Zusammenfassung-introduction-to-Cultural-Studies PDF

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Zusammenfassung introduction to Cultural Studies 1. Culure 2. heterogeneous product of human behaviour, which is expressed in symbols, values, norms.. 3. controversal 4. 3 dimensions: material(texts, social(involves people mental (values norms) 1. Popular Culture 2. 3. Subculture 4. formed subdivisi...

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Zusammenfassung introduction to Cultural Studies 1. Culure 2. - heterogeneous product of human behaviour, which is expressed in symbols, values, norms.. 3. - controversal term; human-made 4. - 3 dimensions: material(texts, furniture..); social(involves people & interactions); mental (values norms) 1. Popular Culture 2. 3. Subculture 4. - formed by subdivisions of a culture; shared lived styles (music; sports..) 5. 6. Nature vs Culture 7. Cultural Semiotics 8. Semiotics: signifier (symbol) + signified = meaning 9. clothes=signifier; youth/subculture=signified 10. anti-establishment & rebellion=meaning 11. 12. Signifying practices 13. producers and recipients of cultural products ascribe meaning to these products through signifying practices (.e.g Converse → how is the meaning of this brand created?) 14. 15. Encoding/Decoding model (Stuart Hall) 16. production of media texts: encoding of meaning 17. recipient of media texts: decoding of meaning 18. production meaning & recipient meaning is not identical; meaning resides within the recipient → no inherent meaning to cultural products 19. 20. Cultural representation 21. 22. Race/ethnicity 23. -race~biological notion; ethnicity~cultural notion 24. - race does not really exist; no distinct biologically discrete sub-species (mixed races!) 25. - people of same ethnicity share cultures, network of family relations, roots, connection to particular home territory 26. - race is almost never a source of individual group pride, whereas ethnicity can be such a source of pride (as not being tarnished by history of racism) 27. 28. Racism 29. - due to proposed race 30. - a form of identity politics 31. - neglects the history of interactions with others out of which particular ethnicities & cultures emerge and within which they are maintained 32. 33. Identity 34. - defines who somebody is in terms of a trait (physical feature, belief, genealogy or

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cultural preference) - identify by placing individuals into groups who share that trait → identity is won at the price of reducing individuality - identities are given in terms of more or less arbitrarily selected features that individuals possess; those features mostly determined socially, from the outside - individuals have different identites which are based on partial traits - identities not stable, but changing throughout life - given identities (family, nation, sex..) & chosen identities (sports, friends, music..)

1. identity politics: 2. - politics engaged on behalf of those with particular identities (usually historically disempowered ones) → certain groups of people try to change sth. based on a shared identity 3. - origins~ civil rights movement in USA (1960s), afterwards various groups with specific cultural & social identities increasingly made political claims on basis of those identities (African Americans on behalf of their racially defined community; feminists on behalf of women) 4. 5. hybridity: 6. - cultural heritage 7. - identity is not an essence but formed by processes; these processes are continual (meaning & force of all identities are in constant mutation) 8. 9. collective identity 10. social class 11. 12. gender (studies) 13. - unstable, invariant cultural/social construct depending on biological sex 14. - ongoing effect of meanings & definitions culturally produced & circulated; these definition have very real material consequences in our lives 15. - maleness, femaleness culturally ascribed (not adapting to norms → sanctioned) 16. - always interacts with other categories (sexuality, class, race, ethnicity) 17. 18. queer (studies) 19. -turns away from gay and lesbian identity politics and extends anti-essentialist and deconstructive approach from gender to sexuality 20. 21. 22. femininism 23. (1) way of thinking/approaching: science analysing inequalities between genders; searching for solutions; focus on women 24. (2) social movement: fighting for equality (beginnings: end of 18th century; 1st wave: mid 19th century, 2nd wave: 1960s → issues: family roles; abortion; right to vote..) 25. 26. reception (audience/context) 27. interaction of different media with each other 28. (cultural) hegemony 29. taste communities

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multiculturalism - governmental tool: - lived experience: phenomenon of multiple groups of cultures existing within one society (largely due to arrival of immigrant communities, or the acceptance and advocacy of this phenomenon); the several cultures do not have fixed borders

1. 24. How to analyse visuals 2. Cinematic codes

3.1. Mise-en-scene 4. - „putting into the scene“ 5. (1) refers to those elements of the shot staged in front of the camera at the time of filming 6. → setting, props, costume & make-up, lighting, performance 7. (2) refers to everything which appears within the frame of the finished film 8. → cinematography and special effects also aspects of mise-en-scene 9. 1.1. setting - place where film plays 10. - crucial part of film's expressive capabilities 11. - subject to techniques of other aspects of mise-en-scene 12. - primary aim: suggestion of authenticity 13. - content & style of set dictated by what is appropriate to the story's time & place 14. → central to bringing plausibility & clarity to narrative diegesis 15. 1.2. props 16. - „property“ 17. - refers to movable objects within set, specifically those with significant function within story: 18. - may serve as iconographic demonstrations of genre 19. - may be used to drive narrative forward (e.g. contribution to character motivation) 20. - may take on metaphoric significance 21. 1.3 Costume & make-up 22. - expressive and symbolic capabilities (as other graphic properties of mise-en-scene) 23. - explicitly connected to characterization 24. → indicate information about personality or status of the character 25. 1.4 Performance 26. facial expression; voice; gestures; body posture; body movement 27. → distinction between how characters behave and what actors do 28. 1.5 lighting 29. - provision of compositional emphasis through illumination and shadow shapes how we respond to all of mise-en-scene's other properties 30. - usually 2- or 3-point-system 31. - key light as primary light source 32. - high-key lighting: little contrast between light & shadowed areas of frame 33. - low-key lighting: stark contrast between light & shadowed areas of frame 34. 35. 1.6 Cinematography 36. - refers to all elements of cinematic expression performed/controlled by the camera 37. → framing and shot scale, camera angle and movement, depth of field and focus 38. 1.6.1 shot/take

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- uninterrupted image on screen (before director calls „cut“) framing: - choices of what to include within frame & what to exclude - mobile (image within a single shot may change radically as camera move or static depth cues: - shot may appear „shallow“ or „deep“ shot scale: - refers to range of shots which suggest apparent distance of an object from the camera → close-up; extreme close-up; long shot; extreme long shot; medium long shot; medium shot a) close-up: - object shown takes up most of the screen (e.g. person's face shown from neck up) b) extreme close-up: - object shown takes up virtually the whole screen (e.g. shot of a body part) c) long shot: - object shown fills around ¾ of the height of the screen (typically human body shown from head to toe) d) extreme long shot: - object shown fills a small fraction on the screen (typically human body shown from head to toe) e) medium long shot: - human body shown from mid-calf or knees upwards (frequency in Classical Hollywood) f) medium shot: - human body shown from waste upwards. 2-shot, 3-shot framing 2 or 3 people camera angle and movement a) high-angle shot - framing where camera looks down frome above on objects/scene filmed b) low-angle shot - framing where camera looks up from below at objects/scene filmed c) straight-on shot - framing where camera is at same level as objects/scene filmed d) canted framing - framing where camera is not level, causing the mise-en-scene to appear slanted with

frame e) pan/whip pan - pan: camera movement in which camera itself remains in same place, but swivels round horizontally; whip pan is a very fast pan f) track/tracking shot/dolly shot - camera movement where camera moves horizontally by travelling along the ground g) tilt - camera movement in which camera remains in one place but swivels up or down h) crane shot - camera movement in which camera moves above the ground in any direction i) establishing shot - shot at start of a film/scene which establishes spatial relationships within the mise-enscene and locates story within the diegesis

j) aperture - opening within a lens controlling amount of light that passes through the lens to the film; the smaller the aperture, the less light will hit the film k) focal length - ability of a lens to bend the incoming light onto the film plane; a shorter focal length will provide a wider angle of view and a larger depth of field; a longer focal length will provide a narrower field of view but greater magnification of what is shown 1

Special effects - referring to image manipulations that change appearance of other aspects of mise-enscene → superimposition, matte shots, CGI superimposition: - process by which more than one image is exposed on the same frames of the film stock matte shots: - type of shot in which aspects of mise-en-scene are photographed seperately and then combined into one image in post-production CGI: „computer-generated imagery“; use of digital software to create/change/enhance aspects of mise-en-scene

2. editing - refers to the joining together of different pieces of film stock (scenes) in postproduction - practice of film editing unique to cinema cut: joining of two strips of film in editing room, and the resulting immediate change from one image to another on screen fade: editing technique in which one of the juxtaposed images is a black screen; with a ‚fadeout’ the image slowly darkens, with a ‚fade-in’ the image slowly emerges out of darkness e.g. shot reverse shot: iris-in/iris-out: editing techniques in which the transition from one image to another is marked by the closing and re-opening of an ‚iris’ or circular hole in the centre of the frame crosscutting: editing that alternates shots occuring in different story-locations to imply that the events shown are occuring simultaneously impact editing: editing that produces violent contrast between images, most often by switching between close and long shot scales over-lapping editing: editing where shots repeat part or all of the action shown in the previous shot

3. sound - diegetic sound: in world of characters; they can hear the sound

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- nondiegetic sound: music, voiceover..; characters cannot hear the sound - on-screen sound - off-screen sound sound-bridge: - audio connection between scenes, where sound from one scene continues into the beginning of the following scene pitch: - height or depth of a musical sound, as it is determined by its frequency relative to other notes timbre: - tonal quality of a musical sound; timbre is what makes a saxophone sound different from clarinet, for example

1. femme fatale 2. - refers to dangerous, seductive female characters who are normally literally „fatal“, in that they cause the death of the hero 3. 4. 25. film language...