Cultural Studies PDF

Cultural Studies R E L AT I O N S H I P TO MEDIA What is culture? The customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group Culture by Region ∙ American culture – very diverse Cultural Studies ∙ An interdisciplinary field, concern...

Cultural Studies R E L AT I O N S H I P TO MEDIA What is culture? The customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group Culture by Region ∙ American culture – very diverse Cultural Studies ∙ An interdisciplinary field, concerned with the role of social institutions in the shaping of culture. ∙ Examples of social institutions: Governments, the family, educational systems, legal systems, business corporations ∙ Cultural Studies draws on disciplines such as literary studies, sociology, psychology, history, economics, and politics. ∙ Developed in Great Britain beginning in 1960s and spread from there. Distinctions ∙ Cultural studies can be: Ethical - when cultural studies seeks to identify injustices of a certain cultural construction Analytical - when cultural studies seeks to understand a culture without trying to change it Cultural Texts ∙ A major premise of cultural studies is that the world consists of cultural texts that we can interpret. Cultural Texts Examples ∙ Literary documents: Books Articles Poems Cultural Texts Examples ∙ Artistic documents: Film Television Photography Cultural Texts Examples ∙ Cultural Artifacts: Hairstyle Clothing Slogans Cultural Texts Examples ∙ Events: Riots Protests Concerts Semiotics ∙ The study of signs and sign-using behavior ∙ Semiotics plays a role in cultural studies. ∙ Involves an association between a Signifier and its Signified. Signifier - the thing itself - the object, the word, the image, the action Signified - the associations it represents Semiotics Example – Signifier and Signified ∙ The Signifier is the apple. ∙ What does it signify? (the Signified) health teacher / teacher’s pet sin / the fall of man danger / poison tech giant Other Signifiers ∙ Colors ∙ Clothing ∙ Accessories ∙ Others? ∙ Signifiers signify different things dependent on the culture. Ex. white in many Eastern cultures signifies death and sadness. Signifiers and Storytelling ∙ Signifiers play a big role in storytelling, in how we interpret a story. They are basically shortcuts to storytelling. ∙ Mad Men opening scene. Signifiers in the scene? What is signified / What this tells us about Don Draper, the main character Signifiers and Storytelling ∙ Roseanne opening credits Signifiers and what they signify ∙ Character signs - all those aspects of a character that communicate their nature and personality to us. ∙ Signifiers can change over time. Ex. smoking now versus smoking in 1960s. Stars, by Richard Dyer ∙ Richard Dyer (b. 1945) - English, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies, King’s College London. ∙ His book differs from Auteur Theory because it challenges the idea of director as “author” by crediting some responsibility for the overall work to the stars inhabiting those roles. ∙ To his point… those once considered for movie roles… John Travolta as Forrest Gump  Jennifer Lawrence as Bella (Twilight) Anthony Mackie as Black Panther Timothée Chalamet as Spider Man Origins of Movie Star System ∙ To discuss the reading, first understand where the “movie star” concept originated. ∙ 1800s – Growth of print media Mass-produced newspapers / Invention of photography – introduced public to stage performers ∙ Early films did not name the performers, but by 1912, most did. ∙ The First American Movie Star - Florence Lawrence The Movie “Industry” ∙ By the late 1910s, the movie industry in the United States operated on a mass-production basis. ∙ As in other mass-production industries, individual movie studios had to differentiate their products from those of their competitors, to maximize profits. ∙ Actors became the most important means of differentiating one film from another, and one company from another, as actors were often contracted to specific movie studios. Star as Type ∙ Actors became associated with specific character types. ∙ Success in one role => more roles as that “type” => more money for the movie studio => identification of actor as a “star” ∙ Typecasting Star as Type ∙ Likewise, studios crafted images for actors, based on innate attributes. Cary Grant Studio created movies (”vehicles”) that highlighted these attributes Grant as a person became associated with that type - sophisticated, debonair, gentleman, which belied his upbringing. Stars and Social Type ∙ Social Type - “an idealized concept of how people are expected to be or to act,” Orrin E. Klapp, sociologist ∙ Klapp discusses prominent social types and how stars represent the different ones in films (also pertains to other media) Examples – heroes, villains, idealized beauty Stars and Social Type ∙ Stars portray these social types in films, but we also associate associate the social type with the star, because of typecasting ∙ According to Richard Dyer, the problem with social types is that the world social types represent is often based on the dominant group’s construction of it. ∙ In Stars, Dyer defines this as white, middle class, heterosexual, male Social Type – The Hero ∙ So, for example, what type of star represents the hero? Google “heroes in movies, examples” ∙ Why might this be? ∙ Anyone who doesn’t fit into this category is the other.  Social Type – The Hero ∙ The Searchers, for example. Who presents as the hero? Who presents as the villain? ∙ The Hero social type / film character becomes associated with the star, because of repetition, i.e. playing the same type of role Examples Alternative Social Types ∙ Social types that, on their surface, seem to reject dominant values. ∙ Examples: The Rebel / The Rebel Hero The Independent Woman Alternative Social Type – The Rebel / The Rebel Hero ∙ Dyer’s asking whether the rebel social type (as presented in a movie) really challenges dominant group ∙ Anomie – do not fit in with prevailing norms (outside of society in general), doesn’t challenge dominant group’s power structure (generalized Angst) vs. ∙ Alienated – outside of the dominant group but could challenge this. ∙ One thing to be an anomic rebel, another to be an alienated rebel  Alternative Social Type – The Rebel / The Rebel Hero ∙ Dyer contends that most of these rebels are anomic – don’t fit in, period, versus don’t fit in because part of a minority group ∙ Also, these people are typically young, thus rebellion portrayed as a symptom of their age / a “phase” ∙ The narratives of the films rehabilitate the rebel versus encouraging the rebellion Alternative Social Type – The Independent Woman ∙ Two types of alternative portrayals: Superfemale – very smart and ambitious but no outlet for these in her traditional female role => uses femininity to control her environment Superwoman – smart and ambitious, adopts male attributes to control her environment Alternative Social Type – The Independent Woman ∙ Of Human Bondage (1934) and Jezebel (1938) ∙ Superfemale or Superwoman - Which of these does Bette Davis embody? ∙ Ultimately, the superfemale and superwoman relinquish their independence to conform by falling in love, getting married, etc. => conforming to dominant values / dominant group Alternative Social Type – The Independent Woman ∙ Here again, the social type becomes associated with the star, through repetition and perpetuated by media Bette Davis’ contract fight, for example ∙ Also, Dyer points out that many stars who play the independent woman are sexually ambiguous in looks and actions. Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis. Stars as Images ∙ According to Dyer, the star type is ground on which star image is built. Different media texts contribute to the way the image is made. ∙ Types of media texts that build the image: Promotion – intentional, typically by the studio Publicity – “unintentional” Films – star “vehicles” Story lines created with character types associated with the star (Westerns, gangster films, romantic comedies, etc.) “Let’s make a Bogart picture” – Warner Brothers Exceptions to vehicles Criticism and commentaries (reviews, biographies, TV commentaries… can now add to that social media) – assist in shaping public opinion of a star Bette Davis as Type and Image ∙ Cast as the Superfemale Independent Woman in many roles. ∙ Examples: Front Page Woman (1935) Dangerous (1935) That Certain Woman (1937) A Stolen Life (1946) ∙ Publicity Fight with Warner Brothers over contract, salary => Warner Brothers sued her B.D. Hyman’s book Tombstone