SPCH 411: Arguments in Cultural Studies
Visual Culture
Instructor: Dr. Mindy Fenske Office: HUO 503
Office Hours: TTH 3:30-4:30 W 2:30-3:30 Email: Fenske@sc.edu
And by appointment I prefer email contact.
Office Phone: 777-8174 I do not have voice-mail or
an answering machine.
Goals and Objectives
The goal of this course is to introduce the general concepts, issues, and methods of cultural studies oriented criticism within the field of communication through the analysis of a specific topic. This semester the topic is visual culture. Throughout the semester we will be looking at different types of visual images including, but not limited to, photography and advertising. The major themes that we will be concerned with are what and how these images communicate issues of gender, race, and nation.
The course will begin with a general theoretical orientation. This section of the course is designed to lay out the big picture issues of ideology, image and culture. We will spend some time querying what exactly visual images are and how they function culturally and communicatively.
The next three sections of the course will address nation, gender and race respectively using a different type of visual image and a different style of inquiry for each topic. For more information on the nature of the assignments, see pp. 8-9 of this document.
Assignments
Quizzes (10%) There will be random quizzes on the readings given throughout the semester. These cannot be made-up and will not be announced in advance.
Exams (40%) There will be two exams and each will be worth 20%. The first will be an in-class exam and will probably be a combination of short-answer and definitional questions. The second exam will be a take-home essay exam.
Papers (30%) There will be two small (4-5 page) criticism papers, each worth 15%. These will be assigned during the nation and gender sections of the course.
Visual Project (20%) The final assignment in the class will allow you to stretch your creative skills a bit. The form of the presentation must utilize some type of visual media as its primary mode of communication. Video, slideshows, live performance, web design, photography, painting, three dimensional models, or any combination of these (or other visual forms) should be used in order to present a critical argument. Details for this assignment will be provided in class and through a hand-out.
Course Policies
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Students caught plagiarizing will fail the assignment, potentially fail the class (depending on the severity of the offense), and be subject to the penalties outlined in the “Rule of Academic Responsibility.” For an explanation of the University Policy regarding Academic Responsibility, see: http://www.sa.sc.edu/carolinacommunity/housing.htm#Academic%20Responsibility
Attendance
Students will be allowed 3 free absences throughout the semester without penalty. These are meant to be used for occasional minor illnesses, mental health days, car break-downs, appointments made during class time, etc. The following penalties apply after the 3rd absence:
4 absences:
5% deduction from your overall grade
5 absences:
10% deduction from your overall grade
6 absences:
15% deduction from your overall grade
7 absences:
20% deduction from your overall grade
8 absences:
30% deduction from you overall grade
9 absences:
40% deduction from your overall grade
10 or more absences and you will fail this class.
Excusable absences (those that will not deduct from
your 3 free absences) are few and include two general categories: travel for
University Sponsored Activities and illnesses requiring quarantine or
hospitalization. These excuses will be
evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Students are required to inform me IN WRITING either prior
to the absence (in the case of travel) or on the class day that they return
from the absence (in case of illness). Excuses
will not be accepted outside of this time frame.
Make-ups
Exams
Students may arrange to
take their first exam early if they will be out of class when the exam is
scheduled. This make-up exam will much
more difficult than the original exam. Student’s
failing to attend class on the exam date without prior notice will be allowed
to make-up the exam only with instructor approval and with an automatic
deduction of one full grade. This exam
will also be the more difficult version.
The take home exam is on time if it is handed in to
me by 2:30 pm on Wednesday April 26. Late papers lose 10 points per day they are
late. For example, if you bring it to my departmental mailbox on Wednesday at
2:35 pm, it loses a grade. It will lose another grade Thursday afternoon at 2:35,
etc. Never slide papers under my office door.
If you need to bring a paper to my office, go to the first floor of the
Quizzes
There will be no make-ups on quizzes.
Papers
Papers will be considered late if I do not receive them in my hand (no email attachments, please) by 1:45 the day they are due. If you hand it to me at 1:50, it is late and will lose 10 points. The paper will lose another 10 points for every subsequent 24 hours it is late. So, if it is due Tuesday and you handed it in Weds. before 1:45, you will lose 10 points. If you hand it in Weds. after 1:50, you will lose twenty points. I will no longer accept papers after the 5th business day. Papers due on Tuesday will not be accepted the following Wednesday. Papers due on Thursday will not be accepted the following Friday. If you hand papers in late, make sure you ask the kind person working in the office who puts it in my box to write the date and time on the paper.
Visual Project Presentation
Students must present their visual project on the day they are assigned to do so unless they have made arrangements with me in advance or they are in the hospital or under quarantine. In short, only under the most severe and extreme circumstances will any student be allowed to reschedule their visual presentation. Rescheduling will automatically result in at least a 10 point deduction. More points may be lost the longer the student takes to reschedule. Make-ups will also depend on whether or not there is available class time to perform the presentation. If there is no time available during class, the presentation cannot be made-up.
Grading:
Each assignment will be awarded a point total out of 100 and then that score will be weighted according to the worth of the assignment. For instance, a student may receive an 88 on an exam worth 20% of the grade. The weighted score would then be 17.6. (88 x .20).
90-100 A
86-89 B+
80-85 B
76-79 C+
70-75 C
66-69 D+
60-65 D
Below 60 F
Grades will be rounded up at the end of the semester if that is mathematically justified. For instance, if you receive a total of 85.5, you will receive a B+. 85.4 will not.
Tentative Calendar
Week One (Jan. 10 and 12)
Introduction to Class
Tues. Intro: What is cultural studies and visual culture?
Thurs. Mitchell, from Picture Theory pp1-7, 11-16, 89-100.
Rampley, “Visual Culture and the Meanings of Culture.”
Week Two (Jan. 17 and 19)
Ideology
Tues. Louis Althusser, selections from "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses."
Thurs.
Week Three (Jan. 24 and 26)
Tues. Hebdige, “From Culture to Hegemony.”
Thurs. Hall “Encoding, Decoding”
Suggested reading:
Sontag, “The Image-World.”
Week Four (Jan. 31 and Feb. 2)
Tues. Barthes, “Myth Today.”
Thurs. Barthes, “Rhetoric of the Image.”
Week Five (Feb. 7 and 9)
Tues. Exam Review, discuss Paper #1
Thurs. Exam
Week Six (Feb. 14 and 16)
Rhetoric and Nation
Tues. Finnegan, “Doing Rhetorical History of the Visual: The Photograph and the Archive.”
Thurs. Edwards, “Echoes of Camelot.”
Week Seven (Feb. 21 and 23)
Rhetoric and Nation
Tues. Hariman and Lucaites, “Performing Civic Identity: The Iconic Photograph of the
Flag Raising on
Thurs. Cloud, “ ‘To Veil the Threat of Terror’:Afghan Women and the <Clash of
Civilizations> in the Imagery of the U.S. War on terrorism.”
Week Eight (Feb. 28 and Mar. 2)
Advertising and Gender
Tues. Williams, “Advertising: The Magic System.”
Thurs. Paper Due Discuss Gender and Genealogy, next paper,
and provide handout for Visual Project
Week Nine (Mar. 7 and 9)
Spring Break
Week Ten (Mar. 14 and 16)
Gender and Advertising
cont.
Tues. Kellner, “Reading Images Critically.” Pay particular attention to pages 35-48.
Thurs. Schroeder and Zwick, “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in
Advertising Images.”
Week Eleven (Mar. 21 and 23)
Race and
Mystoriography
Tues: Hall, “Race, Culture, and Communication: Looking Backward and Forward at
Cultural Studies.”
Thurs. Darling-Wolf, “Sites of Attractiveness: Japanese Women and Westernized
Representations of Feminine Beauty.”
Paper due Thursday
Also see: http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~gulmer/mystory.html
Week Twelve (Mar 28 and 30)
Race and Mystoriography cont.
Tues. Meyers, “African-American Women and Violence: Gender, Race, and Class in
the News.”
Thurs. Bowman, “Killing Dillinger: A Mystory.” (read for form and structure, not
necessarily meaning).
Visual Project samples and discussion
Week Thirteen (Apr. 4 and 6)
Work on Visual Projects outside of class
Week Fourteen (Apr. 11 and 13)
Presentations
Week Fifteen (Apr. 18 and 20)
Presentations
Final Exam Due in class by 2:30 pm on Wed.
April 26.
Additional resources:
Visual Communication
and Rhetoric resources
http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Ecommstud/resources/visual.html
Visualizing Nation:
Special Issue of online Journal
http://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/Issue_5/issue5title.html
Visual Essay samples:
http://www.dreamwv.com/probes/index.html
http://www.oboylephoto.com/ruins/index.htm
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/photoessay.htm
http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~gulmer/course/mystory1.html
http://plaza.ufl.edu/jennyw84/project1index.html
http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~gulmer/s04/radamo/
Documentary, audio, photographic, and video essays
http://www.documentaryworks.org/
Course Packet Bibliography
Althusser, Louis.
“Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” Visual Culture: The
Reader.
Ed. Jessica Evans and Stuart Hall.
Barthes, Roland. “Rhetoric of the Image.” Image-Music-Text. Trans. Stephen Heath.
Hill and Wang:
Barthes, Roland. “Myth Today.” Visual Culture: The Reader. Ed. Jessica Evans and
Stuart
Hall.
Bowman, Michael. “Killing Dillinger: A Mystory.” Text and Performance Quarterly 20
(2000): 342-374.
Cloud, Dana. “ ‘To Veil the Threat of Terror’: Afghan Women and the <Clash of
Civilizations> in the Imagery of
the
Darling-Wolf, Fabienne. “Sites of Attractiveness: Japanese Woman and Westernized
Representations of Feminine Beauty.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 21 (2004): 323-345.
Davis, Glyn. “The Ideology of the Visual.” Exploring Visual Culture. Ed. Matthew
Rampley.
Edwards, Janice L. “Echoes of Camelot: How Images Construct Cultural Memory
Through Rhetorical Framing.”
Defining Visual Rhetorics.
Ed. Charles A Hill and Marguerite
Helmers.
Finnegan, Cara A. “Doing Rhetorical History of the Visual: The Photograph and the
Archive.” Defining
Visual Rhetorics. Ed. Charles A Hill and Marguerite Helmers.
cultural studies.” What is
Cultural Studies: A Reader. Ed. John
Storey.
Hariman, Robert and John Louis Lucaites. “Performing Civic Identity: The Iconic
Photograph of the Flag Raising on
Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: the Meaning of Style.
Kellner, Douglas. “Reading Images Critically: Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy.”
Journal of Education 170.3 (1988): 31-52.
Meyers, Marian. “African American Women and Violence: Gender, Race, and Class in
the News.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 21 (2004): 95-118.
Mitchell, W.J.T. Picture Theory.
Rampley, Matthew.
“Visual Culture and the Meanings of Culture.” Exploring
Visual
Culture.
Ed. Matthew Rampley.
Sontag, Susan. “The Image-World.” Visual Culture: The Reader. Ed. Jessica Evans and
Stuart Hall.
Schroeder, Jonathan E. and Detlev Zwick. “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and
Identity in Advertising Images.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 7.1 (2004): 21-52.
Williams, Raymond. “Advertising: The Magic Sysytem.” The Cultural Studies Reader.
2nd
ed. Ed. Simon During.
Overall Guide to Course Assignments
The Big Picture
General Overview
During the first 4 weeks of the semester, our readings in class address the general theoretical and analytical orientation of the class. These issues will be the thematic and analytic focus of every assignment that you will work on throughout the semester. The first four weeks lays the foundation for the rest of the semester. The subsequent units and their assignments will build upon that foundation by to addressing some specific thematic and analytical issues. The themes are nation, gender, and race. The analytic procedures will be based upon modeling the types if processes demonstrated in the readings that we do in each unit.
How to Organize
The expectations for how to organize the themes and analysis in each assignment are very clear-cut and involve 4 categories: Description, Interpretation, Evaluation, and Theorization. The first assignment begins with the first two categories. The third and fourth categories are added progressively in the next two assignments (see “Basic Assignment Descriptions” below). The assignments, therefore, are designed to become more critically complex by adding more elements progressively throughout the semester.
Category Descriptions
Description: Describing the visual image requires that you translate the visual information into written language. You will need to craft a written description that provides enough information to your audience so that they can create a mental picture of the visual image by reading your prose. This will require you to pay attention to visual elements such as color, arrangement (of the objects in the framed visual space), character (are there people in the image, what do they look like, what are they wearing, how are they positioned in relation to other objects and each other, what are their facial expressions and posture, where is their gaze directed), lighting, point of view (from what point of view does the audience see into the image), and any other general impressions about the type of “aesthetic” that the image is communicating (what is the attitude of the image---serious, comic etc and how do the visual elements combine to communicate that attitude). This list is not complete, but merely meant to guide the description.
Interpretation: What is the image saying? What is it communicating? You will want to select details from your description and concrete examples to help build your case for what argument the image is making – what it means or says. You are offering your own “reading” of the image, but you must support your analysis with concrete, specific evidence. Develop a persuasive argument with a controlling thesis for this section of your paper. Depending on the specific requirements of the particular assignment you will want to consider the image’s social, cultural and/or historical context. This will involve some small amount of research. Be sure to document sources for ideas that are not your own.
Evaluation: Given the themes of national, gender, and racial identity and the questions of power and ideology that the course is focusing on, does the message that the image is communicating empower and/or disempower groups and individuals? How does it do this and what are some of the potential social and cultural consequences of this? Again, the particulars of how this will be done will depend on the specific assignment.
Theorization: What can we learn about visual communication as a result of the analysis that you have done? What can we learn about the potential for visual images to revise, resist and/or simply reproduce social and cultural meaning and behaviors? What can we learn about the power of images through your analysis. This is the opportunity for you to explore your own critical conclusions and insights that you have gained through the process of analysis and research.
Basic Assignment
Descriptions
Assignment #1: nation
and photography paper
This assignment will focus on description and interpretation. Your general goal will be to choose a photograph from the internet, magazine or newspaper that clearly communicates a sense of national identity. You will then proceed to describe and interpret that image. The description should be clear and concise and the interpretation should draw upon that description to suggest the major themes regarding national identity that are constructed and communicated in the image. Of particular relevance will be the history of/in the image.
Assignment #2: gender
and advertising paper
This assignment will add the element of evaluation. Your general goal will be to choose either a contemporary or historical advertisement or advertising campaign that clearly communicates issues of gender identity. You will then proceed to describe, interpret and evaluate that advertisement. The description should be as clear as in assignment #1, with the focus changing from nation to gender. The essay’s interpretation section should explore how the advertisement constructs and communicates gender and what social, historical, and cultural influences it relies upon for that meaning. The evaluation should explore the social and cultural effects of the themes that the image communicates.
Assignment #3: race
visual “mystory” project
This assignment adds the element of theorization and the medium changes from the written to the visual essay. Your general goal will be to choose any image (photojournalism, comic strip, political cartoon, personal photograph, painting, advertisement, web site, film still, sculpture, etc) that has clear racial significance. You will then follow the procedure described in the assignment to communicate the themes and your evaluation of them using a combination of visual, written, and oral presentation. In addition, you will be asked to also express how your analysis of this particular image can add insight to our knowledge of how visual images act socially and/or how images are or can be used to resist or reinforce racial oppression and/or how the analysis can add to our understanding of how race is constructed and communicated in general. At this point in the semester it will also have become clear that issues of race, gender, and nation inter-relate and overlap. This assignment also asks that your presentation attend to those intersections (e.g. Japanese-American femininity is different than African American femininity).