Test 2: Texts and Representations

Question 1

Cultural studies

Answer 1

an interdisciplinary field that aims to understand power and inequalities through the analysis of popular culture

Question 2

political economy

Answer 2

focuses on economic distribution and on the relationship between the economy and democratic politics (Fenton

Question 3

What do both PE and CS do?

Answer 3

Both Political Economy and Cultural Studies aim to understand how power functions in societies and they share some key concepts such as ideology, hegemony and social justice

Question 4

What does Natalie Fenton say about CS?

Answer 4

“emphasizes the social agency of individuals and their capacity to resist social determination and dominant cultural agendas.”

Question 5

Two people who shaped and influenced this interdisciplinary/semiotics field are:

Answer 5

Raymond Williams (1921-1988)
Stuart Hall (1932-2014)

Question 6

What was Stuart Hall greatly influenced by?

Answer 6

postructuralism

Question 7

What is postructuralism?

Answer 7

a set of 20th century about language and representation, that have been very influencial in the humanities. especially in literary critiscm.

Question 8

semiotics

Answer 8

study of everything that can be used for communications
smallest unit of meaning
is called the sign

Question 9

construct

Answer 9

how something has come to be accepted

Question 10

sign (iconic + idexical)

Answer 10

signifier
signified
referent

Question 11

signifer

Answer 11

a sign is physical form (like sound, printed word, image)

Question 12

signified

Answer 12

meaning/idea expressed by a sign
(image that pops into head or resonates)

Question 13

referent

Answer 13

the thing that a word/phrase denotes/stands for (the actual item)

Question 14

arbitrary nature of sign

Answer 14

there is no logical relationship between signigier or signified

Question 15

chain of signification

Answer 15

series of signigiers that are linked together
range of different but linked texts
each sign “sides under” the subsuequent signifer

Question 16

Stuart Hall + language

Answer 16

languages as a system of representation
“without language nothing meaningful exists”

Question 17

How can we understand language?

Answer 17

semiotic analysis
discourse analysis

Question 18

Ferdinand de Saussure

Answer 18

looked at element of language and divided into two parts: sound of word signifier and what it represents: signifer the union of the two is a sign
FS: gave college lectures, died, students made a book with his notes

Question 19

Jacques Derrida

Answer 19

(1930-2004) thinks prose has the upper hand

Question 20

Marxism

Answer 20

Based on the theories of Karl Marx. Conflict theory states that society is in conflict with each other (rich vs poor). Political and economic philosophy.

Question 21

What is the role of language in communication and production of meaning?

Answer 21

to convey thoughts, ideas, concepts, or even a feeling
think of Stuart Hall and postructuralism

Question 22

What is the relationship between language and power?

Answer 22

a mutual relationship. Powerful institutions and individuals use language as both a means to construct their power and as a way to maintain it

Question 23

Is language a realm of struggle?

Question 24

Roland Barthe

Answer 24

Barthes argues that myth is the
primary way in which the mass
media communicate ideological
meaning.

Question 25

myth

Answer 25

cultural meaning of a sign

Question 26

Denotation and Connotation

Answer 26

denotation: literal meaning connotation: associated meaning

Question 27

What is a text?

Answer 27

can be almost anything that you can give meaning to: song, movie, book, painting, etc.

Question 28

Ways in which the reader can analyze a text?

Answer 28

accept the intended meaning negotiate the intended meaning oppose or challenge the intended meaning

Question 29

Polysemy

Answer 29

interpretive scope of media texts, the argument being that several interpretations coexist as potentials in any one text (more than one perspective)

Question 30

Intertextuality

Answer 30

seeks and theorises links and connections between media texts and textualised social life

Question 31

Postculturalism main arguments

Answer 31

Language is a system of representation and it is not independent from dynamics of power in society. Example: In most parts of the world, the languages had an intrinsic bias in favor of men until women started to challenge it.

Question 32

Patterns in language

Answer 32

The concept of discourse (in Foucauldian sense) points at such patterns in language

Question 33

Discourse analysis

Answer 33

Discourse analytical approaches are interested in power relations in language and what people actively do with language. They are interested in (among other things) * ideological effects of discursive practices * patterns of domination and subordination

Question 34

What are the types of discourse analysis?

Answer 34

Conversation analysis (micro) * Rhetorical analysis * Argument analysis

Question 35

semiotic analysis

Answer 35

the study of everything that can be used for communication: words, images, traffic signs, flowers, etc

Question 36

hegemony

Answer 36

a type of domination based primarily on dominated people's and groups' consent rather than purely on a leader's coercion and exerted force (think of dictators or veil video)

Question 37

ideology

Answer 37

Simply put, it is the ideas behind a media text, the secret (or sometimes not-so secret) agenda of its producers.

Question 38

Difference between intertextuality and discourse analysis?

Answer 38

IT: relationship and relations between texts DA: taking into account both their linguistic content and their sociolinguistic context

Question 39

Discourse: main points and assumptions

Answer 39

Language is structured in patterns or discourses Language is fundamentally unstable Meanings are flexible and can never be permanent fixed Different discourses are engaged in a constant struggle with one another to achieve hegemony, that ism to fix the meanings of language in their own way Discourse limits our horizon. It is difficult to think out of it

Question 40

Sut Jhally

Answer 40

advertising documentary narrator: studied for 30 years, argues that we have not studied enough what advertising does to us

Question 41

Stuart Hall encoding/decoding text

Answer 41

Encode meaning into a text Decode meaning out of it Decoding more popular