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fandomhigh2013-01-18 02:53 am
thefearwasreal) wrote in fandomhigh2013-01-18 02:53 am
Entry tags:
Pop Culture: Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learnt From... [Thurs, 1st Period]
Unlike last week, there were actual pots of coffee and cups set out for the students, Oz liked to keep people on their toes like that.
"Morning, all. first thing, the lovely Miss Thorne is my new minion." Oz didn't even try to pretend he meant assistant. "It's her responsibility to get the coffee and donuts from now on." There were no donuts this morning. Your toes, people, stay on them.
"Second thing, assignments. Rather focus on pop-quizzes," which meant that Oz was totally going to spring an end-of-semester test on them at the last moment, "You're all going to do a two-part assignment over the course of this semester. The first part of which is due at the start of class the week preceding Spring Break, and the second I'll get to later in the semester."
"This first half will consist of ahandwaved thousand word essay on an academic article on an aspect of pop culture that holds personal interest and engagement for you. I expect you to cover four areas in this essay. One, what is the area being discussed. This is where you give a brief overview of the topic, and talk about why you like it, how long you've likes it, all that jazz. Two, what is the article saying about it. Is it positive or negative? What are the main arguments the is writer putting forth . Three, identify the theoretical perspective the author has taken, and I'll explain what I mean by that later in the class. Finally, tell me how the article has changed your opinion on the subject. Self explanatory that one. You must also correctly reference your work. Because plagiarism is bad," said the mostly former art forger. "And trust me, you'll thank me when you're in college and they just expect you to know how to do that." Those of the class not planning on going to college could commence glaring daggers now.
"Now I mentioned theoretical perspectives, pretty much most articles will come from a specific one. Basically it's a framework used to build arguments around, usually based upon previous work in the field. They assume that certain facts and ways about how the world works hold true. Most of the time they'll just tell you whose work they're drawing from to support or base their argument around, but sometimes you gotta dig a little deeper."
"Which means it's not time to learn some of the identifying features are of the more common theoretical perspectives used when discussing popular culture." Which meant handouts, thick ones.
"First we have the commies, Marxism and the Frankfurt School. Now good old Karl Marx was very big on anti-capitalism, urbanisation and industrialisation fragmenting society, power resting in the hands of the bourgeoise, vaudeville comedy with his brothers, and the idea that mass culture was born and perpetuated through capitalism. The Frankfurt School was guys like Adorno, Horkeimer, and Mercuse, believed a lot of the same things as Karl, just expanded on them a bit differently, big fans of the passive audience theory, that you're all gonna believe everything you see and hear without question and that's how the man controls you."
"Next, we have hegemony which was Gramsci's baby. More communism, but rather than the man crushing you directly, you help him crush you because he's got you all convinced it's common sense that he's in charge, it's the natural order of things, which leads to counter-hegemony where you take back the states apparatus and make it different. Important stuff to know if you want to change the world."
"Then we have feminism, which is kinda a big and complicated mess which is going to get a whole class to itself later, but you usually end up with one of three viewpoints, radical feminism, which is pretty hardcore and based largely around second-wave feminism, basically everything can be blamed on the patriarchy, third-wave feminism, which takes a bit more nuanced view of things, and post-feminism, which is all yay feminism won, now stop whining about it."
"Finally there's postmodernism, which is all about how reality is false and the mirror is real, style over substance, and space and time is all oogy." Oz waved his hands in the air. "It's all kind of vague. Blame, Derrida, and Barthes."
"Now for some class discussion, kids, which of these theories do you think has the most applicability to your everyday lives?"
"Morning, all. first thing, the lovely Miss Thorne is my new minion." Oz didn't even try to pretend he meant assistant. "It's her responsibility to get the coffee and donuts from now on." There were no donuts this morning. Your toes, people, stay on them.
"Second thing, assignments. Rather focus on pop-quizzes," which meant that Oz was totally going to spring an end-of-semester test on them at the last moment, "You're all going to do a two-part assignment over the course of this semester. The first part of which is due at the start of class the week preceding Spring Break, and the second I'll get to later in the semester."
"This first half will consist of a
"Now I mentioned theoretical perspectives, pretty much most articles will come from a specific one. Basically it's a framework used to build arguments around, usually based upon previous work in the field. They assume that certain facts and ways about how the world works hold true. Most of the time they'll just tell you whose work they're drawing from to support or base their argument around, but sometimes you gotta dig a little deeper."
"Which means it's not time to learn some of the identifying features are of the more common theoretical perspectives used when discussing popular culture." Which meant handouts, thick ones.
"First we have the commies, Marxism and the Frankfurt School. Now good old Karl Marx was very big on anti-capitalism, urbanisation and industrialisation fragmenting society, power resting in the hands of the bourgeoise, vaudeville comedy with his brothers, and the idea that mass culture was born and perpetuated through capitalism. The Frankfurt School was guys like Adorno, Horkeimer, and Mercuse, believed a lot of the same things as Karl, just expanded on them a bit differently, big fans of the passive audience theory, that you're all gonna believe everything you see and hear without question and that's how the man controls you."
"Next, we have hegemony which was Gramsci's baby. More communism, but rather than the man crushing you directly, you help him crush you because he's got you all convinced it's common sense that he's in charge, it's the natural order of things, which leads to counter-hegemony where you take back the states apparatus and make it different. Important stuff to know if you want to change the world."
"Then we have feminism, which is kinda a big and complicated mess which is going to get a whole class to itself later, but you usually end up with one of three viewpoints, radical feminism, which is pretty hardcore and based largely around second-wave feminism, basically everything can be blamed on the patriarchy, third-wave feminism, which takes a bit more nuanced view of things, and post-feminism, which is all yay feminism won, now stop whining about it."
"Finally there's postmodernism, which is all about how reality is false and the mirror is real, style over substance, and space and time is all oogy." Oz waved his hands in the air. "It's all kind of vague. Blame, Derrida, and Barthes."
"Now for some class discussion, kids, which of these theories do you think has the most applicability to your everyday lives?"
Re: Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [02]
Unless Oz told you no questions, then questions brought only badness.
Re: Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [02]
"I get the whole idea of making a preamble to the actual pop culture via exploration of the, ah, foundations of societal models and what not." Somehow Emily felt a bit silly saying that.
"But I think most students here were expecting something a bit more..." Like Jaye's class, yeah.
Re: Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [02]
"We'll be doing something a bit less heavy next week."
Re: Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [02]
Re: Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [02]
"Then it'll be a challenge for them," Oz said cheerfully.