V3: Representation Flashcards
What is a text?
Everything that generates meaning through signifying practices
(cultural studies = text based discipline)
What is the linguistic sign (Ferdinand de Saussure?
Link between concept (signified) and sound pattern (signifier)
- referent: represents the sign
Derives value from difference between other signs:
- minimal difference: phonemes
- semantic difference: semes
Signs are arbitrary and conventional (meaning of sign not fixed)
Is language the only signigying system?
No, images, social behaviour, clothes too (symbloc order) -> language the most complex and flexible though
- members of the same culture must share sets of concepts (to interpret correctly) -> must share cultural codes
How do we communicate culture?
- use same linguistic code (e.g. speak the same language)
- read visual imagery similarly
- produce same sounds for music
- interpret body language
What is Denotation / Connotation?
Denotation: literal meaning of a word
Connotation: suggestion or implication evoked by a word
- can have a public and private meaning
What is Encoding / Decoding?
Encoding: Using signs in particular ways
Decoding Ways:
- Dominant reading: decoding how it’s supposed to be decoded
- Slogan: I’m loving it -> nice food, freindly…
Negotiated Reading:
- understanding the message but questioning it
Oppositional Reading:
- Message is interpreted in a preffered way -> different point of view on topic
What kinds of context are there?
Context is everything:
- Presentational context (where)
- Porduction context (how)
- Historical context
- Image in the context of other images
- Context of reception
What aspects are part of the circuit of culture (Paul du Gay)?
- Representation
- Regulation
- Consumption
- Identity
- Production
What is discourse (Michel Foucalt)?
Michel Foucalt: Power produces knowledge
- discourse (articulation of power and knowledge) always also has material affects
Minute of Education (Macauley):
- constitued of signifying so simple and basic that it was impossible for them to produce complex thought -> English was required
