Fifteen bart and barthes: image, meaning, ideology

fifteen

bart and barthes:

image, meaning, ideology

Think for yourself

Everything in this lecture is a theory It’s probably partly right And partly wrong It’s … ideological!

You don’t have to believe any of it But you do have to understand why others would

believe it

Think for yourself

Meaning

What do these images mean? How do we understand them?

Knowledge and inference in language

“I’d like a cheese sandwich”

Is not an assertion It’s an indirect request Or even an indirect command

This has to be inferred from context based on knowledge about speech acts

Knowledge and inference in language

Bill: “Is she wearing a ring?”

George: “No, I think she’s checking you out.”

When you hear this What context do you imagine the sentences being

uttered in? Why is George’s observation relevant to Bill’s

question? What you do have to know to figure this out?

Meaning in Anglo-American Philosophy

Reference (denotation) What objects are referred to by nouns What properties are referred to by predicates Whether the sentence is true

Sense (connotation) Everything else

Truth conditions What would have to be the case in order for a

sentence to be true

Semantics through truth conditions

“John loves Mary” “John” and “Mary” denote objects (John and Mary) “Loves” denotes the relation love

The set of all pairs of objects A and B for which A loves B The sentence is true if and only if

The pair (John, Mary) is a member of the set love

Very systematic, very powerful Very limited scope

Mostly punts on connotation Non-assertional sentences, counterfactuals, etc. are difficult to analyze

Basis for most natural language work in AI

Meaning in continental philosophy:Semiotics/semiology

Meaning is communicated through signification

A sound or image refers to/suggests/signifies a set of ideas or meanings

Signs as units of language Signifier

Material manifestation Image/sound/object

Signified Meaning/idea

“Weaker” theory than analytic philosophy (I.e. fewer predictions) But consequently a much broader domain

of application Including connotation

Sign

Signifier

Signified

Barthes:Connotation as second-order signification

Connotation is communicated through association

As complete sign is used in a meta-sign to signify another idea

Myths Pervasive, “mythic” values and

beliefs used by a society to understand itself and the world

Idealized fictions (for him at least) Operate at the level of

connotation

Sign

Signifier

Signified

Signified

Family values

Families are a potent symbol in American culture

The nuclear family packages a number of traditional values Gender roles Filial piety Economic production

It’s used pervasively, but in art and politics

Father Knows Best (USA, 1954)

The original family sitcom

Portrayed traditional American values of the 50s

It presents an idealization of the 50s nuclear family

The Cosby Show (USA, 1984)

Worked against prevailing stereotypes of African Americans

Rejected by ABC Didn’t think audiences

would accept an upper-middle-class black family

Married … With Children (USA, 1987)

… but the family symbol was also caricatured and ridiculed

The Simpsons (USA, 1989)

Star Trek: The Next Generation(USA, 1989)

The family symbol was even incorporated into Star Trek

(The character of Wesley Crusher is still hated passionately …)

Child as political icon

Child-rearing is one of the principal functions of the family

Children are symbols Of helplessness Of the need for

protection/intervention

Their symbolic power is often borrowed For aesthetic purposes For political purposes

Terminator 2

Terminator 2

Childhood as a contested space

Children are at the center of many current debates What is a child? What rights do they have? What rights do their parents have? What interests does the state hold in

their welfare? What responsibility does the state

have for their welfare?

Even questions about the deficit are debated in terms of children

Freedom

The ultimate American value

Central theme in the shift from feudalism to capitalist democracy Give people autonomy

Limit the power of the state

Egalitarianism in those powers reserved for the state

The Free Market

Markets are optimizing systems Remove restrictions from the

market The market will optimize More goods will be available more

cheaply (Of course, very few markets are

free in this sense)

Appropriates the rhetoric of Darwinian evolution

And is appropriated for other purposes

AI research Counter-terrorism Public education

New York Stock Exchange

Too much freedom is bad (in others)

Rebels, freedom, and Bad Boys

The good guys are rebels American revolution Liberal values of freedom and

democracy

Hans Solo is a rebel in a different sense Bad Boy Non-conformist Individualist Allusions to gunslingers and James

Dean

Rebels resist the power of others

Bad Boys

Bart is a Bad Boy Bad Boys are cool

They exercise their autonomy They resist The Man They’re non-conformist They live outside the rules of normal people

Arnold is a Bad Boy too

America as Bad Boy

In what roles does this image cast The United States Saddam Hussein Iraq (if any)

What values does it appeal to?

Conflict of values

Modernity, progress, and humanism

Modernity, progress, and humanism

Modernity is also a Barthesian myth About inevitable progress About science as a

liberator of man About science as fair

(apolitical, non-sectarian) and more humane than the

kings and churches of the middle-ages

Scientific execution

In the 19th and 20th century, new methods of execution we developed Guillotine Electrocution Gas chamber

The were justified as being superior because they were more scientific

And so more humane

Pests, parasites and vermin

Pests and vermin are parasites The feed off of the work of

honest humans They contribute nothing

Killing them is legitimate because They are being unfair They are unsanitary It’s self-defense

Willard (USA, 2003)

Not vermin

Beliefs and values can be very slippery

Maus(Speigelman, 72)

Vermin

Reality, representation, and reflexivity

Ideology

Many different concepts that share a single name We’ll try to tease them apart

But all are about systems of ideas Ideas: beliefs, values, practices of judgment Systems: organized, interlocking

Lens through which we view reality We can change lenses (maybe) But we can’t stop using them (they’re part of your eyes)

Overt ideology

“Being ideological”

You know when you believe it

Others may disagree with you

Covert ideology

What about things we all agree on? Can become invisible Or seem like “obvious” common sense

Sapir-Wharf Hypothesis:Language shapes thought And therefore social reality

Martin Heidegger: “Language is the house of being”

Althusser:Ideology as ubiquitous background

“There is no practice except by and in an ideology”

“There is no ideology except by the Subject and for subjects”

Althusser’s concept of interpellation:Teaching people how to be people

Ideology hails/interpellates/recruits/names individuals as subjects Individuals: people Subjects: people making themselves understandable

to others as people/citizens/normal

Ideology gives us the tools with which to describe and understand ourselves It’s both enables us to think about ourselves And sets limits on the possible thoughts we can think

… but that would be ridiculous

Which socially approved stereotype are you?

Ideology impersonates common sense

Althusser: “… the accusation of being in ideology only applies to others.”

Subjects and subjectivity

Althusser’s use of “subject” is deliberately ambiguous (a kind of pun) Cartesian subject

Res cogitans Individual with free will, free choice

Subject of the state Individual who submits to a higher authority

Ideology as instrument of the state

The state has overt mechanisms for maintaining order

“Repressive state apparatuses” Police Prisons Courts

But it also has covert mechanisms for maintaining order

“Ideological state apparatuses” Schools Churches Public service ads The news media

These mechanisms help maintain consent (deliberately or not)

“Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence” - Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970)

“A tax on stupidity”

Eagleton (from Ideology: An Introduction)

A dominant power [legitimates] itself by Promoting beliefs and values congenial to it Naturalizing and universalizing such beliefs so

as to render them self-evident and apparently inevitable

Denigrating ideas which might challenge it Excluding rival forms of thought, perhaps by

some unspoken but systematic logic; and Obscuring social reality in ways convenient to

itself

Who cares? (1)

The Marxists were surprised when the workers didn’t revolt

So they needed to revise their theory to explain why people would Freely choose (according to capitalist theory) A system that worked to their disadvantage

(according to Marxist theory)

Solution: people aren’t freely choosing

Another formulation

Why would a democracy ever have a privileged minority?

Why doesn’t the majority just vote their privilege away?

Who cares? (2)

Nobody’s perfect We almost certainly all share beliefs that people

in 100 years will find barbaric Deal with it – it’s inevitable

Part of our duty as good democratic citizens is to examine our own values

Think for yourself Oops, that’s more ideology …

Modern bride

Men’s health

Cultural imperialism?No, never …

I don’t want to knowwhat this is about …

Cigar aficionado

Gee, no cigars …

WIRED

Leader as sign

Meaning

Now do we know what these images mean?

Do we understand them?