HUMA 2002 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Tony Bennett, Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser
14 Dec 2017
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Thursday, November 23, 2017
HUMA 2002
Test #1 Study Guide!
Culture:
-the expression of people by ideology, language, art forms (dance, music), fashion, literature !
-2 sense of the word: !
1) traditional !
- high culture: museums, art galleries, theatre, opera, university!
•influence, stands the tests of time, quality, history, not very accessible, the best society has
to offer, inclusion/exclusion!
-popular culture: consumption, production !
•temporary, fun, leisure, popular, money, everyday, guilty pleasures, run of the mill, can have
quality!
2) contemporary - everything we see in everyday life!
Stuart Hall: Culture is…!
-production and exchange of meaning - giving and taking of meaning!
The Origins of Cultural Studies:!
Tony Bennet: !
-fairly dispersed array of theoretical and political positions!
-share a commitment to examining culture practices from the point of view of their interaction
with and within relations of power!
Power Relations:
-Louis Althusser - marxist point of view - those who control means of production control a
culture!
-Positivism: defining social behaviour using natural science - words are transparent no fixed
meaning!
-Whereas, cultural studies assumes signs are not transparent!
-Stuart Hall: influenced by poststructuralist philosopher Michael Foucault!
-CCCS - Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies!
Linguistics and Semiotics:!
-Taken from French founder of linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes!
-cultural studies seen as progress!
-discipline means variously!
$1
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Thursday, November 23, 2017
Narrative: (a working definition) !
-part of our daily lives!
-to denaturalize go through the process!
-plot/story/narrative: series of events!
-narrator: someone or through something a person is telling a story!
Elements:!
-Plot:!
•the order of events in chronological order!
•the order of events in the text!
-Narrator or Narrative Point of View:!
•First Person: usually participates in the store!
•Third-person: usually outside the events and therefore omniscient!
-Characters:!
•Protagonist: main character!
•Antagonist: the character in conflict with the protagonist!
•Minor Characters!
-Themes:!
•general idea in the text - usually more than one!
-Subject Matter!
•Content of the Story!
•Often distinguished from the formal layout of a narrative!
-Structure!
•The overall shape of the work!
•The beginning, middle and end!
Genre: french word meaning kind or type, way to organize different categories!
•Poetry!
•Fiction!
•Non-Fiction!
•Drama!
In Film:!
•Action!
•Adventure!
$2
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Thursday, November 23, 2017
•Drama!
•Comedy!
Subdivision made according to various factors:!
•Settings and subject matter (ie: western film, science fiction show)!
•Mood (ie: drama, horror, lyric)!
•Format (ie: hypertext, mixed media)!
Movement and Stasis:!
•a succession of events tend to speed up a narrative and descriptions (or lack of events)
slows down the pace of the story!
The Epic:!
•to describe things!
•a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes, in a
grand ceremonious style!
•usually very long (length)!
•heroes - exceptional beings (usually male) - saves the world!
•lots of characters !
•a quest - huge battles, good vs. evil, saving people, various locations!
•a nod to history in order to contribute to forming the nation!
•typically wrote in poetry!
Stuart Hall: “Representation and the Media”
•role of mass media!
•representation: if the depiction of something is accurate, new view that representation is
important in how people think of the world and how they relate to it!
•communication linked to power - messages work in powerful ways!
•Interrogation of the image: examine, ask hard questions, don’t just accept it - cultural studies
wants us to question and look through different perspectives!
-Visual Representation!
•cultural studies pay attention to representations!
•very complex!
•double meaning: to present, to a image or depict something else, the notion that
something was there already, standing in for, taking place for!
•the way in which meaning is given!
•question whether events have one or essential true meaning against which we can
measure distortion!
$3
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Document Summary
The expression of people by ideology, language, art forms (dance, music), fashion, literature. High culture: museums, art galleries, theatre, opera, university: in uence, stands the tests of time, quality, history, not very accessible, the best society has to o er, inclusion/exclusion. Popular culture: consumption, production temporary, fun, leisure, popular, money, everyday, guilty pleasures, run of the mill, can have quality: contemporary - everything we see in everyday life. Production and exchange of meaning - giving and taking of meaning. Fairly dispersed array of theoretical and political positions. Share a commitment to examining culture practices from the point of view of their interaction with and within relations of power. Louis althusser - marxist point of view - those who control means of production control a culture. Positivism: de ning social behaviour using natural science - words are transparent no xed meaning. Whereas, cultural studies assumes signs are not transparent. Stuart hall: in uenced by poststructuralist philosopher michael foucault.
