Study Guide for Mid Term Exam HUM 3321 MULTICULTURAL FILM SECTION 5 1 THEORETICAL CRITICAL CONCEPTS Make sure you understand the following concepts and their relation to film a Kellner i Cultural Studies socially constructed system of power relationships ii Multiculturalism race class gender sexuality are a set of concepts simultaneously expressed society creates to keep order iii Media Culture Cultural Pedagogy it teaches us what to believe do feel and value proving a common culture in which to situate ourselves iv Cultural Studies Methodology 1 Production and Political Economy production economy concerned with the formulas and conventions of the production of culture interlocking system of inter articulating and mutually reinforcing agencies Political economy refers to conservative and liberal values marginalizing divergent ideologies 2 Textual Analysis quantitative and qualitative approaches semiotics are used to analyze and critique how race gender class and sex are portrayed 3 Audience Response and Use of Media Culture dominant and oppositional readings audiences can appropriate and empower themselves hegemony fails when dominant ideology is weaker than social resistance b Stuart Hall 1 What are three approaches to languages 2 Which approach do we take in this class 3 What is representation 4 Are representations the same as reality 1 The approaches to languages are A Relative approach Language reflects meanings which are already out there in the world of objects people and events i Problem We need to learn the code to understand each other D Intentional approach Language expresses actors personally intended meanings i Problem Private meanings must enter into codes to be understood C Constructionist approach Meanings are constructed by social actors using shared symbolic practices and processes 2 Constructionist approach 3 Representation is the production of meaning through language A Two Key Properties i Connects meaning and language to culture ii Allows a person to refer to their world B Two Systems i Conceptual Map ii Language 4 Are representations the same as reality A No they re not i Stop Lights Meaning is relational depends on the relation between the a sign and a concept which is fixed by a code The code fixes the meaning not the color itself c James Lull 1 What is his definition of hegemony 2 Who was the first intellectual to coin theterm 3 What is social consent and why is it important when studying hegemony Hegemony is 1 Hegemony is the power or dominance that one social group holds over others dominance and subordination in the field of relations structured by power But hegemony us more than social power itself it s a method for gaining and maintaining power 2 Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci 3 Hegemony implies a willing agreement by people to be governed by principles rules and laws they believe operate in their best interests even though in actual practice they may not 4 Social consent can be more effective means of control than coercion or force D Louis Althusser What are ISAs and RSAs 1 ISAs A certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institutions Doing things on your own A Plural Private kind of Functions by Ideology P Violence Nongovernment agencies mostly that teach beliefs i ISAs produce ideology belief or beliefs about how the world works in order to maintain a certain social arrangement whether or not producers claim that is what they are doing 2 RSAs the government the administration the army the police the prisons etc The repressure state app violence ideology A Singular Unified Public Functions by Violence P and Ideology Government agencies that use force i Iron Man E Judith Andre What are the central characteristics of a stereotype 1 A stereotype is defined as conventional formulaic and usually oversimplified conception opinion or belief a person group or event or issue considered to typify or conform to unvarying patterns 2 Problematic because they are negative they are on an oversimplification F Carter Soles What are the 8 key tropes used in Judd Apatow films Trope 1 Conflict with jocks Conflicts with jocks support the geek s melodramatic victimhood Trope 2 Geek Melodrama Geek Centered film narratives across all genres place the geek in the role of long suffering victim vs jocks and women therefore activating viewer sympathy for his plight and placing him the in the melodramatic position of moral righteousness Trope 3 Simulated Ethnicity Anger is often racialized Imagined Blackness Trope 4 Voyeurism and Stalkerism Trope 5 Creativity and Vivid Fantasy Life In the end the man gets whatever he wants Trope 6 Bromance A Bros before Hoes B Buddy pairs geeks slackers are emphasized C Bonding rituals objectifying women and graphically discussing sex D Threat of male male homoeroticism contained through strict separation of homosexuals and heterosexuals e Uneasy homophobic joking Knocked Up G James Place i Women in Film Noir women either fetishized close up or devalued guilty then rescued by man femme fatale who is set on destroying the male hero fetishized spectacle staged seduction pot to manipulate man ii Two poles of the female archetype Spider Woman Nurturing Woman a Spider women manipulates the hero luring him away from the good woman into her luring web of disaster b Nurturing women depicted as dull featureless unattainable ultimately denied to the male hero by the spider women in the end iii Is the portrayal of women in Film Noir progressive or problematic 1 Progressive for the reason that it show women during this time period are coming more involved in society but problematic in a mans view as they come back from war women have taken their jobs Gilda c Julie Grossman i Film Noir the ability to make people uneasy fixed iconography dark predictable narrative it is the twist that is not expected ii Femme Fatales set on destroying the male hero Gilda on stage at casino iii Women and American society during WWII took male jobs and disrupted order of sexual relations i Science Fiction film and ideology ii Why are Sci Fi films a privileged vehicle for carrying ideology Peter Lev Because it less concerned than other genres with the surface structure of reality science fiction can pay more attention to the deep structures of what is and what ought tot be d Peter Lev iii Alien e Sharon Bird i Homosociality promotes clear distinctions between non hegemonic and hegemonic
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