PHL323H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Alternative Facts, Lorde, Ageism
Lorde - Age, Race, Class and Sex
How poetry propagates feminism
•
Task of characterising oppression falls on the oppressed person
(dehumanised inferior)
Extra pressure on them
○
•
Poetry is a resource that doesn’t use quite as much energy in expressing
oppression
•
How can we be equal if we're different?
It's not the differences, it's the refusal to recognise differences
○
Must be seen as a source of strength rather than division
○
•
Distinction between poetry and prose:
Prose = serious and rigorous, but requires more financial security
('room of one's own' -Woolf)
You need a room, a word processor, time, etc.
§
○
Poetry is the most economical art form
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Woolf - women are not in the right situation to write literature
They don’t have a room where they can sit and write for long
periods of time
§
Their time is taken up with domestic labour and stuff
§
○
Lower class women more likely to represent their situation with poetry
○
Sculpting, painting, photography, etc. - needs materials
○
•
High art/Low art distinction
Used to be a distinction until the enlightenment
○
Rise of classical music orchestra
Only accessible to upper classes
§
○
•
Ageism - young women not inclined to listen to what old women listen to
•
So we can't ignore the differences of race between men and women
•
White women ignore the differences with women of colour:
They have to acknowledge their own advantages
○
Undermines unity of women
We need to acknowledge difference and realise that there are
similarities
§
○
•
White women and WoC are not oppressed in the same way
But the end result is the same
○
•
The idea that there is only one dimension of human difference - that of men
and women - is a tool of social control
•
Equality is recognition of and respect for non-identity
Our diversity will be our strength
○
•
Oppressive structures are embedded in us and we need to work hard to
change them
E.g. high art, low art distinction
○
•
Arendt - Origins of Totalitarianism
The masses•
Propaganda•
Totalitarian Organisation•
Hitler's regime was elected by the majority and enacted widespread social
change
Democratically supported revolution
○
You can't control a massive number of people without their consent
○
Hitler and Stalin gained consent despite their conflicting views and it
being against their interests
○
•
Masses must have the urge to politically organise
They start off apathetic to politics
○
They need to be given a reason to engage
○
Things need to be going pretty badly
○
There's a kind of escapism going on
○
The message needs to be consistent and repetitive
Even if they are alternate facts
§
It is comforting
§
○
•
Trump spread a message consistent and comforting
He gave simple, neat stories that made problems seem easy
○
Rather than try to understand the complexities
○
Comfort over truth
○
•
Masses need to be massive
Totalitarian govts become death machines
○
Without lots of citizens, it becomes authoritarian
○
Totalitarian regimes consume their citizens
○
•
Three stage process
Propaganda is the initial stage
○
It is used to persuade when terror is unavailable
○
•
Terror = the threat (and actuality) of physical violence and/or death for not
conforming.
They make a false claim to justify action and then makes the claim true
○
E.g. soviet govt. claiming unemployment doesn't exist and getting rid of
benefits
Unemployed people starved to death and stopped existing
§
○
•
Propaganda = how a totalitarian government engages with a non-totalitarian
world.
Can be false or true
○
It doesn’t care whether it's true or not
○
Immaterial to the aim of propaganda - to indoctrinate
○
It can be a statement of intent
○
Things Trump says aren't necessarily true now, but can be true in the
future
○
•
The amount of energy a movement expends on propaganda is inversely
proportional to its size.
If we can say that Trump's govt. is expending a lot of energy on
propaganda, maybe its aims aren't entirely wholesome
○
•
Analogy between propaganda and advertising•
Exam topics
Benjamin - the aftermath of a revolution1.
Frye - women are oppressed as women2.
Przeworski on the use of alternative tactics3.
BPP tactics4.
Delphy's reason for non-domestic labour performed in the home is exploited5.
Freeman - why groups need a formal structure6.
Arendt - Russian revolution did not institute a genuinely new form of govt.7.
Ehrenreich - feminism and Marxism's similarities8.
Arendt - Propaganda and Advertising9.
Appiah - race10.
Dworkin -redefining nonviolence11.
Davis - Eugenics + prison industrial complex12.
Joseph - why white women have power over black men13.
Lorde - poetry and economic position14.
10 points MC•
20 points short essay•
50 points short answer Qs•
Weighted more on the second half of the semester•
Lecture 12
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
3:20 PM
Document Summary
Task of characterising oppression falls on the oppressed person (dehumanised inferior) Poetry is a resource that doesn"t use quite as much energy in expressing oppression. It"s not the differences, it"s the refusal to recognise differences. Must be seen as a source of strength rather than division. Prose = serious and rigorous, but requires more financial security ("room of one"s own" - woolf) You need a room, a word processor, time, etc. Woolf - women are not in the right situation to write literature. They don"t have a room where they can sit and write for long periods of time. Their time is taken up with domestic labour and stuff. Lower class women more likely to represent their situation with poetry. Used to be a distinction until the enlightenment. Ageism - young women not inclined to listen to what old women listen to. So we can"t ignore the differences of race between men and women.
