Our group presentation topic is Formalism. I attempted to contact others in my group through the WebCT, but received no response. I tracked down my fellow group members and found that due to schedule conflicts it was going to be very difficult to get together. I encouraged our group to try to communicate via phone and email. Our presentation date was fast approaching and I was getting nervous. We spoke briefly and arranged a day and time to meet to prepare, but the night before we were to meet I received an email letting me know that the other members of the group were not able to meet because various situations had arisen. There was some exchange of email, but we were having trouble all getting on the same page. We had two very brief meetings after class, that were not wholly productive. I was very uncomfortable with the lack of communication and attempt to organize our presentation. We had some ideas but they didn’t seem to be very fluid or concise. At one point it was suggested that we should just all do our own thing, but I didn’t feel that this was in the spirit of the assignment of collaborating as a group.
We arranged another meeting, everyone was notified but only Tara and I were able to meet. We did We were able to sit down and discuss some ideas about our presentation and an actual activity. We decided I would do a brief introduction, and then we would assign character personas to six of our classmates. Tara was very interested in the idea of carnival and we thought that this might be a way of incorporating and exploring the idea. We would have the students participants take on their persona, and halfway through the demonstration switch their persona to the companion persona, ie from veterinarian to dog trainer. We decided that we could demonstrate three ideas in this manner. Our classmates would be designated as opposing characters like monarch/bum (extremes in social class), scientist/child (extremes in knowledge/education) and veterinarian/animal . These would show different perspectives and the various stratification of language. We would demonstrate the Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia, expressing the author’s intent in a different way – a double typed discourse, by offering a statement (authorial intent) and having them demonstrate the different ways that their characters might phrase that same idea in different words. I also suggested that we could use our class participants to help show Schlovsky’s defamiliarization of an object. As in the description of the text, the object will be obscured from the class’s view, and the participants will be asked not to use the name of the object or typical labels to describe the object(s). Then the class could guess what the object is.
We are due to present tomorrow and I must admit that I have some apprehension and uncertainty about our presentation.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Saussure and the world of Competitive Skating
In “Course in General Linguistics,” Ferdinand Saussure described language as a social institution, emphasizing that how we speak and write are influenced by our psychological perceptions of that word (sign), which describes an object or person. In his system of semiotics he designated the sign as the written character which represents a verbal utterance or thought, and the signified as the mental concept which that sign represents. Signifiers are characteristics which we associate with the sign/signified.
Consider the sign “Tanya Harding.” In the 1990’s the world of Olympic Skating was rocked when skater Tanya Harding became implicated on a vicious attack on a fellow American teammate to improve her own chances in the competition. Saussure believed that signs are arbitrary – they can change as our perceptions change or as situations evolve, etc. So pre-attack signifiers for Tanya Harding might have been underdog, competitive, hopeful, and motivated. Signifiers pertaining to Tanya Harding after the attack would cause people to associate the sign Tanya Harding with more negative signifiers: vicious, poor-sport, mean, heartless, criminal, aggressive, competitive, sociopathic, and selfish.
Saussure did not intend language simply to be a system of nomenclature or labeling. He aded that the value and the signification are not the same thing. Signification is a descriptive terminology applied to the object or person. But while signs are arbitrary, and subject to change they are generally agreed upon, he writes that these are “associations which bear the stamp of collective approval” (Saussure, 60) To help imbue a sense of value, there must be two components which help build value for the signifiers that we attach to sign. Saussure believed that we must have dissimilar things to compare the sign with, such as Nancy Kerrigan – the victim in the attack who was deemed as: sympathetic, graceful, competitive, victim, beautiful, charming, role model. Additionally, a similar thing that can be compared to the sign further reinforces the value of the sign. If you consider another figure, like Christi Yamaguchi, you may note that all three characters have some similar signifiers such as, drive, motivation, competitiveness and skill, but Yamaguchi’s signifiers like admirable and team player mark her as something quite different to Harding, and offer a stark contrast for both the signs and signifiers. Even today, almost 20 years later if you mention the name Tanya Harding those mental concepts of negativity are forever connected to that name.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
What do you think you know?
The image shows a person framed against white horizontal blinds covering two windows directly behind him. The man has cropped dark hair and a light beard. The man has a slight smile on his face. He is disrobed from the waist up. The photograph shows him placing both hands on his abdominal region which is swollen in pregnancy. He wears a plain wedding band on his left hand. The figure has a deep scar approximately 6 inches long on the left side of his chest. He is wearing a necklace.
On first examination this photograph seems to provoke our beliefs about who can become pregnant. But upon further knowledge we learn that the person pictured is not in fact a man pregnant with a child but a woman who appears to be a man. This “deregulartization” of our perceived gender stereotypes causes us to see the person with typically male characteristics such as short hair, facial hair, and a flat chest to assume that the person shown must be a man…even when it is obvious that the person is pregnant (a characteristic exclusive to female humans) which goes against our empirical knowledge and sensibilities.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Aristotle and The Man in the Moon
Rebecca Sherwin Blauvelt
English 436
February 4, 2009
Aristotle and The Man in the Moon
The following is a scene from the film The Man in the Moon. Please focus on the section from 2:50 – 6:18 (I apologize for my inability to edit out the unneeded portions.)
Aristotle believed Tragedy to be a high form of poetry which could evoke a deep and lasting emotional response, which would cause the audience to consider theuniversalities of life. He believed that it was essential for the characters to be lifelike and consistent and the plots to be probable, so that they might be deeply relatable. In Chapter 11 of Poetics, Aristotle described three fundamental plot elements of Tragedy. Reversal is a complete opposite shift in the situation, for example from prosperity to wealth, executed in a probable way so that the experience is authentic to the audience. The notion of Recognition is described as a “change from ignorance to knowledge.” Aristotle believed that these elements would be more profound and meaningful to the plot if they were combined elements. He describes Suffering as a third key plot element emphasizing the significance of the physical characteristic of the Suffering, as “an action of a destructive or painful nature, such as deaths openly represented, physical agonies, woundings, and the like” (Aristotle, 71)
The clip demonstrated all three of the key plot elements that Aristotle felt were necessary for Tragedy. There are two examples of recognition and reversal in the clip. The first occurs as the older female character, Maureen, returns from the woods disheveled, and it is at that moment that the younger female character, Dani, realizes that her sister is sleeping with the young man she has feelings for. She becomes aware of the betrayal and at once shifts from innocence to experience/maturity and from trusting to betrayed. The emotion of the male character, Cort, relishing in the glow of having recently consummated a romantic relationship rapidly reverses/shifts from joyful to sorrowful as he falls from his tractor. Almost immediately he recognizes the cost of his carelessness as the blades of the tractor overtake him. The scene then transitions to the suffering as the fatally wounded young man lies crumpled in his mother’s arms. Aristotle created the term “hamartia” which he described as a “man who is neither a paragon of virtue, nor utterly worthless … who falls from prosperity into misfortune through some error,” In this case, Cort’s tragic flaw is distractibility, a characteristic which is a key component of the plot, which ultimately causes him to lose his life.
Aristotle emphasized importance of the presentation of the tragedy which he stated should be “presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the catharsis of such emotions” (Aristotle, 64). In the scene, the actual accident is not pictured, narrated or described. Aristotle taught that these evocative situations would have even more of an impact if they are unexpected, as is the case of Cort’s untimely death. The viewer is shown the seemingly normal moments before the accident and the reactions of the mother and young girl as they become aware of what has occurred. The urgency of the situation is made clear by the musical cues (frantic, then solemn) and the sparse language used – the jarring cries for “Daddy!” and simple, breathless delivery of the punctuated words, “Tractor... Cort…Help!”
Aristotle believed that Tragedy was a powerful educational tool because of its ability to transfix the audience on an emotional level. He believed that the audience could actually become so enveloped by the actions of the tragic drama that real feelings, rising to the level of catharsis, could be evoked. The ability of the audience to place themselves in the experience, such as the scene from the film The Man in the Moon is fundamental because it allows for an ability to learn and gain and increased perspective of human nature.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Poetics
Classical Literary Criticism. 2d ed. Ed. Penelope Murray and T. S. Doarch
London: Penguin Books, 2004
T
English 436
February 4, 2009
Aristotle and The Man in the Moon
The following is a scene from the film The Man in the Moon. Please focus on the section from 2:50 – 6:18 (I apologize for my inability to edit out the unneeded portions.)
Aristotle believed Tragedy to be a high form of poetry which could evoke a deep and lasting emotional response, which would cause the audience to consider theuniversalities of life. He believed that it was essential for the characters to be lifelike and consistent and the plots to be probable, so that they might be deeply relatable. In Chapter 11 of Poetics, Aristotle described three fundamental plot elements of Tragedy. Reversal is a complete opposite shift in the situation, for example from prosperity to wealth, executed in a probable way so that the experience is authentic to the audience. The notion of Recognition is described as a “change from ignorance to knowledge.” Aristotle believed that these elements would be more profound and meaningful to the plot if they were combined elements. He describes Suffering as a third key plot element emphasizing the significance of the physical characteristic of the Suffering, as “an action of a destructive or painful nature, such as deaths openly represented, physical agonies, woundings, and the like” (Aristotle, 71)
The clip demonstrated all three of the key plot elements that Aristotle felt were necessary for Tragedy. There are two examples of recognition and reversal in the clip. The first occurs as the older female character, Maureen, returns from the woods disheveled, and it is at that moment that the younger female character, Dani, realizes that her sister is sleeping with the young man she has feelings for. She becomes aware of the betrayal and at once shifts from innocence to experience/maturity and from trusting to betrayed. The emotion of the male character, Cort, relishing in the glow of having recently consummated a romantic relationship rapidly reverses/shifts from joyful to sorrowful as he falls from his tractor. Almost immediately he recognizes the cost of his carelessness as the blades of the tractor overtake him. The scene then transitions to the suffering as the fatally wounded young man lies crumpled in his mother’s arms. Aristotle created the term “hamartia” which he described as a “man who is neither a paragon of virtue, nor utterly worthless … who falls from prosperity into misfortune through some error,” In this case, Cort’s tragic flaw is distractibility, a characteristic which is a key component of the plot, which ultimately causes him to lose his life.
Aristotle emphasized importance of the presentation of the tragedy which he stated should be “presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the catharsis of such emotions” (Aristotle, 64). In the scene, the actual accident is not pictured, narrated or described. Aristotle taught that these evocative situations would have even more of an impact if they are unexpected, as is the case of Cort’s untimely death. The viewer is shown the seemingly normal moments before the accident and the reactions of the mother and young girl as they become aware of what has occurred. The urgency of the situation is made clear by the musical cues (frantic, then solemn) and the sparse language used – the jarring cries for “Daddy!” and simple, breathless delivery of the punctuated words, “Tractor... Cort…Help!”
Aristotle believed that Tragedy was a powerful educational tool because of its ability to transfix the audience on an emotional level. He believed that the audience could actually become so enveloped by the actions of the tragic drama that real feelings, rising to the level of catharsis, could be evoked. The ability of the audience to place themselves in the experience, such as the scene from the film The Man in the Moon is fundamental because it allows for an ability to learn and gain and increased perspective of human nature.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Poetics
Classical Literary Criticism. 2d ed. Ed. Penelope Murray and T. S. Doarch
London: Penguin Books, 2004
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