Orientalism, Media, and Social Theory Review

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers critical theories (Orientalism, Post-Orientalism), media specifics (manga, anime, limited animation), and sociological concepts (Foucault's Panopticism, Baudrillard's Hyperreality) as discussed in the lecture.

Orientalism

A critique centered on Edward Said's work regarding how the West structures and organizes knowledge about other cultures as a timeless, unchanging "platonic essence."

Post-Orientalism

An alternative way of organizing knowledge that rejects essentialism to focus on specific historical and economic circumstances.

Vision

The act of surveying a culture from above using reductive, stable categories; associated with the "defeat of narrative by vision."

Narrative

An alternative to vision that organizes cultural knowledge by acknowledging that cultures change through a sequence of historical events.

Essentializes

The act of explaining diverse cultural phenomena as mere emanations of a deep, unifying, and timeless cultural essence.

Historicizes

Explaining cultural phenomena by examining the specific sequence of historical events and politics that led to them.

Synchronic

A term describing views of culture that are synced across time, remaining stable and unchanging.

Diachronic

A term for cultural study that views phenomena as changing or developing over time through history and narrative.

Essentialism

The belief in transhistorical cultural essences that predetermine the actions, character, and possibilities of a culture's members.

Soft Power

Cultural power used to create positive impressions of a country for diplomacy and business, exemplified by manga and anime in Japan.

Manga

A medium of verbal-visual narrative (story manga) that first appeared in Japan in $1923$ as an adaptation of American newspaper comics.

Anime

Japanese animation that rose to prominence in the $1950s$ with Tezuka Osamu's Astro Boy; it typically utilizes limited animation.

Medium vs. genre

The distinction that manga and anime are delivery methods for content rather than being inherently locked into a single genre.

Compositing

The act of layering transparent cels over a background; anime often draws attention to this to show its constructedness.

Consumerism

A system prioritizing consumption as a source of identity, linked historically to Japan's $1980s$ "bubble economy."

Full Animation

An animation style using $24$ frames per second to depict fine detail and subtle movement, notably used by Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki.

Capitalism

A system where means of production are privately owned and capital accumulates by investing in the increased productivity of labor.

Exteriority

The "outside" of a system; in the $21st$ century, capitalism is noted for lacking an escape or alternative economic system.

Limited Animation

An animation style using approximately $8$ frames per second, relying on speech and stylistics rather than fluid motion.

Neoliberalism

An economic philosophy from the late $1970s$ and $80s$ focused on deregulation and individual economic responsibility.

NEET

An acronym for "Not in Employment, Education, or Training," often criticized under neoliberal mindsets as lazy or parasitic.

Freeter (Furītā)

Young people who engage in part-time jobs rather than seeking regular, salaried lifetime employment.

Representation

According to Baudrillard, an image or sign that points back to a reality or a signified, such as a map.

Simulation (Simulacra)

According to Baudrillard, an image or sign that has no referent in the real world or is a copy of a copy.

Hyperreal

A state where society values signs and simulacra more than the real objects they were originally meant to represent.

Isekai

A modern anime trend meaning "other world" where a protagonist is transported to a fantasy land, often as an escapist critique of capitalism.

Field of Visibility

Foucault's concept of being in a state where one knows they might be watched at any moment, even if it is unverifiable.

Panopticism

A method of social discipline described by Foucault in $1975$ where individuals internalize rules because power is visible but unverifiable.

Surveillance Society

A modern state where power constantly watches citizens via technology, forcing individuals to continuously discipline themselves.

Legibility

The attempt by power to render complex human beings readable, such as through a credit score or a "crime coefficient."

Wild Child

A discourse from the late $1990s$ involving "normal" children who become out of control, leading to increased social surveillance.

Subjectivity of power

The "doer" of power; in the modern era, it is described as amorphous and system-driven rather than held by an individual like a King.

Regulation vs. Discipline

The distinction between social control by restricting access to tools and control by training the psyche.

Ganbaru

A core formal trait of a shonen protagonist involving the exertion of tremendous effort.

Gaman

A core formal trait of a shonen protagonist involving enduring and bearing up under difficult or humiliating conditions.

Gemeinschaft

The German term for an organic "community" of social relations, typically imagined as a rural farming village.

Gesellschaft

The German term for "society" as a modern, anonymous reality where relations are mediated by laws and bureaucracies.