What does Culture mean? Flashcards
(31 cards)
What major things did Sigmund Freud mention?
- The Unconscious
- Repression
- Sublimation
- Dream work
The human mind has three parts, explain them
- Conscious: relates to external world, thoughts/sensations/memories which we are currently aware, thinking/acting rationally
- Pre-conscious: thoughts that we’re unconscious of in a moment but are capable of becoming conscious, memories, shared knowledge, TOT
- Unconscious: instinctual drives, repressed wishes, socially unacceptable ideas, painful emotions
TOT = tip of the tongue phenomena
“Das Ich ist nicht Herr im eigenen Haus”
What is Repression defined by Sigmund Freud?
- Our biological being is made up of instincts that society prevents us from fulfilling.
- The creation of civilization has resulted in the repression of basic human instincts.
- divides human psyche into 3 sections: Id, Ego, Super-Ego
Explain the three human psyche sections
Id: dark inaccessible part of our personality, most primative part of our being, contains human’s basic -> only wants pleasure principle
Ego: develops out of Id & modified by external world, develops through cultural contact -> follows reality principle
Super-Ego: reflects internalization of cultural rules, taught by parents/teachers/idols, inner image wants to become idol
pleasure principle: instinctual seeking of pleasure and avoiding pain
reality principle: ability of mind to assess reality of external world, rational over emotional mind
Explain the pleasure principle
instinctual seeking of pleasure and avoiding pain
Explain the reality principle
ability of mind to assess reality of external world, rational over emotional mind
What is Sublimation?
defense mechanism that deflects our taboo, socially unacceptable (sexual) instincts into something socially acceptable
very existence of civilization demands unconscious process of sublimation
What are dreams for Sigmund Freud?
fulfillment of a wish -> “dreams are the road to the unconscious”
dreams as the eruptions of the repressed!
What is the Dream Theory by Sigmund Freud?
- Manifest content: evident system of representation, what you remember
- latent dream thoughts/the repressed: hidden/unconscious desires, what it means
What is the Analysis of Dreams by Sigmund Freud?
- Condensation: manifest content < latent content
- Displacement: transformation along associations
- Symbolization: turning thoughts into images/symbols
- secondary revision: translation of dream elements into coherent narrative
What were Jacques Lacan’s main ideas?
- The Real: natural organic before language/culture, lives begin in realm of the real, cant be represented through language -> we simply are
- The Imaginary: realm of images in which we make identification, creating our self through a series of recognitions of ourselves
- The Symbolic: child enters world of language/culture and is socialized, completeness of “The Real” is gone forever now, nature -> culture
- Mirror Stage: child establishes relation between Innenwelt & Umwelt, infant begins to see itself -> as subject & object
What is the Male Gaze?
- From examining the evidence of films, discovers that the heterosexual male gaze (look, perspective) is prioritized
- Who looks (subject) = men (men looking = moments of narrative)
- Who is looked at (object) = women -> Women are never the subject of a camera, always an object.
- Visual pleasure in cinema is manipulated by the “male gaze” (affects camera angels and editing too)
We are internalizing these movies, how to desire and how to be desired.
Films stop their narrative (digress from story, plot) to gaze at the female body as an eroticized object (in a way that it does not for men) and present female characters as objects of implicitly male visual appreciation for both in-text male characters and the audience
Mulvey: “For a moment the sexual impact of the performing woman takes the film into a no-man’s-land outside its own time and space”
What is the Spectator-Positioning in the Male Gaze?
- Audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male
- Women exposed to two looks: Sexual gaze of hero in the narrative & Sexual gaze of the spectator in the audience
What’s the funny thing about Marxism?
One’s position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process
-> Aristocracy (ruling upper-class) -> inherited money, land, title, rank
-> Bourgeoise (middle class) -> in control of industry & business, access to education, capital, means of production
-> Proletariat (labouring class) -> sell their labour-power to bourgeoise for wage
But:
- Dominant class do not see themselves as exploiters
- Subordinate class do not see themselves as oppressed or exploited
What is an ideology?
“what goes without saying”
- Ideologies present normative statements (how things should be) as descriptive (how things actually are)
- This dominant ideology appears as neutral, normal; all that differ from the norm are seen as “radical”. Thus, ideologies appear natural, they seem to be common sense; are often “invisible” and elude criticism, and thereby unknowingly shape our processes, beliefs, & practices.
- Consequently, many things we perceive to be our most “common sense” beliefs are our most ideological
Culture = values of dominant ideology
What is the Frankfurt School?
- group of German intellectuals
- thought WWI would spark communist revolution
- school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory
- established term “culture industry”
What does Culture Industry do?
- has three features: Homogeneity, Predictability, Conformity
- produces consumer desires -> it makes people think they address their needs and desires but they are creating them
Homogeneity = all mass culture is identical
Predictability = constant reproduction of the same thing
Conformity = circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows even stronger
Why do Adorno & Horkheimer (Frankfurt School) say that consumers of pop/mass culture are thoughtless zombies?
- Culture industry discourages the masses from thinking beyond the present (satisfied within current (oppressive) system
- Culture Industry doesn’t challenge status que -> “this is the better future”
- Mass culture offers fulfillment rather than desire
- capitalism prevent the formation of fundamental desires
What is Interpellation?
process in which we internalize the dominant culture’s ideologies and values
-> “we” as the special one in discourse
What are the three choices pop culture initiatives have?
- Marginalization
- Disappearance
- Incorporation
What does Hegemony theory allow us to think of pop culture?
- made both from above & below
- both commercial & authentic
- resistance & incorporation
- agency & structure
What is Hegemony?
those in power get to determine what is right/wrong, sensible, intellectual, they control the ideas, …
What can signs be?
- words
- images
- sounds
- odours
- flavours
- clothes
- gestures
What is a sign?
- Anything that conveys meanings
- Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as ‘signifying’ something – referring to or standing for something other than itself.
