although textual analysis has been extensively applied to cinematic texts , scholars only began applying the method to television series during the 1970s . Since then , textual analysis has developed into one of the foremost methods within the field of television studies ( Gray and Lotz 28 ). Textual analysis includes several varying approaches , one being rhetorical criticism . Rhetorical criticism is a form of textual analysis through which scholars can both identify the messages of a media text and evaluate their persuasive ability ; such messages can be intentionally incorporated by the authors or otherwise . Rhetorical criticism is employed by media scholars to analyze how these messages can influence their audiences ’ perception of reality ( Frey et al . 2 ; 235 ). Resultantly , rhetorical criticism was the best suited method for this research essay , to contrast the intentional commentary producers incorporated into 13 Reasons Why with audience interpretation of these messages .
ANALYSIS
The debate regarding a possible relationship between suicide in fiction and contagion suicide can be traced as far back to the 1770s , when German writer Johann Wolfgang van Goethe published the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther , whose eponymous protagonist fatally shoots himself following a failed relationship . The novel generated high sales and influenced contemporary European culture , with many readers emulating the doomed Werther in appearance and manner . Following its publication , a notable increase in suicides across Europe was attributed to The Sorrows of Young Werther , and the novel was subsequently banned ( Gould et al . 1270 ). However , television , which has since succeeded literature
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