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THURS 3/1/18 -- Quiz #2, The Pictorial Turn, Comic Symbolism, and Persepolis (cont'd)We'll pick up with where we left off last week. (See below THURS 2/22/18)
-Prof. Graban
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TUES 2/27/18
Folks, remember: no class today, as I'm giving you time to get to the Edouard Duval-Carrié exhibit, at FSU's MoFA (Museum of Fine Arts) on Call Street. MoFA's hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Enjoy!
-Prof. Graban
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TUES 2/20/18 & THURS 2/22/18 --The Pictorial Turn, Comic Symbolism, and Persepolis
Folks, you did some good and useful theorizing in your responses to HW #5! I'm summarizing some of our class discussion here so that we can be ready to jump into discussion of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis on Thursday.
We established that there are ways to see Mitchell's concept of "metapictures" (pictures that show us what vision is) and McCloud's icons and Sousanis's superpowers, as Marxist critiques, although we recognize that the three of them are differently motivated:
- Mitchell --> interested in how we respond to the pictorial turn ("we live in a world of images, a world in which there is nothing outside the picture")
- McCloud --> interested in how icons make us act, how icons construct as readers, and how icons direct our processes of self-identification
- Sousanis --> interested in how we imagistically transcend the limits of our imagination.
We established that, for Mitchell in this text, it seems the ultimate Marxist critique would show us where the image or painting draws attention to itself, reveals its own symbolicity, and raises question about class, materiality, and language.
So, here are some questions that I might use to get us started on Thursday:
- Could we use the word "trialectic" (62) to describe Satrapi's memoir, Persepolis? Do we think the comic is robust enough to achieve the kind of meta-metacriticism that Mitchell sees in Las Meninas?
- trialectic = a conversation or exchange located in the space occupied by the painter, the figures (the text), and the beholder (the various audiences, critics, etc.)
- What role would language and materialism play in enabling this trialectic?
- What is her most provocative use of drawn symbols? For example, how does she draw perplexity, coming-of-age, gender-bending, alienation, liberation, etc.?
- What role does narration play in her memoir?
- What are the benefits or risks of identifying with either the character or the author?
- Let's try to perform a Marxist critique on Satrapi's memoir.
- Are there instances in the novel where it draws attention to itself, reveals its own symbolicity, and raises questions about class, materiality, and language?
- Are there instances in the memoir that make us aware of how the "base" (economics) of a society or discourse community becomes the catalyst for its "superstructure" (law, politics, philosophy, religion, literature, art, ideals, morals, etc.)?
- Are there instances in the memoir where we think its aesthetics either reflect or deflect class or ideology?
- How does her memoir complicate the relationship between producer, consumer, and spectator?
- Let's accept the perspectives of 4 theorists -- Burke, Mitchell, McCloud, and Sousanis -- equally. For each of these theorists, what would need to be "true" of a reader of Satrapi's novel in order for that reader to realize the memoir's symbolicity?
- Can we get further in our attempts to define "rhetorical looking," or "graphic listening," or "moving from a good eye to a curious eye," or "looking more ethically"?
See you then!
-Prof. Graban
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THURSDAY 2/15/18 -- Discussion of Burke "The Rhetoric of Hitler's 'Battle'"
Folks, we are not reading the full essay -- only pp. 191-211 -- but it should be enough to help us understand that Kenneth Burke is actually performing a complex rhetorical analysis of a much longer and historically significant text: Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto, entitled Mein Kampf and published in 1925-26.
To prepare for our discussion of Burke's essay, I offer several reading questions to help you navigate your way through it:
- This is the second essay we will have read from Burke's Philosophy of Literary Form, but it functions differently from the first essay that we read ("Equipment for Living"). It is a bit complex, but what are the kinds of things that Burke analyzes for? How does he organize his analysis?
- Burke will argue for Mein Kampf as a symbolic act. What definition(s) of "symbol" will this argument support -- or rely on? What do you think Burke means by "symbolic act" or "symbolic action"?
- In class, I plan to demonstrate a "case" drawing from well-circulated (iconic) representations of flag-raising at Iwo Jima. If you're curious, before class, check out this linked image. How do you think Burke would analyze this image, based on his discussion of strategies in "Equipment for Living," and based on his argument in "The Rhetoric of Hitler's 'Battle'"?
-Prof. Graban
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TUESDAY 2/13/18 -- Discussion of Bakhtin (excerpts from "Discourse in the Novel")
Oh, we discussed so much and did some work here! See your board notes! I'll try to post images of our board terms soon!
-Prof. Graban
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TUESDAY 2/6/18 & THURSDAY 2/8/18 -- Discussion of Locke and Lakoff & Johnson
Here are some spaces in which we might work:
and ... our case studies to determine how Locke's theory of signification might work with/against Lakoff and Johnson's metaphors (which, in a way, require anti-signification):
- Julie Andrews & co., "Do, Re, Mi" clip from Sound of Music (1965)
- Carrie Rudzinski's "Elbows" (CUPSI Finals, 2008)
- Lupe Fiasco's "Bitch Bad" (2012)
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