Fictionalized Audience in The Princess and the Frog

For Walter Ong, audience is a very complex and under researched concept. It carries different implications in both the oratory and written form concerning how the speaker both projects and fictionalizes their audience. This ability to project their possible audience ultimately gives the author an ability to influence the reception of their work. However, throughout his work Ong talks about factors that can complicate and influence and author’s ability to appeal to their audience. One idea that Ong highlights early on is the concept of cultural influence and context and how they factor into the role of an audience. In his essay he asserts that, “histories of the relationship between literature and culture have something to say about the status and behavior of readers” (p.2) This ultimately describes the power of the current social climate in a reader’s perception of the things they read. It’s displayed time and time again, when the changing cultural environment causes for books to be banned because the context in which they’re being read do not measure up to politically correct standards. He expounds on this idea of context in a quote by Maurice Merleau-Ponty where he points out that “words are never fully determined in their abstract signification but have meaning only with relation to man’s body and to it’s interaction with its surroundings..” (p.3) With these ideas in mind, and the way that they can hinder an author’s ability to connect with his audience he ultimately goes on to describe how an author can locate and construct a specific audience.

Ong goes on to describe this process as one that works cohesively between both the author and their audience. For this to successfully take place he states that “first, the writer must construct in his imagination, clearly or vaguely, an audience cast in some sort of role” (p.5) Thus the writer must envision a targeted audience and appeal to them in a way that demands their attention. “Second the audience must correspondingly fictionalize itself” (p.5), and they in turn put themselves in the role that the writer has created for them. Authors fictionalize their audience, and readers accept this role by immersing themselves in the text and taking the author’s voice into account.

He goes on to further describe this idea of fictionalizing by drawing examples from the syntax mechanics of Hemingway's writing. He states that Hemingway’s “fictionalizing is often signaled by his use of the definite article as a special kind of qualifier or demonstrative pronoun: “that”” (p.6) For an example he draws on phrases like “The late summer of that year” or “Across the river”. The use of the pronoun ultimately implies a sense of familiarity for the reader. By establishing this camaraderie between author and audience, Hemingway is able to evoke emotion, and in turn able to better develop his story in a way that appeals to the reader because there is a general sense of companionship.

This idea of fictionalizing an audience is displayed greatly in the Princess and the Frog

and was executed masterfully on the part of the writers because they were able to establish both familiarity and a sense of relatability with their audience. They did this by structuring their film to appeal to three distinct fictionalized audiences:

• Audiences Familiar with The Princess and the Frog 
• Disney Princess Fans
• African Americans Searching for Representation in Disney Films 

In the first case Disney fictionalized their audience by taking an age old story and remastering it. This was guaranteed to peak the interest of people familiar with the fairytale, and possibly evoke nostalgia in a way that would demand their attention. They even found a way to incorporate this in the movie, as reflected in the clip (1:30), when Prince Naveen fondly recalls the story himself. In the case of Disney Princess fans an avid Disney consumers the appeal was simple. Prior to the release of The Princess and the Frog the last Disney Princess movie hadn’t been released in well over ten years, and even that one strayed away from their typical romance narrative. With the Princess and the Frog they were able to project the needs and desires of their audience and produce a fun fairytale with hints of the classic romantic elements that have brought them much success in the past. Even with the inclusion of Tiana making a wish on a star at (0:14), the well known Disney trope pays homage to their roots. Finally, prior to the creation of The Princess and the Frog there was a demand in the community for Disney to create an African American princess. With this exigence in mind, the writers were able to fictionalize an audience of African American viewers and respond to a cultural demand that influenced the needs of their audience. Projecting and fictionalizing the audience contributed greatly to the success of the Princess and the Frog as a film, and when an author takes these factors into account they can change the course of the reception of their project.