7/28/2019 Seminar 10 - Cultural Studies - Questions
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Advanced Literary Theory
Seminar 10: Cultural Studies
For the seminar you should all do the following:
Read the following chapters inLTA (Literary Theory: An
Anthology):
Rivkins and Ryans introduction to Cultural Studies, entitled The
Politics ofCulture (LTA 1233-34)
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, The Culture Industry as
MassDeception( LTA 1242-46)
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (LTA 1258-67)
John Fiske, Television Culture (LTA 1274-84)
1. Cultural Studies can be approached from two different
perspectives: one top-down, where media, television and film, etc
are seen as instruments of economic,
ethnic and gender domination; and the other bottom-up, where
culture comes from
below and represents the possibility of eruption, of dissonance,
and of an alternative
imagination of reality (LTA 1234). Outline these two contrasting
perspectives and
give examples of theorists in these two categories. Which
perspective do you think is
the most feasible?
2. Horkheimer and Adorno argue that popular culture consists of
simplified forms thatdiminish the complexities of human experience
and serve the interests of powerful
corporations. Explain what they mean when they say that the
development of theculture industry has led to the predominance of
the effect, the obvious touch, and
the technical detail over the work itself (LTA 1244). Do you
agree with these
views? Give examples from popular culture to support your
answer.
3. Hebdige discusses the subversive implication of style,
especially the subculture ofpunk as a form of revolt, and sees punk
as a form of resistant meaning-making, an
anti-bourgeois style. Describe in what way punk can be said not
only to upset the
wardrobe but also undermine every relevant discourse (LTA 1260).
Give
examples of other subcultures that have similar subversive
effects.
4. According to Fiske, a code is a rule-governed system of
signs, whose rules andconventions are shared amongst members of a
culture, and which is used to generate
and circulate meanings in and for that culture (LTA 1275).
Outline the different
levels of Fiskes codes of television and show how a semiotic or
cultural criticism
can deconstruct the encoded reality as a highly ideological
construct. Find
examples from television of similar codings that can be used by
viewers to decode
cultural messages and allow them to think resistantly.
Theory in Practice
7/28/2019 Seminar 10 - Cultural Studies - Questions
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1. Consider how Hebdiges notion of the subversive implication of
style, as a form ofresistant meaning-making, an anti-bourgeois
style, might be applied in a cultural
analysis ofThe Bluest Eye.
2. Apply the concept of the code as a rule-governed system of
signs, whose rules andconventions are shared amongst members of a
culture, and which is used to generateand circulate meanings in and
for that culture (FiskeLTA 1275) toKing Lear.
3. Give a reading of the The Aspern Papers in light of
Horkheimer and Adornos ideaof culture as an industry that threatens
to diminish the complexities of human
experience.
4. Initiate a discussion by applying any of the above cultural
theories to any poem ofyour choice from Bishop.
