FINAL Flashcards
(107 cards)
1
Q
What is dialectical materialism?
A
Dialectical materialism is Marx’s theory, thinking after dialectics, of a tension and contradiction between the material reality of capitalism (use-value, means of production/base) and the social relations that govern it (superstructure, social relations defined by commodity).
1
Q
What is dialectical analysis?
A
Dialectical analysis/dialectics come from Hegel’s idea of the thesis and antithesis, and essentially is the idea of analysis arising through the encounter of opposites, a continuous push and pull.
2
Q
What is Marxism?
A
Marxism is a method of analysis, an academic framework that analyzes class relations and society via a dialectical view of social transformation.
3
Q
What is the definition of a communist society?
A
A communist society is a classless, stateless society that has common ownership of the means of production without labor exploitation.
4
Q
What is socialism?
A
Socialism is a historical transition period between a capitalist and communist society, in which production is determined by use-value, social surplus accrues to working class/society as a whole, and distribution of output according to contribution (“socialist means of production”).
5
Q
What is use value?
A
A given item’s value purely in terms of utility and function fulfillment; seen by Marx as a kind of natural or material reality of an item masked by commodification
6
Q
What is exchange value?
A
A given item’s value in terms of currency and for the purposes of exchange
7
Q
Define commodity fetish
A
To Marx, the commodity possesses a mysticism which veils an item’s origin and distinguishes it from its pure use value, producing relations to the object that differ from the relations between a person and an object of utility. When we value objects through exchange value rather than use value, we establish all objects into a standardized, quantitative method of valuation. The value of all things can be equalized through currency. Marx calls this wrongness in the relation between person and object commodity fetish.
8
Q
What are the consequences of commodity fetish?
A
From commodity fetish arises capitalism’s need to innovate and produce endlessly, as the need for the object is untethered from its production, and profit alone becomes the goal, for the sake of always generating more profit with no true goal. As a result, nothing in society is solid, and nothing is still. And, Marx argues, commodity fetish masks producer-producer relations, causing people under capitalist society to establish relations not through their interactions with one another, but rather through the exchange of product and the view of another merely as a producer of a product.
9
Q
What are the three classes under a Marxist analysis of society?
A
- the aristocracy; born into hereditary power and privileges
- the bourgeoisie; owners of the means of production
- the proletariat; the working class whose material value is constituted by their labor power, rather than through things like land
10
Q
What class relations exist under capitalism? How do these relations affect the identity of the working class?
A
Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat, who believe in their own freedom due to their possession of the “freedom” to sell their labor. This, however, causes an alienation within the identity of the working class, who gain more “meaning” (via the meanings that appear from commodity fetish) the more they sell their self.
11
Q
What are the five modes of production?
A
- primitive community
- slave state
- feudal state
- capitalist system
- socialist society
12
Q
How does Marxist thought relate to the creation of the trademark?
A
Marx argues that the social character of the commodity appears as an objective character stamped upon the product (trademarks, logos).
13
Q
What did the 1862 Merchandise Marks Act do?
A
The 1862 Merchandise Marks Act criminalizes wrong/fraudulent marks by:
1. defining the word mark, making an effort to include anything and everything within the definition
2. defining a trademark, meaning a mark used in trade to signify its manufacturer (origin)
3. making it illegal to take a mark and use it with the attempt to defraud
The 1862 Merchandise Marks Act also establishes three types of fraud as misdemeanors. These are:
1. the forging/counterfeiting of a trade mark
2. the wrong application of any trade mark (i.e. Costco ketchup in a Hein’s ketchup bottle)
3. to make iffy trademarks
14
Q
What did the 1872 Trademarks Registration Act do?
A
The 1872 Trademarks Registration Act establishes an office and registration system for legitimate trademarks for the purpose of being able to keep a record of legitimate trademarks and compare them to fraudulent ones. This act also sets an expiration on trademarks (5 yrs), necessitating their regular renewal.
15
Q
What is the difference between the 1862 Merchandise Marks Act & the 1872 Trademarks Registration Act?
A
The 1862 act criminalized and established punishments for forging trademarks, applying them wrong, etc. as well as defined trademarks. the 1872 act established an office and registration system, as well as set an expiration on trademarks.
16
Q
Define the three systems of intellectual property
A
- patents: the owning of a useful invention or process
- trademarks: marks used in trade specifically, which have a specific industry
- copyright: the expression of an idea
17
Q
What are some varying views about the justification of the existence of intellectual property?
A
The Hegelian view is that property is important to the self, and control over objects is essential for self-actualization.
The Lockean view is that because individuals own their bodies and their labor, they are thusly entitled to control the fruits of their labor.
The Utilitarian view believes that if people couldn’t control their own ideas, they wouldn’t invent anything, and we need inventions for the greater good, so intellectual property has social utility.
18
Q
Explain the justification/reasoning for appropriation art
A
Copyright is sometimes violated through parody and appropriation art, in which appropriation artists use appropriation as a form of commentary. Appropriation art is widely debated, particularly because it is sometimes legal under fair use and sometimes not.
e.x. Rosemary Coombe’s theory of re-embodiment
19
Q
Define pastiche
A
Pastiche is a work of art that obviously imitates other sources, so obviously as to be a parody. The work is “pasted” together, hence “pastiche.”
20
Q
What is trade dress?
A
Trade dress is a legal term that refers to trademark over not just the logo and the product, but the experience. The trade dress of a brand is its atmosphere, ambiance, setting, vibes, etc. It marks a shift from ownership of products to ownership of experiences, and thus reflects the many debates of postmodernism.
21
Q
What is semiotics?
A
Semiotics is the studying of language as a system of signs. It later became known as structuralism.
22
Q
Explain the sign, signifier, and signified.
A
For Saussure, a sign is anything that refers to something other than itself. For Saussure, the existence of language can be broken down as signs consisting of a signifier and a signified.
The signifier is the “acoustic image” of a word; its sound, visual appearance, etc.
The signified is the “concept” of the world, such as “tree” as a concept.
Both the signifier and signified occur in the mind. To Saussure, the signifier and the signified are akin to the relationship between water and air in creating a wave— meaning, the two together create the sign. There is no wave without one of its components. Saussure argues essentially that language, rather being an expression of an existing concept, instead mediates between thought and sound, meaning that until you learn to utter a word you don’t know it conceptually.
23
Q
What is the arbitrariness of the sign?
A
The sign is arbitrary because it follows no law or logic aside from that of tradition, which itself is arbitrary, making the sign also arbitrary. The arbitrariness of the sign is best showcased when comparing different languages, which indicate similar concepts through logically disconnected signs. These concepts, however, are not actually interchangeable, as the “same” word in different languages conjures different concepts.
24
Explain the mutability and immutability of the sign
The sign is also both mutable and immutable. It is immutable in synchronic analysis, in that individuals do not have the power to change a sign once it is established into a community of speakers. However, the sign is also mutable through diachronic analysis, as speech naturally changes and evolves over time due to the force of time itself.
25
What is synchronic analysis?
Synchronic analysis is analysis of a system, such as language, as a specific point in time
26
What is diachronic analysis?
Diachronic analysis is analysis of a system over time.
27
What is TRIPS?
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an agreement established by the WTO in 1994, establishing property rights over information and resources for countries in the West and leaving the resources of the non-West available to the West in the public domain.
28
Define critical theory
Critical theory is a school of thought that arises from the Frankfurt School and is the oppose of normative theory, which advocates for critical thinking, or the transcending of tension between the purpose and rationality of the individual and the work-process relationships upon which society is built.
29
What is the Culture Industry?
The standardized industry of cultural products which becomes increasingly homogenized and creates art (superstructure) which is shaped by the base (with the base being the capitalist mode of production).
30
What is Adorno & Horkheimer's critique of the Culture Industry? What do they believe art should be?
The Culture Industry is a standardized industry of cultural products which becomes increasingly homogenized and creates art (superstructure) which is shaped by the base (with the base being the capitalist mode of production).
This idea of the base following the superstructure is a Marxist idea. To Adorno, to be entertained is to be in agreement, and thus art should be autonomous, the social antithesis of society, enabling self-realization and enforcing non-conformity to break out of the culture industry. Art should defend us from the status quo.
31
What do Adorno and Horkheimer think of technology?
Technology is nothing more than an evolution of the Culture Industry's domination that promises things like democracy but in truth merely causes atomization, agreement, and division
32
What analogy does Adorno/Horkheimer use to describe people who love modern art?
Adorno believes that those who love modern art and the art of the culture industry have a sado-masochistic character, corresponding to a prisoner who loves his cell because he has nothing left to love.
33
How does historical context affect Adorno & Horkheimer's view of art?
At the historical moment of Adorno and Horkheimer, the base was utterly corrupted by fascism, thus causing them to argue for autonomy, since the only method through which a non-fascist superstructure could come about is via removal from the base. In essence, to Adorno and Horkheimer, art can only escape its role in perpetuating fascism by completely rejecting all politics, by existing autonomously from art.
34
What is Benjamin's view of art?
Contrary to Adorno, Benjamin takes on an optimistic approach, believing that art is itself politics (rather than Adorno's theory of art needing to be separated from politics)
35
What is Benjamin's view of technological reproducibility?
film/technology can allow us to envision a reality outside of capitalist society by essentially generating another reality through the existence of/removal of the camera. In acting, everyone is acting (reproducing life) to the camera, but the camera is removed from the film. to Benjamin, it doesn't matter whether film is art or not, its ability to change a person is enough.
36
Compare Benjamin, Adorno/Horkheimer, and Marx's views of art
Benjamin believes that art (superstructure) can shape the base instead
To Adorno, to be entertained is to be in agreement, and thus art should be autonomous, the social antithesis of society, enabling self-realization and enforcing non-conformity to break out of the culture industry.
TLDR: To Benjamin, art is politics, politics is art. To Marx, when we have a revolution, we will have better art. To Adorno, art should be separate from politics.
37
What is Benjamin's critique of fascism's impact on art?
Fascism gives expression to the working class without changing property relations, aestheticizing political life rather than politicizing artistic life.
38
Explain Benjamin's concept of aura
Benjamin believes that art has aura, which is the here and now as well as the tradition of the artistic object, the thing that compels us to view the Mona Lisa even when there are pictures of it online. Benjamin believed that with technological reproducibility, aura would wither.
39
What was Adorno's response/critique of Benjamin's aura concept?
Adorno, in his response to Benjamin's theorization of aura, produced the idea of truth content, in which art has an artistic truth to it made up of a dialectic between its form (internal dynamics) and content (sociohistorical totality to which work belongs).
40
How does Baudrillard apply semiotics to the concept of the self?
Baudrillard essentially applies the idea of sign and signifier to the ideas of distinctiveness and personalization, arguing that there is no person prior to calling them a certain way. That is to say, under capitalism, there are no persons in this functional universe; "the self" does not exist, and is an empty thing trying to personalize itself through choices of consumption. Consumption is a stand-in for all ideology and personality. Baudrillard points out the irony within marketing and commodity fetish that seeks to frame the purchase of products as an act of "finding yourself," as you are already yourself.
41
What is genericide?
trademarked product comes to signify a whole class of goods generically, which aren't tied to the specific product. As a result, the original trademark is nullified.
42
What are the categories of the spectrum of distinctiveness?
1. Generic (i.e. Zipper)
2. Descriptive (i.e. Best Buy)
3. Suggestive (i.e. Microsoft)
4. Arbitrary (i.e. Apple)
5. Fanciful (i.e. Exxon)
43
What is a floating signifier?
To Baudrillard, a sign that refers to nothing at all is a floating signifier, a signifier unmoored from any signified. Floating signifiers are things like brand collabs, in which the combination of brands doesn't actually tell us anything about product quality, and which we rather simply consume for the sake of consuming the logo and brand itself.
44
What is smallest marginal difference?
Baudrillard points out that the endless innovation of capitalism produces the release of products with the smallest marginal difference (i.e. Louboutin shoes). Basically, capitalism's endless innovation causes the creation of many products with small, negligible differences, in order to continuously produce more product for the sake of production.
45
What does Baudrillard say about anticonsumption?
he argues that anticonsumption is merely another form of consumption, in which one continues to buy to achieve a certain sense of a person, even if that identity of consumption is one of anticonsumption.
46
What is the reality principle?
The reality principle is the idea that you have many desires for many things, but in order to conform you must accept that you cannot have all of those things, and thus your psyche controls itself.
47
What is Baudrillard's view on art?
Under Baudrillard, we no longer need rationality to determine what is real or not. Instead, everything is incorporated into the simulation. Thus, to Baudrillard, it is not important to determine what art should aspire to be, as all possibilities of what art can be are incorporated into the simulation we live in.
48
Explain the Desert of the Real
In the Desert of the Real, the map of the empire which covers it exactly comes before the territory it covers. The map (signifier) of the territory (signified) is what constructs the territory itself, meaning that the the map, as a sign, is more "real" than the territory. In essence, the Desert of the Real argues that we now exist in a hyperreality, in which there is no real (hence, a desert of it), only signs upon signs upon signs, with "reality" formed purely by simulation interacting with itself, signs of the real substituting the real itself.
Even when the desert of the real is flipped so that the map is more real than the territory as, under simulation, the allegory of the desert of the real fails, as the dissolution of either signified or signifier destroys the magic of the difference between the two elements and their relationship with one another.
49
What does Baudrillard have to say about nostalgia?
To Baudrillard, the feeling of nostalgia is a form of panic within simulation, in which because we know things to not be real, we inject reality into signs through the feeling of nostalgia. This is similar to how power, in the face of simulation, tries to reinject realness everywhere through the discourses of crisis and desire in order to convince us of the reality of the social.
e.x. The thought of nostalgia for the white-picket fence, which is only an image
50
What are the four orders of simulation?
Four Orders of Simulacra
1. First-Order: reflection of basic reality (good appearance) e.x. Truman in his town, a representation so complete it tricks us into believing it to be real
2. Second-Order: masks/perverts basic reality (evil appearance) e.x. Reality masked by false reality– Truman doesn't know that his reality is false, he's a prisoner
3. Third-Order: masks the absence of reality e.x. The edge of the world masks the absence of reality by falsely causing you to believe there is a reality outside of the edge of the world
4. Fourth-Order: it bears no relation to reality whatsoever, and is instead its own pure simulacrum e.x. There is no "real", no god, no creator; when the movie ends, we ask ourselves, what to watch next? All the images of the Truman Show are merely signs on the TV screen which we consume, before moving to consume new signs.
51
What is deconstruction?
Deconstruction is a method of reading which focuses on decentering the center and aims to read the marginal, thus temporarily dismantling hierarchy and subverting existing binaries in the process of the reading. In deconstruction, nothing is central, natural, or authoritative— instead, there is free play of the slippage of the signifier.
52
What does deconstruction subvert?
the phenomenon of logocentrism, or the unending desire for a center, which Western thought is continually preoccupied with.
53
What is differánce?
In his work of deconstruction, Derrida creates the concepts of differánce and iterability. Derrida conceives differánce from the terms of deferral and differentiation. By combining the terms, Derrida calls upon the silence in the written distinction between the two terms, using differánce as a destabilizing strategy which fills in the absence and disparities of language.
54
What is iterability and how is it different from repeatability?
Iterability is a concept Derrida prefers to that of repeatability. Iterability distinguishes itself from repeatability by incorporating the paratext (not just the text, but everything outside of it as well is present in the text), rather than isolating the text and its reproductions. As such, iterability creates an impossibility of true reproduction, as each new iteration calls upon a different time, different text, different person, different circumstances, etc., and each new iteration interacts with and plays with the previous iterations. Iterability and deconstruction overall also beg the question of where writing takes place, given where writing sits amongst all other things, ideas, places through paratext. After all, how can true rereadings take place when each reading is a new reading, in a new place?
55
How does Derrida analyze the signature?
In his analysis of the signature, Derrida examines how the signature is a form of verification of the self, despite its easy and common imitation and forgery. As he points out, the signature is seen as a verification of the self, both generally and in the eyes of the law. Yet, it is also meant to be constantly repeatable, signed and reproduced every time it is required. There is also notably no place at which the signature is spoken— after all, to say one will sign before one signs is not constitutive of the act of signing itself.
56
Explain Derrida's transformation of Searle into SARL
SARL denotes a Limited Liability Corporation, which is a business structure that divides the corporation into the public and private self, legally speaking. Through this slippage in sound, Derrida points out how Searle and his signature (at the time of signing, meaning his specific self at a certain place at the time of signing, etc.) are, contrary to what the signature portrays itself to be, not singular, isolated entities. Though the signature appears to denote a singular ownership, as Derrida points out, the existence of dedications, as well as belonging to traditions of thought cause Searle's signature and image of ownership (copyright) to represent not an isolated, owning self, but a multitude of selves influenced by existing domains of thought, various cited interlocutors, etc., creating a self consisting of 3+n authors.
57
What is J.L. Austin's speech acts theory?
J.L. Austin's speech acts theory essentially argues that to say things is to do them, creating the idea of the utterance of speech as an action which may be as constitutive of identity as any other action.
58
How does deconstruction reimagine the relationship between speech and writing?
While earlier structuralist theory often privileges speech and the spoken word over concern with the written word, seeing speech as a kind of presence and writing as absence, deconstruction sees writing as contained within speech, with both entities being based on differences (in sound, in writing). This is also shown by Derrida's concept of differánce, which is a word born from two words (to differ & to defer) in French that sound the same, but appear different on the page.
59
What is possessive individualism?
The belief that the individual owns the self as a form of property
60
What is Locke's theory of the self?
Locke believes consciousness to be entirely constitutive and interchangeable with the self, and which believes the individual to own the self as legal property (possessive individualism).
61
What were Balibar's initial beliefs about Locke's theory of the self?
Balibar initially believed that Locke's theory rested on the idea that the self must continually appropriate the self to itself, in which appropriation refers both to an identification with the self, and the act of making that self a property. My self becomes my own because I appropriated it to myself, and thus made it indiscernible from myself, etc. In essence, through a mistaken interpretation of Robert Browning's "By the Fire Side," Balibar attempted to theorize that the self and the own were one and the same.
62
How does Balibar's theorization of the self shift?
Through a mistaken interpretation of Robert Browning's "By the Fire Side," Balibar attempted to theorize that the self and the own were one and the same. However, through the realization of the mistake, Balibar's theorization shifts. Balibar ultimately then theorizes that language continually duplicates a self, creating binaries and doubles, as it distinguishes between a self that is owning and a self that is owned (in order to express different moments of the process). When the self is named through language, a distance is put between the self speaking the self being addressed.
63
Explain Balibar's Jekyll & Hyde example
In the example with Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, the paradox is that Dr. Jekyll cannot bring himself to identify with Hyde, cannot say "I" when describing Hyde's actions. And yet, the two are intertwined to the degree that to kill one is to kill the other— they cannot be separated even in death.
64
Explain Balibar's St. Augustine example
The St. Augustine reflection brings up the dynamic between the asleep self and the awake self, who exist and conflict with one another as "two men" with different motivators ("two loves", aka the human vs the divine), and who inhabit two different worlds (the world of the waking and the dreaming). This dynamic of two generates one and the Other, and the two exist and confront one another, with one seeking to identify itself with a "self" (reach self-identity, in which the two become one, which is identified with and not confronted with). In other words, the interaction between the dual selves is the consciousness and body at odds, attempting to reconcile with one another under possessive individualism.
65
Explain Balibar's untranslatables
Continuing in the practice of translation as interpretation and imitation, Balibar sought to develop an understanding of Locke within the linguistic process, working through impossible translations/untranslatables and extremely specific translations, such as the translation of the English consciousness into con-science. An example of an untranslatable is the difference between the English river and the French fleuvre, or the lack of a universal yes/no in Chinese.
66
What is textuality?
Textuality refers to the act of reading how a text means rather than what it means. In essence, a preoccupation with form over content.
67
What is the subaltern?
The concept of the subaltern varies, with it growing in popularity at one point to simply mean oppressed classes. However, Spivak sees the subaltern as instead the most oppressed classes, meaning those who cannot even appropriate hegemonic discourse in order to speak at all.
68
What is Coombe's concept of alterity?
In discussing how colonized others can appropriate (appropriation: to make one's own, to take something, artistic technique of taking past images and making them your own) trademarks as a means of subversion and reclamation, Rosemary Coombe primarily centers two terms: alterity and mimesis.
Alterity refers to a state of being different, a kind of otherness. Coombe specifically talks about alters or colonized others as being those who cannot access abstraction (meaning, they cannot become unmarked, "blank" slates who take on and appropriate features as seen fit. meaning, their identities are not implicitly assumed and thus not pointed out), who are marked and thus have their bodies perpetually in the domain of images, particular features, and objects.
69
What is Coombe's concept of mimesis?
In discussing how colonized others can appropriate (appropriation: to make one's own, to take something, artistic technique of taking past images and making them your own) trademarks as a means of subversion and reclamation, Rosemary Coombe primarily centers two terms: alterity and mimesis.
Mimesis refers to an act of copying, imitating, and yielding into that specifically allows the copy to draw power from and influence the original.
70
Explain Rosemary Coombe's ideas of embodiment and re-embodiment
Coombe discusses how the bodies and existences of some are embodied by corporations in the form of trademarks (aka corporate identity), with certain identities connoting a trademark-appropriate distinctiveness and arbitrariness because they are distant and exoticised.
Essentially, Coombe studies the idea of re-embodiment of trademarks which appropriate the otherness of the colonized subject by the colonized subject/other, given the dynamic of the colonizer who can be covered in brand-names to formulate identity but is otherwise a "blank slate," compared to the colonized subject whose self is the brand name. Through this process of re-embodiment, the alter reclaims and reidentifies with the body that has become instead representative of a corporation, thus taking it back as their own and reclaiming a kind of power/distinction. Basically, because trademarks are so ubiquitous, they become available tools representative of cultural hegemony that allow the hegemonic discourse to be appropriated and repurposed.
Examples: Aunt Jemima, Sports teams w/ Indigenous mascots, Drink Cultura (c/s), Nanabouzho slapping Bunyan with walleye (symbol of economic independence)
71
What is cultural studies?
Cultural studies represents a movement towards a new definition of culture, which previously referred either to a kind of "high art" and "high culture" (i.e. the opera, poetry, etc.) or to culture as in mass culture/low culture/popular culture. Cultural studies thinks after semiotics, in that it takes language to be made by culture in the form of not just signs, but codes. It also discusses representation through the post-structural idea of the decentering of the self, which produces ideas of representation and the Other. It was born from the Birmingham School. Overall, cultural studies shows that how commodities are used can be a form of resistance.
72
How is authenticity constructed under cultural studies?
Under cultural studies, authenticity is constructed through practices
73
How is culture constructed under cultural studies?
Culture is constructed through language and practices (i.e. cooking, eating, running restaurants), and cultural practices change constantly and can be socially and politically transformative
74
Explain Hebdige's Vaseline example
In Cultural Sutides, social conflict can be analyzed through the appearances and objects of the culture (fashion, music, everyday life) and its dual significations between the dominated and subordinated cultures.
e.x. Vaseline as an object of both lip balm (dominant culture) and sex (subordinate culture), and how the social conflict between police and gay men can be seen through the warring implications of Vaseline.
75
How does Hebdige define culture?
For Hebdige, culture is defined by the study of relations through the rituals, objects, and practices which all, together, form a total "way of life." This understanding of culture also sees it as arising from a hidden set of rules, codes, and conventions, which are dictated by ideology.
76
How does Hebdige define ideology?
For Hebdige, ideology is an implicit structural logic that dictates culture, living below consciousness, which can be revealed.
77
How does Hebdige define hegemony?
Hegemony is when a logic or ideology is so totalizing that those under it can only think within that logical framework (i.e. "common sense). Like this, anything outside of that framework is seen as within a space that cannot only be non-ideological, permanent, natural, and beyond ideology.
78
How does Hebdige define subcultures?
Hebdige defines subcultures as a set of people with distinct behavior and beliefs within a larger culture (this definition actually comes from Stuart Hall). He particularly points out the similarities between subcultures and their parent cultures, placing emphasis on how subcultures reworked and appropriated in order to communicate resistance.
79
Name some subcultures & their key features
1. The Beat/Beatniks (1940s-50s): Predominately middle class, college-educated, preoccupation with the literary and with art, perceived Black culture as a kind of heroic ideal, mythologizing the Black figure as juxtaposed by a history of enslavement and a kind of spiritual essence, mythologized and idealized Blackness as "between servitude and freedom"
2. Teddy Boys (1950s): Clothing of the Edwardian aristocracy contrasted to predominately Black, working class music. Excluded from idea of the "respectable" working class, condemned in all probability to life of unskilled labor. Rooted in white working class, and possessed white working class xenophobia.
3. Mods (70s): Clothing defined by meticulousness to the extreme, representative of having carefully been able to transition between spaces (school to work to leisure etc.) whilst simultaneously still having an indescribable, unidentifiable sense of "off-ness", strangeness, and lack of belonging in those spaces. Pushing neatness to the point of absurdity.
4. Glam and Glitter Rockers (1974): Movement into a fantasy past, taking heavily from Bowie with regards to sexual identity and freedom as cultural concepts and preoccupations, as well as just taking from Bowie's general aesthetic.
80
What is Zizek's ideological fantasy?
Ideological fantasy is the idea that ideology, rather than being something which conceals reality and thus needs to be unmasked to see the truth and the real, instead, is the mechanism through which this concealment can occur in the first place. This idea is developed through the paradox in which a person may consciously know that they are being deceived/they are engaging with abstract simulation/sign/not engaging with reality, but through the subconscious, they act in actions and habit as though they do not know. For example, a person may consciously know that money is not real, but will continue to act and engage with consumerism as though it is. For Zizek, ideology is not a false illusion of reality, but rather reality itself, which is perceived as being ideological (mechanism).
81
What are the three Lacanian orders?
The three Lacanian orders are a reworking of Freud that incorporates semiotics, as Freud, thinking before semiotics, had everything in the domain of the consciousness. They are as follows:
1. The order of the real
2. The order of the imaginary
3. The order of the symbolic
81
How does Zizek define the symptom?
The symptom, which Zizek believes Freud first talks about but Marx implicitly invents, is the "symptom" or indicator of the aforementioned mechanism of ideology, which allows something to be hidden. This indicator/symptom subverts the ideology which surrounds it, and in doing so, closes the circular logic of the ideological fantasy. An example of this is the notion of freedom to sell one's own labor. This idea is a different kind of freedom than is commonly established (like freedom of speech, of consciousness, etc.), standing out as a different notion amongst the ideology of freedom. And yet, this "freedom", though pushed forward a universalized conception of freedom just like the rest, has the opposite effect, wherein the worker loses freedom by selling their own labor "freely", and is instead enslaved to capital. Thus, the form of this freedom is the exact opposite of freedom— and yet, its existence closes the logical circle of "freedom" under capitalism, asserting that freedom is, indeed, worker exploitation.
82
What is the Lacanian Real?
The Lacanian Real is the representation of the thing in the symbolic order, the hard kernel of truth left over from awakening to reality and from a dream in which the real confronted us. It's essentially the pre-linguistic realm that comes before the mirror stage, that cannot be put into words. The real is what is left from before the mirror stage (the stage at which the infant looks in the mirror and recognizes its whole body-image, but only has control over the coordination of body parts. this stage causes alienation and fragmentation of the subject, who turns around and looks at that which supports it: the big Other. This moment symbolizes the beginning of the development of the self, which is inducted into the order of the imaginary and symbolic. As such, the real is what is left behind in this process). The real exists outside of language, and cannot be represented.
83
What is the Lacanian Imaginary?
The imaginary is the illusions that structure the world, that allow the individual to act and engage normally within the context of the world. The imaginary order is the illusion that self is not divided and barred, the illusion that allows the self to falsely perceive itself as a coherent, unified whole that is like the Other.
84
What is Lacan's symbolic order?
The symbolic order is the place of language, which is the law. It is the language that structures the unconsciousness. In it contains the idea of the Name/No of the Father (which is itself a form of slippage between name/no), or the Law of the Father, which is the force of the symbolic father, whose social position reconciles desire and the law (the real and the symbolic). An example of this is the compulsion to touch the stove, which arises from a desire for the father to prohibit that touching. Like this, the name of the father also substitutes the desire of the mother, with the prohibition substituting the desire to act upon what was prohibited. The paradox of this, however, is that the no of the father prohibits a desire which was impossible to begin with, and thus the prohibition was never that powerful to begin with.
85
What is each component of the $♢a formula?
$♢a
$ = the barred subject of desire
♢ = greater than, less than, above and below, denotes some kind of varying relationship
a = petit objet a
86
Explain the $ in the $♢a formula
$, or the barred subject of desire, is the subject (S) after they have gone through the stages (like the mirror stage) of societal development into "normalcy" and been inducted into the symbolic order (language and culture), which causes the subject to be split by language/that symbolic order, as the process through which this "assimilation" happens causes a lack. The barred subject is "barred" from the fiction which sustains their subjectivity. Societally speaking, the notion is that to be a good parent/child/member of society, you must repress and be barred, but this repression also causes a lack.
87
Explain the a in the $♢a formula
a refers to the petit objet a, or small object a. The petit objet a is the lack caused by the splitting of the subject, the absence at the center of the symbolic order. In a way, this lack is what remains of the real (hard kernel of truth which is left behind in the mirror stage, the last remaining thing of the pre-language and pre-imaginary). Yet, simultaneously, the object is both the lack and that which conceals the existence of the lack, rendering it invisible by its existence (which fills it out).
88
How does Zizek/Lacan define fantasy?
Fantasy is a defense, a psychic projection that screens a more painful image by consoling the subject by suggesting they once had the Thing but it was taken away by the big Other (A).
89
What does Zizek/Lacan say about the purpose of desire's existence?
Desire exists not for a thing, but for the desire for desire itself, the desire to continue to desire.
90
What are Foucault's criticisms of Marxism and psychoanalysis?
Foucault's theorizations essentially rest on ideas of historicization rather than on ideas of the nature of things. This can be seen from his critique of Marxism of theorizing work to be a kind of essence of man (to Foucault, work is not the essence of man. Rather, man is obliged to work because of the power mechanisms he exists in.), as well as his critique of psychoanalysis as a medicalizing of the human subject.
91
How does Foucault define power (power relations)?
Essentially, Foucault argues that power refers not to specific institutions, but a set of technique. Power is a field of relations (power relations), evinced by interactions between people, techniques, and practices, rather than top-down domination. Power permeates, rather than dominates. It is so totalizing there is no outside to it.
92
Explain Foucault's concept of subjectification
Techniques of power cause the individual to subjectify themselves is a process he called subjectification. Subjectification is both the act of subjugating the self (making oneself subject to another) and making the self a subject (with individual identity). In this way, it is the act of turning the self into a subject of various institutions and various power techniques.
93
What is Foucault's historical method?
Throughout his method, Foucault realizes this analysis through historicization by examining and crafting histories to establish theories not as broad essences of things, but rather techniques specific to a historical moment, in the context of a broader history. He is interested not just in what power relations are, but how power relations operate and how they came to be.
94
What does Foucault mean when he says that "the soul becomes the prison of the body"?
Foucault points out a historical shift when he states that "the soul becomes the prison of the body," as he is pointing out the shift from brutal, direct violence done unto the body to discipline techniques performed on the soul which cause it to subsequently shackle the body.
95
Explain Foucault's panopticism
Born from Bentham's panopticon, panopticism is a theory of modern power techniques present in institutions like the school and the prison, in which subjects are individualized and inducted into the field of power relations, made always surveilled by their individualization and self-identification such that they believe themselves to always be watched, and thus always performing/perpetuating power.
96
Explain Foucault's concept of pastoral power
Foucault's theorizations surrounding modern techniques of power are demonstrated through his concept of pastoral power. To Foucault, pastoral power causes the individual to self-regulate for the promise of individual salvation in the afterlife, thus looking after both community and specific individual. Notably, pastoral power is build on a theoretical sacrifice, in which the pastor is prepared to sacrifice himself for the greater cause of salvation, rather than demanding sacrifice from subjects. Pastoral power is essentially a form of power that directs the psyche, the governs the mind and the soul in order to thus govern the body.
97
What does Foucault mean when he says, "do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same"?
When Foucault speaks to the ever-changing nature of the subject, he is speaking to the way the subject is defined by power techniques in a changing history. When he says, "do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same," he is resisting the individual marking of the self as a subject, refusing to identify himself and thus make himself subject
98
What does Foucault consider to be the three types of struggles?
1. struggle against forms of domination (seen to Foucault as being a past technique of power, akin to feudal kings etc.)
2. struggle against forms of exploitation that separate the individual from what they produce (Marxism)
3. struggle against the power techniques tying the individual to the self and submitting the self to others through this individualization (subjectification).
99
Why does Foucault believe power can only be exerted over free subjects?
Because Foucault sees power not as something you lack, but something that produces you, Foucault argues that freedom is a necessary precursor to power; "power is exercised over free subjects." To Foucault, power can ony take what you lack in the first place. A subject must exist within a possible field of action in order to be influenced by power. In essence, Foucault's concept of power affects the acting agent. One must be agent to perpetuate power techniques.
100
What is postmodernism (to Lyotard, at least)?
Postmodernism is essentially defined by Lyotard as being an incredulity towards meta-narratives, or narratives so totalizing it is impossible to see outside of them. Though postmodernism resists concrete definitions, it can be contrasted by modernism thusly:
modernism: form = function, new, progressive, rational, organized, linear, top-down, centralized
postmodernism: messy, baroque, ornamentized, pastiche, repetition, historical, affective, anti-systematic, paradoxical, localism
101
What are denotative vs performative utterances?
Performative utterances are statements like "I promise," which perform an action, while denotative utterances ("Snow is white.") attempt to describe the state of affairs.
102
What is the dichotomy between science and narrative?
Scientific knowledge, Lyotard points out, sees itself as separate from narrative, as a non-narrative. However, it legitimizes itself through narratives like the Scientific Epic and through Scientific Heroes.
103
Explain Haraway's feminist objectivity/situated knowledges
In an attempt to reconcile the symmetry of relativism without turning to objectivity, Haraway creates the idea of feminist objectivity, or situated knowledges. Feminist objectivity, to Haraway, is the taking of knowledge as contradictory, coexisting, incomplete, situated/local knowledges, rather than the concept of knowledge as equally objective everywhere or equally unreal everywhere. Haraway's situated knowledges encourage the incompleteness of sight within a limited perspective, is interested in thinking within the body and not thinking abstracted from it, particularly given the asymmetry in ability to be abstracted.
104
Explain Haraway's idea of the god trick
The symmetry of knowledge in both relativism and objectivity, Haraway argues, is an example of what she calls the god trick. Essentially, the god trick is the act of claiming to see everything from nowhere. It claims symmetry of sight while being unable to be held accountable for its asymmetry that peeks through, due to its claim to no location, no position.
105
Explain Dorfman and Mattelart's critique of Donald Duck
Dorfman and Mattelart essentially engage in a critique of the Donald Duck comics, arguing that work in the comics is detached from the class realities of work in the real world, and instead envisions work and tasks in a deconcretized way as adventure, which is an abstract form of labor. In the world of Donald Duck, the socioeconomic bases for unemployment are erased and replaced by unemployment based on the personality of the individual employee (i.e. Donald is perpetually getting fired/unemployed because of his sheer incompetence. He is always seeking work to buy superfluous things, like gifts, and he never needs the job to do things like actually pay rent). All people are employees, rather than workers.
