COMS 2003 Lecture 4: Marx and Freud Theories

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication and Media Studies
• Course: COMS 2003
• Professor: Ira Wagman

Document Summary

Provides a powerful critique of capitalism by pointing to how it abstracts social relations. He provides tools used to critique how power is used to perpetuate ideologies which maintain the status quo. Draws attention to questions of social stratification. Can be economically deterministic (can lead to explanations which lead to social change economically. Has little to nothing to do with issues of race, identity, etc. Can lead to characterizations of false consciousness . He provides a starting point for thinking about how social change produces emotional effects (can we not think about questions of mental health and questions about social media in the same terms?) He provides a way of reading cultural texts as illustrations of the creator"s subconscious (especially the cinema) and of films or television shows as expressions of fantasies. He draws attention to issues having to do with drive and desire that we can see when thinking about consumer culture and in practices such as advertising.