Unit 3: Cultural Theory Flashcards
1
Q
Cultural Hegemony
A
- Proposed by Antonio Gramsci
- One class in a society rules another or all the others by presenting its own values (and the perpetuation of the values that keep it in power) as the normative social values
- To be effective, hegemony must be normalized and brought into quotidian reality; cultural norms must appear to be natural and inevitable
- Manipulative power of the culture industries
- The direct exercise of power or control over others, It was unlikely that a state could exist solely through the use of force, so hegemony, in Gramsci’s sense, must be limited in scope and time.
- Individuals make choices, and do not normally directly encounter force, but their capacity for rational and responsible choice is limited by an unfair negotiation.
- It comes down to the unfair negotiation of choice, whether that choice is coerced by culture, advertising, class values, nationalism, or another cultural belief system
- sought to understand decision making processes when unfair negotiation of choice was involved
2
Q
Three Dimensions of Power
A
- Proposed by Steven Lukes
- (1) Direct Force or Hegemonic Power: this dimension of power must operate in the present tense. According to Lukes, force or compulsion cannot be used in the present moment for a future event or for future compulsion. Visible over current subjects.
- (2) Coercion or the Unfair Negotiation of Choice: These acts are neither direct force nor threats of direct force—they are coercions. Partially Visible.
- (3) Contextual Power: The naturalization of the best interests of one group is typically seen as reflecting the power imbalance within society. The group in control has its own best interests naturalized so that acts that support them are widely regarded as normal to social life. Invisible.
3
Q
Psychoanalysis
A
- Proposed by Sigmund Freud
- the id (unconscious): all the unconscious materials and drives that are not normally accessible to the conscious mind; have not yet begun to differentiate our drives from our selves, or our sensations from the external world
- the ego (pre-conscious): the whole area of the conscious mind and its capacity for rational or Enlightenment thought; the ego must make sense of the drives and wants of the id, which it cannot prevent but must somehow explain or rationalize; at the same time, the ego struggles under the impossible demands of the superego
- the superego (conscious): carries a societal association of imperatives, guilt, rules, and demands; the superego does not accept the id; the ego must accommodate the superego, and this can leave the ego caught between desire and guilt
4
Q
Monomyth
A
- Proposed by Joseph Campbell; expanded by David Leemings
- the common heroic narrative in which a heroic protagonist sets out, has transformative adventures, and returns home
- the journey of life is the search for the self; for the personal myth which is veiled in the local and the immediate but which is but an expression of the world myth.
- To understand the monomyth is to create a mythic consciousness and by so doing to rejoin the real forces from which our modern age of reason and technocracy has done so much to remove us.
- The monomyth itself is an expression of the journey of the hero figure, of our own journey through physical and psychic life, and of the evolutionary path of humanity to full consciousness
5
Q
Archetype
A
- Proposed by Carl Jung
- an archetype is a thought pattern, symbol, or image that is psychologically intrinsic in all human minds regardless of the influence of culture or society
- The hero is an example of a universal archetype, which includes characters like Luke Skywalker, James Bond.
- The anti-hero who carries the traits of both the hero and the villain; a flawed character who reaches some level of development in the story. Examples includes Batman, Deadpool, etc.
6
Q
Reading - A Postmodern View of Public Relations: Signs and Reality
A
- Written by Thomas Mickey
- A critical view of the signs and symbols of a culture allow one to see the allocation of power and the dominant ideology.
- Public relations can be called symbol-makers if one considers their work is largely word and image.
- They can manipulate the image because they know the importance people place on signs and symbols in the culture.
- Critical social theories in advertising & PR should be based on a cultural one because these forms of communication, expressed primarily in mass media, because the ways the culture understands itself.
- PR is involved with something called an image that has no reality behind it.
Example:
- H&K creates a myth from the testimony of Nayriah who claimed that Iraqis were killing Kuwait babies which became a sign that did not represent reality.
- Then, the media coverage created a sign that creates an image the minds of the public.
- Declaring war became a sign.
7
Q
Reading - Introduction: The Meaning of the Myth
A
- Written by David Leeming
- The comparing of myths from various cultures would reveal certain laws of human life (universals). Just as certain physical traits are common to humans, so are the psychological ones.
- Myths are the original revelations of the pre-conscious psyche (Freudian’s concept of the ego), involuntary statements about unconscious psychic happenings.
- The monomyth, proposed by Joseph Campbell, is divided into either basic events: birth; childhood; meditation/preparation; quest/trials; confronting physical death; continues roles of scapegoat/withdrawal; rises from death; achieves atonement.
8
Q
Simulacra
A
- Proposed by Jean Baudrillard
- simulacra illustrates the kind of society in which the signs of the media become their own reality, and do not stand for anything.
- What we see represented does not represent reality. It is a sign of a sign. Images are made in relation to other images and the real is read as an image.
- Advertising/PR bring conformity and creates an unfree, unjust system.
9
Q
Postmodernism
A
The state of culture where media is produced in vast quantities that it creates a hyperreality whereby images and signs do not represent reality.
