ALL MULT10017 Representation Lectures PDF

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Representation MULT10017 Lecture 1: Semiotics & Genres of Representation Subject Overview:  Introduction to representation  Film  The novel  Theatre  Performance  Visual art & curatorship  Dance Semiotics (the study of signs):   

from philosopher Charles S. Peirce in the late 19th century. a sign is a stimulus pattern that has a meaning. The difference is in how the meaning happens to be attached to (or associated with) the pattern.

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Signifier (the physical existence) and signified (the mental concept) e.g. that 'flowers' equal an image of flowers (physically), red = apple, apple = school/teacher's pet etc. Linguistic representations Meaning agreed upon over time (cultural/social context)

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Three types of signs: Iconic, Indexic, Symbolic • Iconic signs Bears strong resemblance to that which it represents or 'stands for'  Have a physical resemblance between the signal and the meaning e.g. A picture of your face stands for/resembles you Not always necessarily visual or physical, e.g. could be a car horn, rain in theatre production Photograph or portrait of what it represents – e.g. actor performs not through themselves, but as representation of a human being character PROBLEMS: what IS `physical resemblance'? How similar it must be? It is not always physical either - Just because we can recognize a picture doesn't mean any other animal could. • Indexic signs Point to something that has just happened or is about to E.g. snow-white vultures, railway signs …. Falling leaves & autumn, smoke = fire, blossoms = spring, knock on door & arrival, an omen, snow = winter arriving  Have a correlation in space & time with its meaning Used for advancing a plot/foreshadowing  Words are said to be indexical when they directly point to their meaning. E.g. here, there, I, me, you, this, etc. • Symbolic signs E.g. The cross for Christianity, dove for peace, gun for war Agreed upon over time by a given culture or across cultures Standing in for someone/something that is absent

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Mental associations with symbols - can be words too - saying the word 'snow' literally equals what snow represents

Denotation: a signs primary meaning E.g. sun E.g. dollar sign Connotation: a signs secondary meaning E.g. sun = warm, life giving, energy, star/cosmos E.g. dollar = wealth, greed, lifestyle Context: Cultural (or subcultural) Historical Socioeconomic Professional Disciplinary Genre or medium specific - Type or category of a work of art (or person etc - Medium: the particular mode of communication or transmission How something is said, written, performed or visualised shapes the meaning of what is being represented Theatre; scenery, body movement, camera, sounds Novel; specific language, narrator’s attitude to subject, Visual art: shapes, figures, medium

Lecture 2: Death & Life of the Author  

The language acts, speaks for itself – rather than speak for the intention of the author The texts exist alone with its own representative meaning – the text is not solely a representation of the author of the work  Writer shaped by culture  Does anybody truly have an authentic self to express?  A text encompasses many possible meanings and interpretations – each reader perceives a separate meaning of their own – their subjective view and opinion based on the context of their own worlds  Intention of the author is different to the result – there are limits of intention – ‘multiplicity of meaning’ from readers/audiences  ‘the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.’ (Barthes 148)  We may know the author’s intention (publicly told) – useful for reader in interpreting the text  The true meaning however, inevitably resides with the reader, though the interpretation is not necessarily the correct one or even, the intended one  Objection to Barthes: idea of ‘reader is without history, biography, psychology’ is unrealistic though ideal at best  People are inherently bias – the reader would need to be the right reader (culture, education) to understand the entirety of the text     

Shared (social/cultural/political) conventions and context – interpretation is not always entirely subjective – can be supported by evidence Evidence: formal elements of the text or image/performance – shapes, words, colours Connotation and denotation (shared associations/meaning) Context – historical, geographic, political, authorial biographies Secondary sources (e.g. ideas of scholars…. Barthes..)

Case Study: Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain”  Challenging the conventions of what art ‘is’ and what it means when we say art is art  Urinal – object as art – challenging structure of the art world  Signed the urinal to declare it as art – most artworks are signed by the artist, as the final touch of their work  It is signed with an anonymous pseudonym

Lecture 3: How to Read a Film Film Formal Analysis: What do you see? What do you hear? What is told? What is implied? (what belongs in the) World of the film/not? (Diegetic, Non) What/who is making these sights and sounds?     

Forget what you are taught in an academic context Think of the screen text in these basic ways Description! We have to describe something to understand it - close analysis Look for technique Why does the director make these choices?

Case Study: Psycho, Hitchcock, 1960 Close Analysis of shower murder scene:  Violin sounds/strings in background  Whirling of water in the drain, fade transition to still eye  Reaches for the shower curtain, rods break - almost reaching to the audience  Intimate focus on the women showering  Clinical: clean bathroom, never shows stab wounds  Blood flowing down drain  Her scream  Only the sound of the water running - creates suspense  Killer behind curtain / obscure presence  Length of shot is important  Mundane aspect of scene - unwraps soap - showing a toilet in 1960 was unusual in shot  Hitchcock had thing about water - interesting choice to place murder scene in shower Film Form: "Diegesis" = a narrative or plot, typically in a film Film narration : the way the story is told/put together, plot, structure, dialogue, literary aspects, diegesis Film style: : techniques - camera/cinematography; sounds - not only musical/e.g. silences; setting/set design; lighting; directing of actors/performance; atmosphere; dialogue; costume; props; 'miseen-scene' (everything in the shot); editing (relationship between shots); timing of shots - fading, sequence, transition, cuts. : everything in the shot is more than likely intended to be there Varieties of Film Studies:

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Film criticism (review, preview) Close film analysis Film history Film theory (e.g. genre, auteur … may be film based or not; e.g. psychoanalysis, Freudian, of film) Critical theory (gender, race, class etc) Theory using film as pretext for more theory (film and philosophy)

Lecture 4: Citizen Kane – Film Analysis     

Citizen Kane is considered one of the best films of all time / but this is not what criticism is entirely about / it is about deconstructing a film & learning Welles wanted to be involved in as many aspects of the film as possible Gregg Toland: contributed a lot to the films look and technical innovation Welles' co-writer, Herman J. Mankiewicz An ambitious project with drama around its release

Plot          

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Follows life of wealthy newspaper magnet, Kane First time we meet him he's on his deathbed, dramatically murmurs 'Rosebud' Story told through flashback of interviews Kane once knew In last scene we discover 'Rosebud' references a sled he had as kid before separated from family, sent to boarding school Themes: Loss of childhood, human flaws, memory, complications of power/wealth Influenced by real life too: William Randolph Hearst: Welles insisted it was not personal attack on Hearst, though there were parallels Changed the way film was being used as a story telling medium Innovation with cameras: Deep focussed lenses - everything is focussed not just foreground/background Much like theatre where Welles had experience Camera movements: scene where Kane is a child playing outside, camera draws back from window and past table, you see table would have been in the way but it's actually a mechanical set and the table splits apart and then back together to allow the camera to pass through --- cut holes in floor to also get low camera shots facing upward viewing actors --- lighting/sound hidden in muslin sheets in ceiling Flashbacks add authenticity to real life representation

Lecture 5: Citizen Kane & Orson Welles      

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Orson Welles was at 25, or slightly younger, given a great deal in Hollywood to make the film he wished to make and express himself Probably the last time somebody got a deal this good in Hollywood - this was a point in history of this medium, and all associated media that relate to film culture, where changes occur Significance of cinema in early-mid 1930s - everyone went to the movies (particularly U.S. once a week) - boom in movie making, producing and attendance Charles Foster Kane - who is he? - have to understand in relation to person and people who made it - associated egos and talents surrounding it - autobiographical perspective German expressionism - visual distinctive style - e.g. Metropolis - may have influenced Welles - UFA studio coming out of Germany. Some critics argue that Citizen Kane is origin of film noir - crime fictional narrative, femme fatale, guns: high contrast visual lighting styling/emotion, black & white Orson Welles

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Bernard Herrmann: composer Also composer on most Hitchcock films, Taxi Driver was one of his last scores George Schaefer: RKO In many ways Citizen Kane is a film about one thing: studio politics: George Schaefer was trying to assert particular identity in his brand RKO - studio battle, competition - Hollywood is an oligarchy in a way Many people in the RKO framework didn't want the film made

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James G. Stewart, Head Post Production Sound (RKO) Sound: technical innovation in the film - attempts new things with sound to offer different experience

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The Mercury Theatre Was name of Orson Welles (named in sequence at beginning) theatre company from New York Most people in the film had involvement with this theatre company (particularly Houseman)

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John Houseman

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Herrmann J. Mankiewicz (screenplay) In a way this is very much about Herrmann's own life - his own vision

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Gregg Tolland cinematographer (Goldwyn): Strong emphasis on his experiments in the production High contrast lighting Wide angle lens Depth of focus Double exposure On set fade in/out Camera levels

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Robert Wise: editor Vernon Walker and Lindwood Dunn, special effects RKO Matte shots Rear projection Influence on film noir Genre

Orson Welles … Before Kane:  His company The Mercury Theatre were recipients of federal funding coming out of the depression to stimulate people in all sorts of industries and get people into work  Orson did an all-black Macbeth production - theatrical event, a lot of attention, slightly scandalous  Made a radio production of war of the worlds: radio performance - main career was radio artist and creator of radio content - became a scandal and Welles became associated with the scandal

Lecture 6: Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin Close Analysis of Literary Texts Comprises of 2 steps: 1. Noticing and identifying any striking textual features (rhetorical devices, cultural references, structural elements, oppositions and correspondences, may find a pattern)

2. Interpreting these observations, assimilate/organize them to form an argument or reading / how they contribute to the overall text James Baldwin (1924-1987)  Novelist, playwright, activist  Active figure in civil rights movement  African-American  Openly homosexual  Concerned with race relations & sexuality in his texts (poses these as mutual or interconnected facets of identity) Techniques of the novel:  Mono-syllabic words, sharp, short sounding  Narration directed to reader, intimate  Imagery - cavern, bulldog  Flashbacks  Fear of sexuality, loss of 'manhood'  'the germ of the dilemma' - internal repression of sexuality - fatal flaw inwardly  Foreshadowing  'lived and believed' - lying to himself, suppressing identity  'flight' from self and truth  Bulldog in the backyard - internally hidden in the backdrop of his identity - his 'monstrous' desire is inescapable, it is always looming in the 'backyard' of his psyche and identity  Revelation of guilt/desire/shame - dualities of self - realisation  Question of sexuality, relationships, identity  Parable: Joey's story can be read as a parable (allegory) (parables have morals typically) subtle, juvenile, adolescent scale  Fatalistic trajectory as David's relationship with Giovanni - repetition  1st person narration with flashback, metaphor and allegory - Baldwin creates confessional narration style  Idea of "thwarted revelation" critic Kevin Ohi (held back, repressed, unsuccessful, unable to develop, crushed)  The protagonist comes to terms with something he has held back his entire life (sexuality)  "Staccato" - shortened duration - this term reflects Baldwin's narration of monosyllabic words joined together, creates almost a beat  Text's epigraph: Walt Whitman: "I am the man; I suffered; I was there." (opening quote)  Lead through process of revelation of narrator  "trapped in the room with me, always has been, always will be." - the repressed feelings inside of him, his sexuality that he has hidden for years, but it is essentially a part of his identity as a whole - "in the room" as a symbol of his own repressed mind that he lives inside of.

Lecture 7: Giovanni’s Room – Contexts, Paratexts & Intertexts Authorial Context Influence of Author's Autobiographical Context on Textual Understanding & Analysis: Question: How relevant is Baldwin's authorial context relevant to reading the novel?    

Café de Flore: Paris - intellectual hang out - autobiographical Paris brought to life; navigation; vibrancy and atmosphere of Paris in Giovanni's Room James Baldwin moved from America to Paris (around 5 years before Giovanni's Room) - exile himself slightly, to be known as more of a wide-ranging novelist - not just writing on black rights In Paris, Baldwin explored homosexual bars with a group of friends, may have modelled Guillame's bar - certain aspects of context come to life in Baldwin's text

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Context can be defined as the circumstances that surround what you are referencing; context helps to inform understanding of what is being discussed Definition, with context within discipline of literature; Oxford dictionary: the whole structure of a connected passage regarded in its bearing upon any of the parts which constitute it; the parts which immediately precede or follow any particular passage or 'text' and determine its meaning. Problem with definition though is that context cannot entirely define meaning Context can be used in historical context; authorial context - knowledge of certain things about an author can influence reading of the text, sometimes advantageous, enhances appreciates; sometimes detrimental For e.g. Sylvia Plath read constantly inside the frame of her life events; context. Themes: identify, difference, shame, sexuality Confessional tones, religious connotation embedded in the text Only James Baldwin novel without African American characters: Baldwin notes to have said that he did not feel that the reading public could handle being confronted with two different markers of difference being race and sexuality in the one book Also said, they are part of the same social structuring of powering and oppression

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Bloom: Introduction to Giovanni's Room 1: "… possesses the fervour of a preacher. Unlike Emerson, Baldwin lacks the luxury of detachment, since he speaks, not for a displaced Yankee majority, but for a sexual minority within a racial minority, indeed for an aesthetic minority among black homosexuals."

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Double minority - Baldwin could see structures of power Baldwin's framing of America's race relations in his essay: 'Down at the Cross: Letter from a region in my mind." (pp.96) Argues that in order to achieve unity of American black and white people must recognise their interdependence and work on a practice of love over hate, which is rooted in dichotomy: black and white in this instance. Love as acknowledging fault and working toward development. Love and power - dynamic that operates in Giovanni's Room

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Paratexts  Invented by French literary theorist, Gerard Genette ("Paratexts")  Refers to anything editorial that surrounds the text: e.g. titles, dedications, epigraphs, blurbs  Translates to the edge of the text  Can be read as a threshold for interpretation - a "vestibule" (foyer of house, crossing into interior)  "undefined zone between the inside and the outside" (Paratexts, 1-2, Genette) Paratexts in Giovanni's Room:  We could look at the paratext of the books dedication "To Lucien" - lover in his life  The epigraph: "I am the man; I suffered; I was there." Walt Whitman (song of myself, leaves of grass)  Reflects ownership of self and circumstance in the text and, mutuality/interconnectedness between the two; as well as shift between present and past  Genette quotes Michael Charles that the function of an epigraph is "To give food for thought without knowing one's knowing what that thought is."  Sets a mood for reading the text; can also be used to situate the work within wider nexus of literature; a kind of intertextual consolidation; a body of texts considered together  Thematic and stylistic relevance, though does not unlock the text at all  Whitman known for homoerotic verse; Baldwin subtly highlighting queer lineage into American canon, exposing it  On another level Whitman is known for transcendentalism (19th century concept; associated with Emerson) - core values of individualism, idealism, divinity of nature Narration and the infinite 'I':

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Whitman's I and you are indistinct, all encompassing 'I' - can be read beside Baldwin's protagonist in Giovanni's Room While David appears to narrate sole experience - universal struggle of suffering, shame, experience - places David's struggle within historical struggle - human condition of complex emotion and suffering "I could almost hear the collective, shivering sigh … Behind the walls of the houses I passed … the French nation was clearing the dishes … held them in and protected them against the darkness and long moan of the night." (G.R, pp. 100) 'I' contains multitudes of identity - not singular Towards end of novel Giovanni's backstory is revealed - revelation for David; exposes and explains suffering - we also see Hella's struggle, trying to fit into 1950s women stereotype. (Hella and Giovanni's struggle, desire and longing to be a part of benign things, enjoy not having to resist, desire acceptance in collective, trapped in individual plight by strict social structures, contrast of American/European culture Seems to return to dynamics of love and power Spiritual connection / self-connection

Lecture 8: Giovanni’s Room – Figurative Space  

Baldwin's participation in the tradition of transatlantic novel, or the 'international theme' Baldwin's use of figurative spaces as form of psychological realism and potentially representation of homosexuality/queerness

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Use of architectural images: "maze of false signals and abruptly locking doors"(pp15) doors and room imagery/closed-off/hidden/locked away/secret, private lives - representative of i...