The dominance of character over structure is the basis of propaganda.
Propaganda can't exist as propaganda without its literary form where character and moral conflict dominate the emotive registers. And it is the psyche, the mythological identification via the parallelism between audience moral conflict and the character's moral conflicts that is manipulated by propaganda as well as drama. The character embodies the conflicts and struggles with the world as performance. From Cosby to the latest Rap stars, but in virtually all players, audiences, and media. The only structural components are those within the dramatic conflicts of life or death, win or lose, good or evil, men or women, black or white, Democrat v Repugnant, Kerry v Bush, Capitalism v Nothingness, America v the World...
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Yes. As I read your post I could see this process in action in my mind's eye.
And Cosby (to return to him one final time) provides a near perfect example by describing a binary division of Blacks: those who've "held up their end of the bargain" (the haves) against those who've failed to do so (the have-nots who, we're told, are in a have-not state due to a legion of deficiencies).
As you say, without this reference to 'character' as the total explanation there can't be a mythological narrative or riveting moral conflict - my outstanding and sterling triumphs ("against the odds", amplifying the aura of heroism) in contrast to their multitude of failures.
The thing is, I wonder whether propaganda creates this frame or merely exploits a deeply embedded aspect of human thought.
.d.