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The Last Theorists!
BathesHall
JamesonFoucaultDenzin
Bathes –Semiotics
• The study of signs and symbols (denotative and connotative)
• Bathes argues that the interpretation of meaning lies with the audience and depends on the experiences, interests, beliefs and culture they bring with them (multiple meanings)
Hall
• Hall again focuses on the audience and the different reading they can make of a text
• But in this case individuality is downplayed and it is more about the relationship between the audience and the producer/institution making the text
• The Producer will have in mind a way in which they want their text to be read and we as an audience can either accept or reject that reading
Hall
• Hegemonic Reading– Reader accepts and reproduces the preferred
meanings of the text (as set by the ‘institution’)• Negotiated Reading– Reader broadly accepts the preferred reading but
resists or modifies elements • Oppositional Reading– Reader understands the preferred reading but
rejects it
HallReading FOTC Catfish Lady Gaga
Hegemonic
Negotiated
Oppositional
Jameson
• Pomo for Jameson is all about the modern day and how it has lost connects to the past.
• In regards to ‘reality’ Jameson argues that we make no effort to get to know the ‘real’ but instead like and get to know the exaggerated replicas of people (simulacra – Hyperreality)– Less on concern about the past– The entertainment value is more important than historical
accuracy/ meaning eg Music Vidoes – ‘Historical deafness’– We live in the here and now (instantaneous) – Depthlessness: there is not deep thought/meaning/ ideology
anymore
Jameson
Foucault • Panopticalisation – gaining power through
watching• We live in a society where we are always being
watched and want to be watched• We like watching other people
Foucault
The Guardian
Denzin (1988)
• Past and present boundaries are blurred• Blunt statements about social climate• Unreal is real• Present the unpresentable• Sexuality/violence as a tool for freedom• 2 categories of women – red and white• Remnants of the past used to signify safe and
unsafe.