Thursday, 29 January 2015

Critical Perspectives Seminar 2: 15/1/15

Looking a “cultural text” in context


Who you are as a person, you bring to everything you do

Visual language – the way an image is understood
What's the cultural reading of something?

If your presumptions are wrong, your argument is invalid

A cultural text is a representation
It's MATERIAL – not an idea
  • WHO made it/is it for?
  • WHERE is it consumed?
  • HOW was it produced?
What does it mean? → [in the case of the poster for] The 300: “He has big arms”

You have to know those three questions, but don't devote a large part of your essay to them

For example: how does Scooby Doo relate to acid? More easily than you think
The Charlie the Cat shorts are populated entirely by white middle-class people (unmarked), with a stay-and-home mum and a nuclear family
Are little boys more “representative” of children in general than little girls? → Charlie the Cat seems to think so

Think about specific lectures in relation to cultural texts (in this case, Considering the “Other”)

Next seminary: January 29th
By then:

  • Select a cultural text
  • Locate journal articles, books and book chapters relevant to your area of interest
  • Find 1 journal article and 1 book/chapter that deals with either the text or its themes
  • Find a key quote and source it

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