Week 6, 2/281. The politics of identification1. “Identification can only be made through recognition, and all recognition is itself an im-plicit confirmation of the ideology idk the status quo” Stuart Hall2. What happens when you do not recognize yourself in the representation?1. It’s hard to enjoy, to identify, or to lose oneself in the narrative.3. What happens when you always recognize yourself in the representation1. You never notice that you’re being represented or that others are (and how)2. Linear model of communication1. Assumes: sender-message-receiver2. Stuart Hall - encoding/decoding3. Encoding/decoding1. Decodings do not follow inevitably from encodings2. Dominant hegemonic position3. The negotiated position4. The oppositional position4. Dominant/hegemonic readings1. Audiences accept the preferred meaning of the sender (picture 1)5. Negotiated readings1. Audiences recognize the meaning of the sender, but resist it in part (picture 2)6. Oppositional reading1. Audience decodes the message in ways contrary to sender’s intent (picture 3, the Witcherand the golden girls, Wizard of OZ)7. Bell hooks and black female spectatorship (picture 4, night school, the wood, black coffee)1. Black men could gaze at white society in safety2. Black women could find power in deconstructing the images3/28. Constructions of race and masculinity1. How is masculinity constructed/negotiated in martial arts film?2. How is race construed/negotiated in martial arts film?3. How are race and masculinity used together?9. Eastern martial arts films1. “The Chinese hero often fights for and part of a community.” Tasker, p. 5042. Often faces an evil villain symbolizing colonial power (Japan, Russia, US, Europe)3. “The context of anti colonial narrative is crucial for thinking about the racial discourses of masculine identity that are worked through in Hong Kong marital arts cinema.” Tasker, p. 50410. Korean cinema: A hypermascuilne response to Japanese colonialism1. Japan colonized Korea (Not yet dived into North and South) and used “cultural assimila-tion” Tactic2. The first feature-length Korean film Arirang (1926) is an anti-Japanese film that features the Korean man as justifiably violent. The main character kills in order to project his young sister, and thus he becomes the hero of the story3. Arirang marks the beginning ofd “hyper mascuilnity” as a response to Japanese colonism. The “Korean” response to being dominated by the Japanese 11. The wailing (곡곡)1. The man character has no trouble believing that the Japanese man is evil - because they once dominated Koreans and stole Korean property, culture, and women.2. The twist is that the real villan/ghost in the film us the young-looking Korean Gil.3. But to the end, the main character cannot believe that1. The Japanese man s not a evil person and a Korean Girl can be so powerful4. Japanese colonialism produced this national Korean identity a hyper masculinity who knows that Japanese men are evil and that Korean…12. “Eastern” martial arts films13. Masculinity in eastern films1. Stereotype: Asia is “soft”. Men and women are passive and compliant2. Martial arts films construct asian men a resistant to stmviic colonial power, “hard” and inpenetable taster, p. 5053. The hero uses his body as a weapon against mascuilian14. African American viewership / admiration of eastern martial arts films1. “While the assertion of a powerful Chinese has an obvious appeal for Asian audiences, both15. Western martial arts films1. Sometimes lone hero, sometimes mixed race “buddies”2. “Narratives centered on class conflict” Tasker, p. 504.3. Often allude to past trauma (Vietnam or other war, death of loved ones)as source of skills16. Masculinity in western films1. Americans are damaged: the male action hero is “a walking wound.” Tasker, p. 503.2. Martial arts films construct American masculinity as emotionally fragile, but physically strong.17. Differences between east and west1. East: empowerment/reclamation fantasy2. West: homoerotic fantasy18. Scopophilia in martial arts films1. “The martial arts film has evolved as cinematic form that allows men to look at men.” Tasker, p. 506.2. “They allow an identification with a male figure who other men will look at and who willenjoy being the object of that admiring gaze.” Tasker, p. 506.3. “Used as a space within which to stage homoerotic fantasies, primarily working through issues and anxious around while make sexuality” 50719. Masculinity us shared by social and historical conditions1. East = colonialism2. West = pain/damage20. D21. D22. D23. D24.