Rhet 20 Midterm #1 Key Concepts

Marx’s thought

German philosophy + French socialism + British Economics

aristocrat

hold hereditary titles and privileges

bourgeoisie

own the means of production

proletariat

do not own the means of production, working class whose only material value is their labor power

Marxism

a method of socioeconomic analysis, originating in the writing of Marx + Engels. analyzes class relations and societal conflict using materialist interpretations of historical development and a dialectical view of social transformation

communism

aims for a communist society with common ownership of the means of production, ending the exploitation of labor, abolition of private property

socialism

a specific historical phase of economic development and corresponding set of social relations that supercede capitalism. When production is determined by use-value, coordinated through conscious planning, and distribution of output is to each according to his contribution.

commodity

thing of use-value + bearer of exchange value (only an appearance form)

commodity fetish

Exchange value is misunderstood as if it were the material nature of the thing. When products of labor assume a fantastical form as commodities. Conceals the relationship between producers (they measure each other according the the products of their labor)

1862 Merchandise Marks Act

criminalization of fraudulent marks. “Mark” shall include any name, signature, word, letter, everything. Three misdemeanors: forging + counterfeiting any trademarks, applying any trademark with intent to deceive, alteration.

1875 Trademarks Act

Can only sue for infringement if trademark is registered. 1. Registration system established. 2. Registration standard - must be registered to particular goods, or classes of goods. 3. Five year expiration. 4. Won’t register things too similar to existing trademarks.

5 modes of production

primitive community, slave state, feudalism, capitalist, socialist — communism is the end goal.

use-value

value of a thing in use

exchange value

value of a commodity when it is exchanged - value in marketplace.

Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) wrote

Principles of the Civil Code

legal right (Bentham)

only type of right (natural rights have no authority)

Bentham’s ideas on law and property

Property + law are inextricably linked. Laws restrain human desire and triumph over human nature. Utilitarian concept of property.

Karl Marx and Engels wrote

The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof, Capital, Vol 1

Semiotics

language as a system of signs (leads to structuralism)

Sign

anything that refers to something other than itself

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) wrote

Course in General Linguistics (sort of)

signifier

sound of a word, visual appearance of a sign, acoustic image

signified

the concept

signified-signifier

Together form the sign. Language is not a sound medium to express thought, it mediates between thought and sound. They are dependent upon each other and occur at the same time.

arbitrariness of the sign

because the sign is arbitrary, it follows no other law than that of tradition, and because it is based on tradition, it is arbitrary.

structuralism

Marx + Freud + Saussure. Idea that universal human truths exist at the level of structure.

genericide

When a trademarked word for a good comes to signify the whole class of goods generically. Companies try to avoid this.

Spectrum of Distinctiveness

relation of trademark to source relation of signifier to signified. Way to determine if a trademark is protected in court.

sign value

signs function not through their intrinsic value but through their relative position + their context

Jean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007) wrote

Personalization or the Smallest Marginal Difference, The Consumer Society, (1970)

anti-consumption versus overconsumption

paradox of prestigious super-differentiation. Anti-consumption as a form of consumption. Impossible to make a choice that is beyond consumption.

Ideology of Consumption

system appears to give us lots of choices to realize our true selves, but like the immutability of the sign, rules are arbitrary + immutable

The Frankfurt School

emergence of critical theory. Horkheimer, Adorno, Arendt, and some Benjamin.

fascism

Dictator or authoritarian military leader. Violence, war, and imperialism as a means of national rejuvenation. Aesthetic

Totalitarianism

total state system, whether on far left or far right

Base (Structure)

Means of production/economy structure of society. Base determines the superstructure.

Superstructure

Politics, laws, religion, art, etc. founded on the base.

Leni Riefenstahl

filmmaker chosen by Hitler to make films for the Nazi party. Sparks questions of whether art can be separate from ideology

Adorno (1903 - 1963) and Horkheimer wrote

The Culture Industry (1944)

Art as autonomy

art should enable self-realization and ability to non-conform. Art should help us defend ourselves against the culture industry.

Walter Benjamin (1892 - 1940)

The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility (1936)

aura

the unique existence in a particular place, and the history of changes to the physical structure of the work over time. Part of a tradition which can only be traced from the standpoint of the original in its present location.

film that shows the potential of the industry to establish equilibrium between human beings and the apparatus

Dzija Vertov, Man with a Movie Cameria, 1929

Adorno vs. Benjamin

Art should be autonomous and resist standardization, formalae, monopoly, and atomization. Kunstpolitik, art should be political, annihilate aura and tradition, meet the masses halfway, cut through reality, and use dadaist irony.

socialism

state control of property and economy, public ownership

socialist bloc art

art that serves the people, art that reflects social reality

capitalist bloc art

art for art’s sake, art for individual self-expression

socialist perspective on capitalist art

avant-garde vs. serving bourgeois values

capitalist perspective on socialist art

avant-garde vs. kitsch (socialist realism), propaganda

pop art

art about signs and sign systems, reflects on commercialism of American culture

Andy Warhol work

Screen Test, S179 (Marcel Duchamp), 1966. Series of screen tests with no intention of making a movie

copyright

for the expression of an idea. central issue is fair use

Salvador Allende

democratically won presidency of Chile in 1970. Ousted by CIA backed coup.

Writers of How to Read Donald Duck

Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart

Writer of Simulacra and Simulation

Baudrillard

Hyperreality

the generation by models of a real without origin or reality, a condition in which reality and simulation are indistinguishable (ex. the map story by Borges)

Borges map story shows…

the real (ex. territory) no longer precedes the representation (the map) - now, the representation comes first. Precession of simulacra inverts the notion of representation. Representations define our reality (ex. thinking of an ad before you decide what to wear)

Orders of simulacrum

1) It is the reflection of a basic reality (representation, reproduction). 2) It masks and perverts a basic reality (mystification of Marx, false ideology). 3) It masks the absence of a basic reality (Borges, The Matrix - having a movie that makes you think you got to the truth hides the absence of reality). 4) It bears no relation to any reality whatsoever. It is pure simulacrum.

Disneyland for Baudrillard

Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the real country. Saying Disneyland mystifies reality hides that all of America is this real without a referent (4th order).