...For this reason, I found that the discussion of her autobiography could be followed by a conversation on anger, injustice and transmissions of trauma. From the voices of Black and Latina scholars, we will engage with the uses of anger in fighting against injustice. Furthermore, Saidiya Hartman’s Lose Your Mother, as a combination of personal narrative and research, provides a smooth transition into the political implications of the recent ontological turn to affect in feminist and queer theory. The conversation on affect also seemed crucial for this course in terms of navigating the relevance of political depression in present times. In light of the discussion on the justice system that I anticipate the class to have during this week, I felt that an introductory course on Women and Gender Studies would not be complete without having a conversation on intersectionality. Therefore, during our seventh week we will be strictly focusing on Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. Aside from reading Crenshaw, we will also engage with Jennifer C. Nash’s “Institutionalizing...
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...Adorno (Audience Theory) Passive Consumption, Hypodermic Model (Frankfurt School): "A strong argument suggests that audiences may be passively affected by the sexist, violent representations in GTAV as it is a more realist text than other shoot em' up action adventure games. Young audiences ultimately may begin to view women differently and think that the aspirational violence is acceptable as a means to an end". Andy Medhurst (Representation Theory) Stereotyping is Shorthand for Identification: "One way that texts like Waterloo Road and Skins for example allow for audience identification is through stereotyping and giving characters an extreme representation". Angela McRobbie (Gender Theory) Post Feminist Icon Theory: "Lara Croft, Lady Gaga and Madonna for example could be identified as post feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory". Baudrillard Hyper Reality: "Some texts are difficult to distinguish in terms of the representation of reality from a simulation of reality e.g. Big Brother. The boundaries are blurred as codes and conventions create a set of signifiers which we understand but in fact the representation is a copy of a copy". Uses and Gratifications Theory: "Different audiences gain different pleasures from a media...
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...Timothy Wilson‘s book Strangers to Ourselves is a fascinating journey to our adaptive unconscious, which he defines as the “mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgments, feelings, or behavior” and have adapted through evolution (23). Wilson contents that we cannot observe these processes because they are simply inaccessible to us: “a lot of the interesting stuff about the human mind – judgments, feelings, motives – occur outside of awareness for reasons of efficiency, and not because of repression” (8). He argues that this is similar to other processes, such as perceptual processes or even digestion, which we know are happening but are not observable through introspection. In contrast to Freud, modern psychological research suggests that the unconscious cannot be explored no matter how deep you dig. This is not a bad thing, Wilson points out, but it is a reflection of the mind’s power: a lot of information can be processed very quickly and efficiently (although not always accurately) (16). Our minds are parallel processors because we process quite a bit of information unconsciously. Instead of looking inward, Wilson suggests a much more powerful way to self-understanding: observing our behavior (16). In addition to not being able to understand ourselves well through “navel gazing,” we might even be driven by goals from our adaptive unconscious that we are not completely aware of (34). Wilson summarizes: “We know less than we think we do...
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...Chapter II Back ground study What is Fraternity?-The term fraternity, often colloquially shortened to "frat," generally refers to all-male or mixed-sex student organizations at a college or university; the female-only equivalent is usually called a sorority, a word first used in 1874 at Gamma Phi Beta at Syracuse University. Before this, societies for either gender were called "fraternities." To this day, some women's organizations prefer to be called "women's fraternities." Outside North America, they are also referred to as "student corporations," "academic corporations," or simply "corporations." Fraternities and sororities often use the Greek alphabet to depict their name. There are usually various initiation rituals for new member before he or she is accepted into the organization and entitled to the benefits that come with that particular fraternity or sorority. These can include a close knit group of friends, access to on campus parties, job placements after school with fraternity or sorority alumnus, and residing in the chapter house—housing usually given to them by the college or university. The name of this type of organization implies that the members live and relate to each other as siblings, brothers or sisters, in a familial relationship. Indeed, one's student peers are like one's siblings, and many of these organizations specifically treat new members as younger brothers or sisters. However, in the fraternity or sorority there...
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...Africa through Theatre This paper sets out to explore how processes of theatre making employed by The Mothertongue project, provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Mothertongue works from the premise that the development and subsequent performance of stories in theatrical processes affords women the opportunity to re-write and remap their personal narratives and in so doing insert their voices into the landscape of South African Theatre. In an attempt to redress the gender imbalances and androcentricism prevalent in post-apartheid theatre, this paper speaks to the relationship between theatre, liminality and communitas. I am interested in unpacking how collaborative processes of theatre-making provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Remapping in this instance refers to processes of transforming lived experience through story. I address how, through engaging in ritual activities that are central to the stories performed, actors, audiences and the owners of the source stories are invited to physically participate in remapping and transforming lived experience. Linked to this is the choice of form(s) and how this affects or impacts on the performed stories as well as on the construction of performed rituals and ultimately on the processes of remapping personal narratives. I focus specifically on Mothertongue’s 2004 production, Uhambo: pieces of a dream. The production was an integration of theatre and visual art in the form of performances...
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...injurious to the mental welfare of women. In the past, the psychiatric community has unethically––and yet perhaps unconsciously––used mental diagnoses to prune women into their gender roles and punish deviation from the norm, again referencing the historically sexist conventions of psychology [Source B]. The Journal of Mental Health Counseling continues to attest that “girls who defy gender roles are more often rejected by peers and have a higher risk for experiencing significant psychological...
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...Postmodernism is dead A new exhibition signals the end of postmodernism. But what was it? And what comes next? by Edward Docx / July 20, 2011 / Leave a comment Published in August 2011 issue of Prospect Magazine I have some good news—kick back, relax, enjoy the rest of the summer, stop worrying about where your life is and isn’t heading. What news? Well, on 24th September, we can officially and definitively declare that postmodernism is dead. Finished. History. A difficult period in human thought over and done with. How do I know this? Because that is the date when the Victoria and Albert Museum opens what it calls “the first comprehensive retrospective” in the world: “Postmodernism—Style and Subversion 1970-1990.” Wait, I hear you cry. How do they know? And what was it? Postmodernism—I didn’t understand it. I never understood it. How can it be over? You are not alone. If there’s one word that confuses, upsets, angers, beleaguers, exhausts and contaminates us all, then it is postmodernism. And yet, properly understood, postmodernism is playful, intelligent, funny and fascinating. From Grace Jones to Lady Gaga, from Andy Warhol to Gilbert and George, from Paul Auster to David Foster Wallace, its influence has been everywhere and continues. It has been the dominant idea of our age. So what was it? Well, the best way to begin to understand postmodernism is with reference to what went before: modernism. Unlike, say, the Enlightenment or Romanticism, postmodernism (even as...
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...Lin Manuel-Miranda: A Progressive Voice for History History is frequently the bane of many students’ academic careers. To some, history is arid, nothing more than the tedious repetition of events long passed. The somniferous lectures and dense readings found in the history classroom further serve to perpetuate the myopic perception of history as stale and purposeless. Through the medium of the stage, Lin-Manuel Miranda challenges this attitude with an impeccable tone of drama, introspection, and spontaneity, breathing new life into the carcass of historical narratives by grounding Hamilton’s story in the universal aspirations and struggles of mankind. Lin weaves together his boundless excitement for telling Hamilton’s story with...
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...Chamber in the light of this comment. * candidates must consider at least two stories here – they may consider more * exploration of the ways in which the stories may be considered terrifying, an aspect of the gothic – likely reference to the numerous instances of horrific violence, sexual depravity, supernatural powers, psychological fear etc * exploration of the ways in which some of the stories may be considered comic – “Puss-in-Boots” is obviously comic – other stories have moments of sardonic humour, often created by surprise or defiance of our expectations * Response to the word “darkly” in the question and its implications of black comedy – laughing at things which are not normally considered funny – expect some personal response here – sense of humour is very individual! * some candidates may discuss Carter’s language – her intermingling of the poetic and literary with the bluntly crude may be seen as a source of dark humour, equally her choice of structure may make her writing darkly comic – her use of juxtaposition – some readers have seen the absurd brevity of “The Snow Child” as comic and it is unquestionably “dark” Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ certainly embeds an element of terror within the collection. However, despite claims of horror apparent in the Marquis from the very start, it is also reasonable to argue that the tale also combines elements of dark comedy within the text provided by the very uncanny male protagonist. By the “leonine”...
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...Management Strategy Sales & Marketing Finance Human Resources IT, Production & Logistics Career & Self-Development Small Business Economics & Politics Industries Global Business • “Hindsight bias” causes you to distort reality by realigning your memories of events to jibe with new information. • “Loss aversion” and the “endowment effect” impact how you estimate value and risk. • Your “two selves” appraise your life experiences differently. • Your “experiencing self” lives your life; your “remembering self” evaluates your experiences, draws lessons from them and decides your future. • These two contrasting systems and selves disprove economic theories that say that people act rationally. Concepts & Trends To purchase personal subscriptions or corporate solutions, visit our website at www.getAbstract.com, send an email to info@getabstract.com, or call us at our US office (1-877-778-6627) or at our Swiss office (+41-41-367-5151). getAbstract is an Internet-based knowledge rating service and publisher of book abstracts. getAbstract maintains complete editorial responsibility for all parts of this abstract. getAbstract acknowledges the...
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...Every spring avid sports fans look forward to the biggest college basketball tournament of the year, most commonly known as March Madness. This competition consists of both men’s and women’s NCAA basketball teams who compete in hopes of making it to the respected and heavily televised Final Four. The Final Four is the last game for each remaining team before the National Championship game, where the two deserving teams are matched up against each other. This series of competition creates a rich supply of content for sports media networks to influence viewer’s values and attitudes. Networks have become increasingly knowledgeable and schematic in using sport entertainment as a way to promote their ideologies, values, commercialization and interpretations of sport. Studies have found that people turn to sports in the media for entertainment. The different forms of media are evolving and moving in a more prevalent direction than they have been in the past. With the explosive growth of internet users in the past decade, media companies have created a domain where they can input their interpretations of sporting events and coverage. These domains have become dominated by the 18-34-year-old demographic (Kian, Mondello & Vincent 2009) who use websites such as ESPN, the most widely used website for obtaining sports related news (Lefton, 2006 as cited in Battenfield, Redmond & Ridinger 2014), and Sports Illustrated to read about upcoming games, watch live coverage, or get the low...
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...(ESA). This trend of male dominated storylines is evident in other forms of media as well: movies and television shows tend to be centered around men, but video games show the least diversity in protagonists and often have regressive views on women and their position in society. Women make up 20% of console video game players and 46% of computer and mobile game players in this 20 billion dollar a year industry, meaning they are contributing a large amount of profits (ESA). Despite their significant purchasing power, they are not represented equally as characters in games, and continue to be used as a plot device or sexual being to attract the male target audience. Neither are they allowed to be a compelling character with a story arc and personal growth as we see with the male protagonist. Female characters, when included, tend to be one dimensional and only valued for typically how they fit into traditional gender roles by being submissive and innocent. This narrow portrayal of women comes from the fact that the developers of video games are predominantly men. Only 11% of game designers are women and only 3% of programmers, even though it is one of the fastest growing and most profitable fields in the economic market today (Sydell). This small portion of women in the video game workforce also earns significantly less than their male counter-parts- typically around $12,000 a year less, making their gender-pay gap worse than the national average (Sydell). This inequality stems from...
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...history, for today’s student to master. “Someone should write a film version of Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon,” a writer from The Independent suggested, and “the person who should write it,” he said, looking at me, “is you.” I looked to Walter, who replied, “If you write it, I’ll publish it.” And the die was cast. Faber offered a contract, and I set to work. Following the Bloom model I decided it should be an elitist canon, not populist, raising the bar so high that only a handful of films would pass over. I proceeded to compile a list of essential films, attempting, as best I could, to separate personal favorites from those movies that artistically defined film history. Compiling was the easy part—then came the first dilemma: why was I selecting these films? What were my criteria? What is a canon? It is, by definition, based on criteria that transcend taste, personal and popular. The more I pondered this, the more I realized how ignorant I was. How could I formulate a film...
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...Sociological Theories A sociological theory is a set of ideas that provides an explanation for human society. Theories are selective in terms of their priorities and perspectives and the data they define as significant. As a result they provide a particular and partial view of reality. Sociological theories can be grouped together according to a variety of criteria. The most important of these is the distinction between Structural and Social action theories. Structural or macro perspectives analyses the way society as a whole fits together. Structural theory sees society as a system of relationships that creates the structure of the society in which we live. It is this structure that determines our lives and characters. Structured sets of social relationships are the 'reality' that lie below the appearance of 'the free individual' of western individualism. Structuralism focuses on the particular set of 'structural laws' that apply in any one society. Despite their differences, both functionalism and Marxism use a model of how society as a whole works. Many functionalists base their model of society around the assumption of basic needs and go to explain how different parts of society help to meet those needs. Marxists, on the other hand, see society as resting upon an economic base or infrastructure, with a superstructure above it. They see society as divided into social classes which have the potential to be in conflict with each other. However, the main differences...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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