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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?