CSCL 1001W midterm 1

semiotic

study of signs and their meanings

mental concepts

objects, people, events, abstract ideas, etc.

conceptual maps

a way to orient ourselves in the world

language

any sound, word, image, or object which functions as a sign or is organized with other signs into a system which is of carrying and expressive

parole

singular instances of writing, speech, etc.

1st level

denotation (the signs most people would know)

2nd level

connotation (cultural associations to the denotative signs)

myth

fragments of a culture’s ideology

ideology

representation of the relation between an individual or group and the world

representation

the production of meaning through language

system

different ways of organizing, clustering, arranging and classifying concepts, and of establishing complex relations between them.

culture

shared conceptual maps and systems of meaning

signified

concept

signifier

sound-image

aura (Benjamin - work of art)

something that attaches to a work of art — authenticity (disappears from mechanical reproduction)

aesthetics

sense, perception, or sensation

hegemony

Hebdige: culture; political power and dominant power in bigger society

status quo stories

Wilson (neoliberalism): stories that are told to make it seem natural that are socially constructed

neoliberalism

Wilson: economic structures, capitalist, promotion of market competition and notion that we’re always competing with others

hustle

neoliberalism (Wilson)

self-enclosed individual

neoliberalism (Wilson)

prefers privatization over public good

neoliberalism (Wilson)

aestheticization of political life

Benjamin (work of art): fascism is interested in appearances, not debates / fairness

dennotation

outward, informational, literal meaning

connotation

process where sociocultural associations are produced as someone decodes a sign or text in any medium in a particular context

naturalization (Hebdige - from culture to hegemony)

particular sets of social relations, particular ways of organizing the world appear to us as if they were universal and timeless

self-enclosed individualism (Wilson - neoliberalism)

a form of “hyper-individualism” that tends to “focus exclusively on the human and define this human self very narrowly, in non-relational, boundaried, terms.

enterprise culture (Wilson - neoliberalism)

an amalgamation of autonomous, private individuals, families, communities, and firms competing in the market

With the rise of technologies of reproduction in the arts (photography and film), Benjamin argued that there was a progressive waning (i.e. shrinking) of _______________.

aura

For Walter Benjamin, in his “Work of Art” essay, aesthetics concerns what?

politics, media technologies, history, shaping of perception

Who directed the infamous Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, a director who Sontag discusses in her essay “Fascinating Fascism”?

Leni Riefenstahl

______________ is defined as “the representation of the relation between an individual or group and the world.”

ideology

Ideology involves a spontaneous, “common sense” presupposition that the world is just how it should be, or has come to be what it is without any human intervention whatsoever. What term best describes this assumption?

naturalization

___________________________ names the process of creating consensus between the dominant classes and those dominated whereby the dominated groups believe that what is best for those in power is also best for them.

hegemony

What is the name Barthes gives to the fragments of a culture's ideology that his semiotic approach ultimately seeks to analyze and critique?

myth

The ideology of neoliberalism, according to Wilson, insists that we all behave as ____________ individuals (a central concept from her introduction to Neoliberalism).

self-enclosed

In "Culture is Ordinary," Raymond Williams made a strong case against higher education and intellectual pursuits.

false

What was the name of the French theorist who took Saussure's linguistic approach and applied it to a study of culture?

Barthes

The connection between a signifier and signified (between the thing that we perceive and its mental concept) is always open to change. That is because this relationship is _____________.

arbitrary

As part of our semiotic approach, we discussed the level on analysis that almost everyone would agree on. This is the literal or surface level of meaning. What is the name for this more basic level of meaning?

denotative

Meanings can be very individual, but there is still wide agreement about certain meanings. What helps stabilize meanings, what we all use and roughly share in common, that allows us to make similar interpretations?

codes

What is the name of the Swiss linguist whose work paved the way for the semiotic approach?

de Saussure

A sign is composed of two parts. What is the technical name for the material form that we perceive (the thing out there), which corresponds to our mental concepts?

signifier

What does Hall call what each of us carries around in our minds that help us make sense of the world?

conceptual maps

Raymond Williams claims that "Culture is _______."

ordinary

Which of the following is a well-noted phrase by Raymond Williams that defines culture?

“a whole way of life”