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CULTURE, IDEOLOGY AND POPULAR CULTURE Module 3

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Page 1: SG mod3 SNDT culture ideology and popular culture...structuralist approach, a new historiography that places the minority groups of a nation as the 'center,' has emerged in recent

CULTURE, IDEOLOGY AND POPULAR CULTURE

Module 3

Page 2: SG mod3 SNDT culture ideology and popular culture...structuralist approach, a new historiography that places the minority groups of a nation as the 'center,' has emerged in recent

CULTURE, IDEOLOGY AND POPULAR CULTURE

Mass/popular/class Culture, Structuralism- Ferdinand Saussure- Roland Barthes (mythologies) Post Structuralism- Jacques Derrida - Jacques Lacan – Michel Foucault Marxism – Frankfurt School and Gramscian studies. Post Modernism- Jean Baudrillard- Fredric Jameson- Jean Lyotard

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STRUCTURALISM AND POST-STRUCTURALISM

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STRUCTURALISM IN A NUTSHELL

Things cannot be understood in isolation They must be seen in the context of the larger structures that they are part of. Structuralists concern themselves with how meaning is established and maintained And focus upon the patterns and functions of language

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FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (26 NOVEMBER 1857 – 22 FEBRUARY 1913)

Swiss linguist Coined the term semiology Founder of Modern linguistics Course in General Linguistics (Cours de linguistique générale), was published posthumously in 1916

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COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS

Explained the relationship between speech and the evolution of language language as a structured system of ‘double entity,’ of signs

a concept or meaning a sound-image

It is like two sides of a page, one can’t exist without the other.

In Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics,  a book summarising his lectures at the University of Geneva from 1906 to 1911,  he explained the relationship between speech and the evolution of language,  investigating language as a structured system of signs.It is important to note that Saussure perceived a linguistic unit to be a ‘double entity,’ meaning that it is composed of two parts. He viewed the linguistic unit as a combination of:1. a concept or meaning2. a sound-image

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LINGUISTIC UNITS AND SOUND – IMAGES ARE MENTAL IMPRESSIONS

Mental impressions made on our senses by a certain ‘thing.’

Search engineGoogle

Sound Sound image Mental Impression

Sassure calls this mental linguistic unit - ‘Sign’

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DOG

kukur

hund

kutta

canis

e.g This word DOG represents the idea of an animal the letters used are arbitrary but our shared cultural understanding means that most of us in the room know what is meant when we see those three letters.

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SIGN, SIGNIFIED AND SIGNIFIER

The connection between Signified and Signifier is arbitrary.

Search engineGoogle

Mental Sound Signifier

Signified

There may not be any logical connection between the two

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There is a significant distinction between the act of uttering language — parole/performance — and the system of a language which can be seen as the abstract ability of the single speaker to speak his/her native language — competence — and/or the communal linguistic knowledge which defines a speech community — langue.

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Development of language through history

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ROLAND BARTHES

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ROLAND BARTHES (1915-80)

Literary scholar and teacher of French literature and classical languages Influenced by structuralism: 1950s Turned to cultural studies and literary theory

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IMAGE AS SIGN

Images are representations or signs, of things, not the thing themselves create meaning systematically Like language, dreams, and myths

Therefore, they can be studied under semiology, or semiotics

Image--Text"[W]riting and pictures ... do not call upon the same type of consciousness ... pictures, to be sure, are more imperative than writing, they impose meaning at one stroke, without analysing or diluting it""But this is no longer a constitutive difference. Pictures become a kind of writing as soon as they are meaningful" ("Myth Today"110)

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SIGNIFIED - the idea being represented

SIGNIFIER - the word doing the representing

The sign is the whole that results from the association of the signifier with the signified

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SIGNIFIED

SIGNIFIER

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Signifier Rose

Denotation

Signified Love

Valentine’s day Passion Beauty…

Connotation

SIGN

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Depends on •Context •Relationship to other signs •Environment.

INTERPRETATION OF A SIGN

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Same signifier with different signified

Signifier Signified Apple Temptation

Apple Healthy

Apple Fruit

RELATIONSHIPS

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Different signifiers with same signified.

Signifier Signified Apple Apple

Pomme Apple

Apfel Apple

RELATIONSHIPS

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Stop means Stop

Apple means Apple

Crown means Crown

THE FIRST LEVEL OF SIGNIFICATION

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Stop means Danger

Apple means Healthy

Crown means royalty

THE SECOND LEVEL OF SIGNIFICATION

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CODE

A code is a rule or convention that associates a signifier with a certain signified or meaning.

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Denotation: Literal and common sense meaning of a sign.

Connotation: Describes the interaction that occurs between the subjective user and their culture.

Myths: pre-existing cultural codes, including language but also images and socially created concepts--material from ideology --to perform its significations

Second-Order Systems "Mythical speech is made of a material which has already been worked on so as to make it suitable for communication" (110) "Myth" uses pre-existing cultural codes, including language but also images and socially created concepts--material from ideology--to perform its significations

Depoliticization The mythic signifier (or image in culture) "has a sensory reality (unlike the linguistic signifier, which is purely mental), there is a richness in it" A myth empties this meaning from the form, in service to the concept, "impoverishing" it: "only the letter remains" (117) Myth "purifies" things of their history; it "makes them innocent" and "natural" (143)

Myths: Cultural, Historical "[T]here is no fixity in mythical concepts: they can come into being, alter, disintegrate, disappear completely. And it is precisely because they are historical that history can very easily suppress them" (120) "[M]yth is a type of speech chosen by history: it cannot possibly evolve from the 'nature' of things" (110)

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The wedding

myth.

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The romance myth.

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The body image Myth

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Codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating forms of "common sense," of the taken-for-granted in everyday life.

IDEOLOGIES:

I am at the barber's, and a copy of Paris-Match is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted, probably fixed on a fold of the tricolour. All this is the meaning of the picture. But, whether naively or not, I see very well what it signifies to me: that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors.

Dominant ideology - the way the world should be Popular culture took concepts, drained them of their real meaning and repurposed them to support dominant ideologies. Mythologies - images (signs) were stripped of meaning when removed from context These images presented a unthreatening image of the world

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"FRENCH IMPERIALITY"

Form: "a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting" Concept: "a purposeful mixture of Frenchness and militariness" Signification: "There is no better answer to the detractors of alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors" (116)

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THE IMAGE'S THREE MESSAGES

In the case of an image with text, such as an advertisement or news photo:

Linguistic (text)

Iconic, or symbolic, or connoted (image)

Non-coded iconic, or perceptual, or literal, or denoted (image)

The "message without a code"

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BARTHES 5 CODES

The Hermeneutic Code (HER.)- Mysterious effect

The Proairetic Code (ACT.)- Tension before action

The Semantic Code (SEM.)- Connotative meaning

The Symbolic Code (SYM.)- Deeper meaning through opposition.

The Cultural Code (REF.)- Cultural interpretation

The Hermeneutic Code Is the theory in which elements of the story is not fully understood or explained and therefore creates a mysterious effect towards the audience. This code is used to try and intrigue the audience and keep them questioned until the final scenes towards the ending where all the questions are answered. refers to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that demand explication.

The Proairetic Code Is when tensions is built up to a result of action or an result in where an incident will take place and which therefore leaves the reader in what will take place next. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be. We wait to see if he kills his opponent or is wounded himself. Suspense is thus created by action rather than by a reader's or a viewer's wish to have mysteries explained.

The Hermeneutic and Proairetic Codes work together to create a story based around a mysterious tension building genre.

The Semantic Code Is the code points to an element in a text in which the connotation of the story is given additional meaning over the denotative meaning of the word. points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.

The Symbolic Code This code is similar to the Semantic Code, however the only difference is that this code acts at a wider level. It sets the semantic meaning in a much broader and deeper way. This is usually done through the use of antithesis. This is when new meanings is lifted up from opposing and conflict ideas. The Symbolic code refers to organized systems of semes. When two connotative elements are placed in opposition or brought together by the narrator, they form an element of the Symbolic Code. In the starred reading, the Symbolic Code is represented as SYM.

The Cultural Code Within this code the audiences are seen in a wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology way. This usually involves in sciences and religion. The Cultural Code refers to anything in the text which refers to an external body of knowledge such as scientific, historical, and cultural knowledge.

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STRUCTURALISM

It emphasizes the form and structure of the object of study. Text reader opposition: The reader becomes more important than the author. But there is one text and several readers of this text would interpret it in one way. The theory of binary opposition. Structuralism does not focus on the life beyond or the backgrounds of different cultural units and productions. It, rather, prefers to consider each one of them as a structure that works by its own internal rules. a detached and mechanical way of looking at the world without any attention to the old and traditional conventions of such a looking. he structuralist thinker looks at the words as different units, and takes the rules between these units as the specific grammar of that language. Concluding this part, one can propose this point that Structuralism was trying to do for culture what grammar does for language.

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POST STRUCTURALISM

It is a critique of structuralism Post-structuralism always tend to ask questions instead of answering them. a text can have several meanings instead of one universally accepted meaning. each reader has his/her way of understanding the text. Opposes the theory of binary opposition. There is always a privileged party. if we take the unprivileged part of a binary opposition to be privileged, the meaning of the text changes. eg.Retelling of Ramayan by Sita. The rejection of this idea on the human subject is also called the decentering of the subject. Importance of the term discourse.

The work of Edward Said (1935-2003) concerning post-colonial literature, imperialism and western Orientalism is a good example in this regard. While Orientalism was considered traditionally as the western man's love to know the East, it was redefined by Said as a ''western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.'' (23)

In Post-structuralist view, the traditional centered part of a binary opposition is itself a transcendental signified, and its decentrization leads to different results. For example, the minorities have always been unprivileged in the history, and the history has been often narrated from the viewpoint of the majority groups. Based on a Post- structuralist approach, a new historiography that places the minority groups of a nation as the 'center,' has emerged in recent years that criticizes the old majority/minority opposition.

Decentering of the subject. The other salient feature in the works of Post-structuralists is that they are against to those attitudes towards man, the author or, generally, the 'subject' that were usually presented by what they call ''humanism''. According to this traditional view, the author was regarded as having a coherent and fixed identity whose purposefulness and intention determined the meaning and theme of his work. Man, in this view, was regarded as the true subject of his deeds; a man who knows what he is doing and why; a man who determines his own way of life. The rejection of this idea on the human subject is also called the decentering of the subject. In other words, man is not here conceived of as having a unified and fixed identity. His identity is, on the contrary, 'subject' to many other factors (this characteristic is discussed fully at the end of this chapter).

Discourse Another feature of Post-structuralist thought is its interest in and concern with the term 'discourse'. It has become a prominent term in Post-structuralism, and its meaning is not limited only to a conversational passage or a speech. The term discourse, in Post- structuralism, shows ''the superficiality of the boundaries between literary and non-literary modes of signification.'' (25) This term is of far significance in the works of Michel Foucault, who has dealt with different social discourses in relation to 'power'(to be explained in details in the forthcoming pages).

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POST-STRUCTURALISMStructuralists believe culture derived from its own meaning Post-Structuralism emerged in France in the 1960’s The movement was a distinct reaction to, and criticised Structuralism Most ‘Post-Structuralist’ theory comes from people who were once Structuralists Post-Structuralists believe in direct contrast, they typically view culture as inseparable from meaning At the time of Post-Structuralism there was political anxiety, and in France students and workers were rebelling against the state, almost causing the downfall of the French government During these years there was an increased interest in alternative and more radical philosophies, such as Feminism, Marxism and Nihilism. These theories are linked by being critical of dominant Western philosophy and culture

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JACQUES LACAN

French poststructuralist His ideas decenter the "self"; he says the self (i.e., who we are) is constructed in language. Lacan was a practising psychoanalyst and reinterpreter of Freud (but sometimes anti-Freud as well).

Descartes' idea of the self ("I think, therefore I am") was more-or-less maintained - until Lacan appeared on the scene.Lacan believed that the subject is nothing more than a moment in discourse or language; he believed, much more so than Freud, that the self consists of language and deals with the symbolic nature of the self as a result of this belief. (Freud relied more heavily on the biological nature of the self).

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THREE STAGES OF CHILDHOOD

the imaginary - words, language and signs are not part of the mental makeup at this point. the mirror stage -when the child can recognize itself and its environment in the mirror, the imaginary order breaks down the symbolic stage -The symbolic order is a world that consists of pre-defined social roles and gender differences and also a world of subjects and objects; thus, language. the real stage - always unattainable: Involves the idea of glissement - when we try to mean something or discover who we are, we only slide off another signifier (e.g., like Derrida's "chain of signifiers”). Decentering - self is based in language, not biology. Children who cannot understand language can't tell the difference between themselves and others; your sense of self comes about through language. Consciousness comes from outside, not inside, your head.

The imaginary order is pre-Oedipal where the infant is unable to distinguish itself as separate from the mother’s body or even to recognize the demarcation between its own self and the environment around as it does not know itself to be a separate entity. Thus, the imaginary phase is one of unity between the infant and its surroundings and also of the mother who is considered to be its immediate possession and also object around it. The world consists wholly of images and so ‘imaginary’ in nature where there is a general feeling of plentitude. The world is perceived to be not fragmented or mediated by differences or categories which mean words, language and signs are not part of the mental makeup at this point.Mirror Stage Lacan's "mirror stage" is probably the theory that is talked about the most. This theory deals with infants and mirrors. When an infant looks his/or herself in the mirror, they become fascinated with the image until they realize that the image is not real. This goes back to the concept of the real infants can not determine between the real.  when the realized whether or not the real is present or not, they lose interest. This theory shows that we start to interpret what is real and what is imaginary based on looking in a mirror.  It is the mirror phase when the child can recognize itself and its environment in the mirror that marks the point where the comfort of this imaginary order breaks down leading the child into the symbolic order.

Symbolic Order The symbolic order is a world that consists of pre-defined social roles and gender differences and also a world of subjects and objects; thus, language.The symbolic order is one of three orders that things can go into. The symbolic order is a realm in which our desires and emotions are stored and interpreted. Death and absence is apart of the symbolic order because we can understand these terms, but they might not be interpreted. If something is in the symbolic order, there is a sense of understanding. If something that is symbolic transfers into another or the real, that something becomes an allusion.

The Real  The real differs from the symbolic because its the real is not accessible. The real is series of expressions and emotions that are controlled by something we are not aware

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Therefore, signs as per his criteria, systematically and unconsciously constitute all social codes, conventions and prohibitions and so we are constituted and accultured by signs. Even before we can commence speaking we have a myriad of signs speaking to us. two bathroom door that are identical except they are named ‘ladies’ and gentlemen’ respectively. The sign here is a structure where the reader has to fit his/her body for the doors are identical. The signs indicate where the reader should go and instate the law of sexual difference without explaining it. The signs create a difference where it previously didn’t exist as the doors remain the same but the signs demarcate the difference. 

Lacan’s concept of signifier and signified

Saussure’s model of the linguistic sign has two parts, a signifier and a signified. A drawing of a tree in his example, can be associated with the signified or concept-image while the spoken word ‘tree’ would be the signifier or sound-image. Lacan takes the tree itself to be a form of cultural representation. Lacan challenges the three implications of a sign that (1) sign represents a thing (signs function individually and (3) there is no demarcation between signifier and signified.Lacan’s counter model is of two bathroom door that are identical except they are named ‘ladies’ and gentlemen’ respectively. The sign here is a structure where the reader has to fit his/her body for the doors are identical. The signs indicate where the reader should go and instate the law of sexual difference without explaining it. The signs create a difference where it previously didn’t exist as the doors remain the same but the signs demarcate the difference. 

Lacan rewrites Saussure’s model of the sign as S/s. The “signifier” (S) marks the spot where the “signified” (s) has been struck off by the bar of regression which cannot be distinguished from the structuring functions of society and civilisation. Therefore, signs as per his criteria, systematically and unconsciously constitute all social codes, conventions and prohibitions and so we are constituted and accultured by signs. Even before we can commence speaking we have a myriad of signs speaking to us.

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JACQUES DERRIDA (1930-2004)

Algerian born French Philosopher Deconstruction Anti-apartheid activist Fought for the rights of Algerian immigrants in France

French Philosopher Saussure stated that a sign is made meaningful by its location in a system of differences. Derrida took this a step further by saying that the meaning if also always deferred, and that it is both always present and absent.

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DECONSTRUCTION

Binary pairs/opposites – good and bad, male and female, black and white, mad and sane etc, Dominant opposite - there is always one dominant thing eg. male over female (what Derrida calls ‘Phallocentrism’), sane over mad, etc. Reversing the dominant: questions the dominance of the dominant, and reverses the hierarchy Violent hierarchy: analyses from the point of view of the less powerful. Basis of deconstruction

Violent hierarchies Derrida once said that, since the dawn of time, people have thought in binary opposites (for example, white/black, fantasy/reality, life/death). Within these oppositions, there is always one dominant thing; neither can exist harmoniously.Basically, he’s saying that two opposite things will never be equal.Derrida then goes on the question the dominance of the dominant, and reverses the hierarchy.'To deconstruct the opposition, first of all, is to overturn the hierarchy at a given moment‘.This ‘violent hierarchy’ system is part of Derrida’s deconstruction theory.

Binary pairs/opposites – good and bad, male and female, black and white, mad and sane etc, Dominant opposite - Within these oppositions, there is always one dominant thing for example male over female (what Derrida calls ‘Phallocentrism’), sane over mad, etc. Reversing the dominant: questions the dominance of the dominant, and reverses the hierarchy finally show how the system is dependent on this marginalising of the second term, when in fact it relies on the second term (the marginal) also, in some sense, being at the centre.

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MICHEL FOUCAULT (1926-1984)

French philosopher, historiographer, theorist, historian of ideas, and social scientist Earlier work structuralist later post structuralist. Interested in 'Episteme,' 'discourse,' 'power,' 'new history,' 'genealogy,' 'archaeology,' and even 'sexuality' and 'madness' He analyzes the position, condition and characteristics of the minority groups of different scientific, philosophical and social discourses.

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DISCOURSE

Coined the term 'episteme' to refer to the smallest unit of knowledge and thought of man. Discourse, refers to systems of values, locates meaning and our knowledge of the world in language. Discourse function in alliance with or in opposition to each other. Eg. Religion and science Discourse is directly related to the power relations it generates or governs. Power is felt concretely in the different relations among the different members of a society.

Accordingly, Foucault coined the term 'episteme' to refer to the smallest unit of knowledge and thought of man. In other words, Foucault considered different thoughts of man as different sign systems that should be interpreted in relation to each other. That is why he was the Professor of the Systems of Thought, a rather new field of study. This title is a Structuralist usage of the more familiar term 'historian of ideas.' It is interesting to mention that some other new coinages based on the same form have nowadays emerged in different theoretical discussions. For example, 'grapheme,' is one of these new terms that means the smallest unit of a writing system. The other example is 'ideologeme,' which is the smallest unit of an ideology.

Discourse The term discourse has particular meanings which are not usually associated with writing or language. (32) Whereas the word language contains assumptions about the world and meaning that can be described as 'commonsensical,' the term discourse represents a radical alternative to our general and ordinary ideas on such issues as the world and meaning. In other words, we never explore or question the relationships between language, meaning and the world because we assume they just 'exist.' The term discourse, however, locates meaning and our knowledge of the world in language. In Foucault's work, discourse refers to systems of values, statements and texts that define the conditions of possibility for an object of study, and which form a kind of official language. If we take a discourse to a 'system of value,' its constituent parts are called 'episteme.' Thus, another definition of 'episteme' is that it is the smallest unit of a discourse.

In order to clarify Foucault's concept of discourse in a more understandable way a tangible example is provided here. Psychiatry is an official language or discourse in the sense that it consists of a number of texts, statements, relationships and authorities. All of these parts work together in to form the system of psychiatric practice. The texts that form such a discourse are limited only to psychiatric books; that is to say, the discourse of psychiatry may be formed by other disciplines and genres like literature, science and other medical institutions. Western history cannot be dissociated from the way ‘truth’ is produced and inscribes its effects. We live in a society which to a large extent marches in time with truth – what I mean by that is that ours is a society which produces and circulates discourse with a truth function, discourse which passes for the truth and holds specific

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THE FRANKFORT SCHOOL

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THE FRANKFORT SCHOOL

In 1923, Lukacs, Gramsci and other Marxist intellectuals associated with the Communist Party of Germany founded the Institute of Social Research at Frankfurt University in Frankfurt, Germany

Georg Lukacs

Antonio Gramsci

An influential group of (Marxist) social scientists who worked at the Institute of Social Research (1923-1950), which was connected to the University of Frankfurt.

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HISTORICAL/POLITICAL/ECONOMIC CONTEXT

30s and 40s Fordism, mass production emergence of an entertainment industry growth of mass media manipulation of culture by the Nazis and other totalitarian regimes

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THE MAIN IDEAS

The Disappearance Of Autonomous Art The Rise Of The Culture Industry The Creation Of Commodified Culture The Impact Of Mass Production/Consumption Of Commodified Culture

Examples: Television Astrology Music

Resisting Assimilation

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CRITICAL THEORY

In 1933, when Nazis came to power in Germany, the members of the Frankfurt School fled. Most came to the United States and many became influential in American universities, headquartered at Columbia. Combined Marxist analysis with Freudian psychoanalysis to form the basis of what became known as “Critical Theory.” “Critical Theory” also became known as Cultural Marxism.The Frankfort School

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CRITICAL THEORY

Critical Theorists recognized that traditional beliefs and the existing social structure would have to be destroyed and then replaced with a “new thinking” Critical Theory was essentially destructive criticism of the main elements of Western culture, including Christianity, capitalism, authority, the family, patriarchy, hierarchy, morality, tradition, sexual restraint, loyalty, patriotism, nationalism, heredity, ethnocentrism, convention and conservatism.

Political Correctness Critical Theory has fostered a system of beliefs, attitudes and values that we have come to know as “Political Correctness.” For many it is an annoyance and a self parodying joke. But Political Correctness is deadly serious in its aims, seeking to impose a uniformity of thought and behavior on all Americans. It is therefore totalitarian in nature. The intent is to intimidate dissenters into compliance with accepted dogma. Its roots lie in a version of Marxism which sees culture, rather than the economy, as the site of class struggle.

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ANTONIO GRAMSCI AND GEORG LUKACS

Gramsci believed that a “new” person must be culturally created before a Marxist socialist state could succeed. His focus was on the fields of education and media.

Lukacs thought that existing cultural norms had to be destroyed in order to replace them with the new, revolutionary Marxist principles. He said, “I saw the revolutionary destruction of society as the one and only solution to the cultural contradictions of the epoch.... Such a worldwide overturning of values cannot take place without the annihilation of the old values and the creation of new ones by the revolutionaries.”

Together, they founded The Frankfort School

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the dominant class in society not only owns the means of material production, but also controls the production of the society's dominant ideas and values (dominant ideology) examined the industrialisation of mass-produced culture and examined the economic imperatives behind what they dubbed the 'culture industries’. Dialectic of Enlightenment (1969/1944) by Adorno and Horkheimer, in which they develop their critique of Enlightenment rationality and of the 'culture industries'. As Enlightenment rationality leads to domination of nature, so it leads also inevitably to domination over human beings. claiming that TV entertainment drummed false consciousness and 'disguising of reality' (Verschleierung der Wirklichkeit) into viewers, 'injecting' (einimpfen) them with ideology.

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THE CONCEPTS OF ART AND CULTURE

Culture emerged from the organisational basis of society as a set of ideas, mores, norms and artistic expressions.

material culture – everyday life intellectual culture – science, the humanities, art & religion Artistic culture - Art was enmeshed in reality and just as reality contained objective contradictions, so art was caught up in and expressed contradictions. In many 'genuine' works of art, they believed, there are moments of affirmation and negation.

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WHAT IS THE CULTURE INDUSTRY?

"Culture Industries. A term usually used to designate those organisations that produce popular culture, i.e. television, radio, books, popular music and films. It is also used more widely to include all cultural organisations. According to the Frankfurt School, the culture industries serve an ideological function, ensuring capitalist hegemony, providing a bland and undemanding popular culture.” The consumer has no sovereignty. The culture industry, integrated into capitalism, in turn integrates consumers from above. Its goal is the production of goods that are profitable and consumable. It operates to ensure its own reproduction and the cultural forms it propagates must be compatible with this aim.

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AUTONOMOUS ART

Through its form or style, art can create images of beauty and order or contradiction and dissonance - an aesthetic realm which at once leaves and highlights reality. Art's object world is derived from the established order, but it portrays this order in a non-conventional manner. The emancipatory effects of art are generated by its rejection of the dominant forms of the world order "In this universe, every word, every colour, every sound is new, different – breaking the familiar context of perception and understanding...in which men and nature are enclosed. By becoming components of the aesthetic forms, words, sounds, shapes and colours are insulated against their familiar, ordinary use and function; thus they are freed for a new dimension of existence." Herbert Marcuse – Counterrevolution and Revolt

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HOW DOES THE CULTURE INDUSTRY ACHIEVE THESE EFFECTS?

The culture industry must sustain interest but ensure a passive, relaxed and uncritical reception: this is induced through the production of patterned and pre-digested cultural entities. Its product reproduces, reinforces and strengthens dominant interpretations of reality. It reconciles society and the individual, identifying the latter with the former. The plots, the goodies, the heroes rarely suggest anything other than identification with the existing form of social relations. The products of the culture industry are characterised by standardisation and pseudo-individualisation.

"Within moments of most films starting out we can predict quite accurately how they will end, who will win out, lose or be forgotten...As long as a product meets certain minimum requirements, a feature which distinguishes it from others, a little glamour and distinctness, marks of mainstream (conventional) character, it is suitable material for popular presentation.”

It is not just the industry produce that is standardised - cues evoke 'correct responses'."It impedes the development of autonomous, independent individuals who judge and decide consciously for themselves. The industry appeals to, develops from and reinforces a state of dependence. The message it conveys is most often one of adjustment and obedience. Its essential content can be reduced to one axiom: since things cannot be other than they are, 'become that which thou art'."

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THE PRODUCE OF THE CULTURE INDUSTRY: ADVERTISING AESTHETICS

Desire for distraction reflects needs to escape from the responsibilities and drudgery of everyday life. Lack of meaning and control people experience grows from the reality that they are not masters of their own destiny. Recurring crises of the mode of production, engenders fears and anxieties about life creating conditions of dependence. Situations continually arise in which people cannot cope. Personal problems are frequently internalised public issues. In the face of the systems pressures, many take flight and escape into the world of entertainment which offers relaxation and relief. The natural corollary of a capitalist mode of industrial production is the culture industry. However media reinforce the psychological attitudes to which we are accustomed. The culture industries do not challenge images of reality but reproduce them. Leisure experiences serve to sustain capacities for labour. The individual is tolerated only so long as his complete identification with the generality (the social totality) is unquestioned.

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ANTONIO GRAMSCI (1891-1937)

1891 – (January 22nd.) Born at Ales in Cagliary, Italy. 1916 – Starts working as a journalist for the Socialist Party paper. 1917 – Gramsci is elected to the Provisional Committee of the Socialist Party. 1921 – (January) The Italian Communist Party is founded and Antonio Gramsci is elected as a member of the central committee. 1926 – (November) Because of his opposition to Mussolini, Gramsci is arrested in Rome, and sent to a camp for political prisoners. He was 35 years old. 1929 – Gramsci receives permission to write, and February the 8th is the first date stated in his "Prison Notebooks" (Quaderni di carcere). 1937 – (April 27th.) Gramsci died after several years of suffering and Tatiana (his sister in law) manages to smuggle the 33 books out of prison and send them via diplomatic bag to Moscow to be published.

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the supremacy of the bourgeoisie is based on two, equally important, facts:

Economic domination Intellectual and moral leadership

Hegemony - It is a set of ideas by means of which dominant groups strive to secure the consent of subordinate groups to their leadership; Can be understood as "common sense", a cultural universe where the dominant ideology is practiced and spread; It can work both ways. the working class can develop its own hegemony as a strategy to control the State.

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Hegemony is readjusted and re-negotiated constantly, it changes character. However, he describes two different modes of social control:

• Coercive control: manifested through direct force or its threat (needed by a state when its degree of hegemonic leadership is low or fractured);

• Consensual control: which arises when individuals voluntarily assimilate the worldview of the dominant group (=hegemonic leadership)

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Periodically there may develop an organic crisis in which the governing group begins to disintegrate, creating the opportunity for a subordinate class to transcend its limitations and build up a broad movement capable of challenging the existing order and achieving hegemony. But, if the opportunity is not taken, the balance of forces will shift back to the dominant class, which reestablishes its hegemony on the basis of a new pattern of alliances. The way of challenging the dominant hegemony is political activity.

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CULTURE AND IDEOLOGY

• Culture: a whole social process, in which men and women define and shape their lives. • Ideology: a system of meanings and values, it is the expression or projection of a particular class interest. The form in which consciousness is at once expressed and controlled, as Raymond Williams has defined it: "...a mistaken interpretation of how the world actually is." (Williams, 1992: 27)

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Hence, having everything we just said in mind, one could take it that, first, you have a class "building" a specific and concrete ideology -- based in its specific and concrete interests -- that will dominate the rest of the society because of the unavoidable influence of capitalist relations. This set of ideas will constitute the hegemony that will be expressed as the nucleus of culture. If these assumptions are correct, we can conclude that the media are the instruments to express the dominant ideology as an integral part of the cultural environment.

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THE AMERICAN “NEW LEFT” OF THE 1960S

Student radicals of the era were strongly influenced by revolutionary ideas, among them those of Herbert Marcuse, a member of the Frankfurt School who preach the “Great Refusal,” a rejection of all basic Western concepts.

Historical Revisionism, attacking the nation’s founders, was a key element

Criticism of foundational principles, like Constitutional Democracy, rule of law, natural rights, majority rule, and limited government was crucial. Annihilation of such values would pave the way for wide acceptance of Marxist ideology.

Herbert Marcuse

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POST MODERNISMAFTER THE MODERN ERA

Both are artistic movements in culture, new ways of viewing culture; MODERNISM is characterized by the shift from agricultural to industrial society. Modernist view of culture: was rooted in the idea that "traditional" forms of art, literature, social organization and daily life had become outdated, and that it was therefore essential to sweep them aside and reinvent culture. Modernism encouraged the idea of re-examination of every aspect of existence, and replacing it with new, and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end. Stylistically it advocated industrial rather than decorative forms and an absence of decoration.

POST MODERNISM is cultural movement that came after modernism, also it follows our shift from being a industrial society to that of an information society, through globalization of capital. Markers of the postmodern culture include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning, and embracing paradox. Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism. Postmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, and irony.

Postmodern theorists see postmodern art as a conflation or reversal of well-established modernist systems, such as the roles of artist versus audience, seriousness versus play, or high culture versus kitsch

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MODERNISM

A period of history marked by: industrialisation (following the Industrial Revolution), secularisation (a move away from religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions), rationality (using reason to provide answers) Differing views on exact times but following the Age of Enlightenment/Age of Reason (Mid 1850s onwards). Postmodernity - The time period following modernity. Arguably 1960s to the present day.

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WHAT IS POST MODERNISM?

Emerged as an area of  academic study around mid 1980s

Postmodernism started with architecture.

The prefix post- means after and modern can be taken to mean current or up-to-date.

A state of affairs in society

A set of ideas which tries to define this state of affairs

An artistic style or approach to the making of things

A word used in many different contexts to explain many different aspects of the above

SO WHAT IS IT?Postmodernism is a concept that emerged as an area of  academic study around mid 1980s. It is  a wide variety of concepts which includes architecture, music, literature, fashion, technology, film etc. In 1980s the political climate  in changed. During this period, Postmodernism involves a radical re-estimate of modern assumptions about culture, identity ,history and language.

It attacks the meaning of classifications like black or white, straight or gay, male or female etc.

Postmodernism started with architecture. It focused on ideal perfection, harmony of form and function and return of ornaments, The functional and formalized shapes of modernist movements are replaced by aesthetic, playfulness, unusual surfaces, or kitsch style.

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CHARACTERISTICS

Interconnected and multicultural. Globalisation is an element of postmodern culture. Technologically developed. Information is freely available. Pluralistic and diverse. Diversity is encouraged and people have a wide range of choices available to them. Tolerant and liberal. Respect for difference is encouraged. Opposed to totalitarianism/imperialism/authoritarianism. Imposing one set of views on others is discouraged.

Key features of post-modernismTruth is relativeConsumerism is allTransformation of the self (‘pick ‘n’ mix’)Disillusionment with the idea of progressUncertaintyFragmentation of social lifeIncessant choiceGlobalisationThe impact of ICT on social life

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Postmodernism

Modern age has lost the enlightenment

Search for truth

People less likely to follow rigid ideology

Greater pluralism is modern life

No absolutes

Culture and structures are fragmented

Less predictable

Traditional labels and categories lose relevance

We recreate the past, blend with the present

Globalisation has narrowed time and space

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FROM MODERNITY TO POST-MODERNITY

Modern age Post modern age• production • Community life • Social class • Family • A belief in continuity and situation • A role of education • A one-way media • Overt social control • Nationhood • Science aided progress and finding the truth

• consumption • fragmentation (individualism) • Identity from other sources • Families (many options) • Breakage with the past/tradition • Education for what? • Duality of media (choice/interchange) • Covert control (CCTV etc) • Global • Science is only one source of knowledge – plurality of truths now

Structure/security/place/stability YOU KNEW WHO YOU WERE

Confusion/lack of structure/ incessant choice YOU CREATE WHO YOU WANT TO BE

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Science no longer has the answersProgress is now a

questionable enterprise

Post modern society feeds upon

itself..recreating the past, entwining it with the

present, with some self mocking humour

Cultural cohesion comes from sharing the same

media

Accepting many realities and that all the big

explanations are only bigger stories

Each cultural identity can co-exist…giving the individual

many ways of being

FURTHER THOUGHTS…

10 points of post-modernism & styleEmphasis on the centrality of style, at the expense of substanceRecycling past cultures and styles – pastichePlayful use of ‘useless’ decorationCelebration of complexity and contradiction. Mixture of high and low culture.Sensitivity to the subtleties of image, language and signsIntermixing – different styles – collagingAccepting the collapse of distinction and differenceRejection of monolithic definitions of culture – celebrate pluralism and diversityScepticism towards metanarratives and ‘absolutism’Decline of the idea of only one source of meaning –truth.

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JEAN-FRANÇOIS LYOTARD

The Post Modern Condition “Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards grand-narratives” Noun - The state of being unwilling or unable to believe something. Synonyms - disbelief - unbelief - scepticism - distrust - mistrust “A self does not amount to much, but no self is an island; each exists in a fabric of relations that is now more complex and mobile than ever before.” Lyotard argues that we have became more alert to difference, diversity etc and instead we are moving to micro-narratives where we each have our own ‘narrative’ and our society is made up of all our narrative, not one ‘grand narrative’

Meta Narrative - Grand Narrative- Truth - Ideology This was an idea shared in part by Strinati “Postmodernism denies there can be any single truth/reality”.... Braudrillard also shared this idea “With the truth you need to get rid of it as soon as possible.... One key Media Concept is Ideology A system of ideas and ideals, esp. one that forms the basis of economic or political policy: "The ideas and manner of thinking of a group, social class, or individual

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JEAN FRANCOIS LYOTARD (1924-1998)

French Philosopher

His views on the ‘Postmodern

Condition’ became famous in the

1970’s

First person to use the term

Postmodern in the non art world

JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOTARD

Lyotard rejected what he called the “grand narratives” or universal “meta-narratives.”Principally, the grand narratives refer to the great theories of history, science, religion, politics. For example, Lyotard rejects the ideas that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress. He would reject universal political ‘solutions’ such as communism or capitalism. He also rejects the idea of absolute freedom.

In studying media texts it is possible also to apply this thinking to a rejection of the Western moralistic narratives of Hollywood film where good triumphs over evil, or where violence and explotation are suppressed for the sake of public decency.

Not attacking the ideas about narrative structure but the underlying moral values and judgment

Lyotard favours ‘micronarratives’ that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable.

French intellectual and author of The Postmodern Condition, among other works, and a man who "saw science as a sort of convincing story" (Woolley, 74). He argues that, with the collapse of the modern metanarrative of reality, science has begun to sustain itself more and more by the 'performability' of its theories, i.e., the ability of these theories to generate more and more work. (Robert Pirsig, btw, makes much the same argument in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.) However, Lyotard also posits that scientists are not out to find truth, but rather to augment power -- their own as well as that of their masters.According to Fredric Jameson, Lyotard's work has "saved" the coherence of scientific research and experiment by casting its justification in terms "not to produce an adequate model or replication of some outside reality, but rather simply to produce more work" and to generate new ideas. (Introduction to The Postmodern Condition, p. ix.)Lyotard has also looked at texts as diverse as Blade Runner and Talking Heads tracks and used them to examine how individuals in society have changed in order to accommodate technology. Essentially, people now have to be schizophrenic, fragmented, just to survive in today's world.

The idea of truth needs to be ‘deconstructed’ in order to challenge the dominant ideas that are claimed to be truth (the grand narrative).It could be considered a luxury to challenge the idea of truth in Western media when there are more heavily censored countries where the civilians most basic human rights are challenged.

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WHAT IS THE GRAND NARRATIVE

Key ideologies or ways of explaining the world that most people accept/buy into.

‘Truth’

Happy ending

Linear structure (Three Act Structure, Binary Opposes, Todorov) as the ‘right way’ of presenting media

The moral values encoded into the text we read

Acceptance of social codes or norms

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EXAMPLES FROM MEDIA TEXT YOU KNOW

The Grand Narrative ExamplesComedy – Confusion/Issue/Problem to be over come in order for Love to happen.Overcoming the Monster in order to restore peace

Tragedy – The flaws of humans cause bad things to happenTransformation – Rags to Riches tales with happy endingVoyage and Return – You need to journey to restore normalityThe Quest – Heroes fighting, striving to do what is right and good

Rebirth or self discovery – making yourself and your world better, safer.

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WHAT IS THE MORAL LESSON BEHIND THESE GRAND NARRATIVE?

The Grand Narrative The Moral Lesson/ Ideology Truth

Comedy – Confusion/Issue/Problem to be over come in order for Love to happen.Overcoming the Monster in order to restore peace

Tragedy – The flaws of humans cause bad things to happenTransformation – Rags to Riches tales with happy endingVoyage and Return – You need to journey to restore normalityThe Quest – Heroes fighting, striving to do what is right and goodRebirth or self discovery – making yourself and your world better, safer.

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WHAT ARE MICRO NARRATIVES

Small extremely personalised stories that may have no great meaning

Everyone has their own ‘micro narrative’ and your micro narrative is just as important as anyone else's.

There may be no ‘story’ at all

Youtube, Twitter, Facebook

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He rejected the idea of metanarratives or grand narratives

All metanarratives are simplistic and reductionst

favours ‘micronarratives’ that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable.

We should focus on playing language games to explore the many narratives that exist

Knowledge is no longer a tool of the authorities – we

have choice/freedom

Actions/ideas are now judged on how useful they are..rather than how true they are.

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JEAN BAUDRILLARD

If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where, with the decline of the Empire this map becomes frayed and finally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts - the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing), this fable would then have come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.

Using Borges’ short story as a starting point, Jean Baudrillard discusses the inversion of the relationship between models and reality in “The Precession of Simulacra”, the opening chapter from his book, Simulacra and Simulations. The following are the first two paragraphs:If once we were able to view the Borges fable in which the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly (the decline of the Empire witnesses the fraying of this map, little by little, and its fall into ruins, though some shreds are still discernible in the deserts — the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction testifying to a pride equal to the Empire and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, a bit as the double ends by being confused with the real through aging) — as the most beautiful allegory of simulation, this fable has now come full circle for us, and possesses nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory — precession of simulacra — that engenders the territory, and if one must return to the fable, today it is the territory whose shreds slowly rot across the extent of the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges persist here and there in the deserts that are no longer those of the Empre, but ours. The desert of the real itself.[Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser in Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulations, published by the University of Michgan Press, 1994.]

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JEAN BAUDRILLARD (1929-1997)

Involved in post modernism as his theories deconstruct the truth. Natures of reality and how often it is constructed. ‘we are constantly surrounded by an ecstasy of communication and that communication is sickening’ We are now just customers whose desires are created by the media. We pursue the images attached to the products

Baudrillard developed the ideas of McLuhan to the point where it is possible to deny that the message underneath the medium has any substance at all. Therefore, the audience comes to perceive through the media a world that appears ‘real’ but is not.

In some ways this reflects what Rene Magritte painted in 1928 in his work called ‘The treachery of Images.’ Magritte captions an arrangement of paint on canvas with the denotative words, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” (This is not a pipe).

Our eyes tell us it is a pipe because we are used to decoding images, colour and perspective; but it is not a pipe for it cannot be smoked.

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JEAN BAUDRILLARD•Simulation:

the process in which representations of things come to replace the things being represented . . . the representations become more important than the "real thing”

•4 orders of simulation:

1. signs thought of as reflecting reality: re-presenting "objective" truth;

2. signs mask reality: reinforces notion of reality;

3. signs mask the absence of reality; eg Disneyworld

4. signs become…

•Simulacra - they have no relation to reality; they simulate a simulation: Eg. The Gulf War was a video game, 9/11 has become the coverage, not the event.

•Hyperreality:- a condition in which "reality" has been replaced by simulacra argues that today we only experience prepared realities-- edited war footage, meaningless acts of terrorism.

Baudrillard developed the idea of simulation and simulacra

simulation:the process in which representations of things come to replace the things being represented . . . the representations become more important than the "real thing”

4 orders of simulation: 1. signs thought of as reflecting reality: re-presenting "objective" truth;     2. signs mask reality: reinforces notion of reality;     3. signs mask the absence of reality; eg Disneyworld,Watergate,LA life: jogging, psychotherapy, organic food    4. signs become…

simulacra - they have no relation to reality; they simulate a simulation: Spinal Tap, Cheers bars, new urbanism, starbucks, the Gulf War was a video game, 9/11 has become the coverage, not the event. ‘simulacra’ - make believe goods which bear no relationship to the real worldFrom the simulacrum, Baudrillard developed the idea of hyperreality

hyperreality:- a condition in which "reality" has been replaced by simulacraargues that today we only experience prepared realities-- edited war footage, meaningless acts of terrorism, the Jerry Springer Show.The very definition of the real has become: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction. . . The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced: that is the hyperreal. . . which is entirely in simulation.Illusion is no longer possible, because the real is no longer possible.

Circular referentiality

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POST-MODERNISM ILLUSTRATED –’DISNEYLAND’

• Disneyland is a simulacra. It is a simulated reality.

• It is artificial – yet ‘real’.

• It is a place that exists and is accepted because our imagination makes it so.

• The fine line between reality and fantasy is ‘greyer’.

• The power of the symbol over substance.

It brings fiction and imagination to something that seems real as people can walk around and touch buildings identical to those they have seen in films and collect autographs etc.

Applying hyper realityAn example of hyper reality would be celebrities whose lives are taken care of by someone else - are said to live in a hyper real world.Another example would be the effect of video games.Where the line stops between the realism of a virtual world in game and reality.One man believed he was in a game and would gain points by carrying out illegalities. The worst crime he committed was killing his best friend.He could not distinguish reality and virtual worlds.

InceptionThe MatrixSixth SenseDisney landIt brings fiction and imagination to something that seems real as people can walk around and touch buildings identical to those they have seen in films and collect autographs etc.The Truman ShowTOWIE/Made In ChelseaDerren Brown e.g. Derren Brown’s Apocalypse

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POST-MODERNISM ILLUSTRATED – ‘REALITY TV’

• Reality TV illustrates the interchange between the consumer and the media

• They are ‘real people’ who people can be observed and scrutinised.

• They do not entertain – rather than exist…they are a mish-mash of cctv surveillance and gameshow

• In the real world they are talentless nobodys who are treated as stars

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FREDRIC JAMESON

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FREDRIC JAMESON (1934)American literary critic and Marxist political theorist, best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends

Marxist theorist – believes that each class is defined by its relation to the productive process .E.g. hierarchical

1984 – the publication of his essay; “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” (later expanded into a book)

became known as one of the most prominent critics of postmodernism

argues that “aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production (production of wares for sale – not produced for direct consumption but with specific intention of sale in the market) generally”

Jameson rejects postmodernism!

Jameson essentially believes that postmodernism provides pastiche, humorously referencing itself and other texts in a vacuous and meaningless circle. Pastiche is distinct from parody, which uses irony, humour and intertextual reference to make an underlying and purposeful point. Postmodernists would have no problem in making no particular point - that is their point, but for Jameson, literary and cultural output is more purposeful than this and he therefore remains a modernist in a world increasingly dominated by postmodern culture.

Jameson also sees reason for the present generations to express themselves through postmodernity as they are the product of such a heavily globalised, multinational dominated economy, which carries the multinational media industry as one of its main branches. The onmipresence of media output helps explain postmodernists’ merging of all discourse into an undifferentiated whole "there no longer does seem to be any organic relationship between the American history we learn from schoolbooks and the lived experience of the current, multinational, high-rise, stagflated city of the newspapers and of our own everyday life” (p.22 Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1991.)

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HIS THOUGHTS

Described the postmodern condition as: - “a new kind of flatness, of depthlessness, a new kind

of superficiality in the most literal sense” In his essay:- describes the loss of reality in historical writing – “we can no longer represent the historical past; but can only ‘represent’ our ideas and stereotypes about the past” Pastiche = an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period

- instead of creating our own unique styles we look to the past and imitate old, dead styles through pastiche

- unlike a parody, it is often intended as a compliment to the original (an homage)

In the postmodern era our historical past is represented “not through its content but through its glossy stylistic means, conveying ‘pastness’ by the glossy quality of the images”

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POSTMODERNISM

1.Extreme self-reflexivity, more playful and even irrelevant (as in pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's "Masterpiece" or architect Frank Gehry's Nationale-Nederlanden Building in Prague)2.Irony and parody (many examples in pop culture and media advertising. eg The Simpsons). 3.A breakdown between high and low cultural forms in more immediately understandable ways (as in Andy Warhol's painting for Campbell's Tomato Soup cans).

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POSTMODERNISM

4. Retro. It is to use styles and fashions from the past with fascination but completely out of their original context (as in postmodern architecture in which medieval, baroque, and modern elements are often juxtaposed). Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard tend to regard it as a symptom of our loss of connection to history in which the history of aesthetic styles and fashions displaces real history.

5. A further questioning of grand narratives (as in Madonna videos such as "Like a Prayer" and "Material Girl," which question the grand narratives of traditional Christianity, capitalism, etc.).

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POSTMODERNISM6. Visuality and the simulacrum vs. temporality. The

predominance of visual media (tv, film, media advertising, the computer) has lead to the use of visual forms (as in Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus: A Surviver's Tale through the medium of comics). Visuality also explains some other related features of aesthetic postmodernism: a more breakdown between high and low cultural forms, and a retro. Baudrillard and others have argued that a retro involves copies ("simulacra") of the past without any connection to real past history, blurring the distinction between representation and temporal reality.

7. Late capitalism whose dominance is generally feared (as in the predominance of paranoia narratives in movies such as "Blade Runner" and "the Matrix"). This fear is aided by advancements in technology, especially surveillance technology, which creates the sense that we are always being watched.

8. Disorientation (as in MTV or those films that seek to disorient the viewer completely through the revelation of a truth that changes everything that came before).

9. Return of orality (based on an influx of oral media sources such as tv, film, and radio).