Digital Commons Network^™

A Political Economy Of Formatted Pleasures, Edward Brennan

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.

Through The Lens Of A "Branded Criminal": The Politics Of Marginal Cinema In India, Rashmi Sawhney

Books/Book chapters

Images of Adivasis (Indian tribal communities) being displaced by the building of industries and dams have been regularly flashing across our television screens for the last twenty years or so, yet, media scholars have shown very little interest in this constituency either as producers or as audiences. This chapter argues that, contrary to the mass media’s favourite stereotype of the forest-inhabiting ‘native’, India’s tribal communities exist in a complex constellation of modernities, both urban and rural, and that many of these communities have at least a nominal contact with media cultures. One such group, the Chharas of Ahmedabad, popularly branded …

A Political Economy Of Formatted Pleasures, Edward Brennan

Books/Book chapters

This chapter argues that, by promoting audience pleasures based in the pursuit of individual and materialistic goals, most television formats are consonant with a dominant orthodoxy which sees markets as the only way to organise society . This elective affinity between format pleasures and free market ideology, however, does not come about through deliberate design. Rather it is an unintended consequence of television production’s response to economic and practical necessity. In their form, content and production practices formats are pre-adapted to the demands of a globalised media market place. This commercial logic has given formats a peculiar signature in terms …

Our Lady Of The Telegraph: Mina As Medieval Cyborg In Bram Stoker’S Dracula, Eric Brownell

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Remember The Titans, Historical Fact Or Fiction?, Amy S. Tate

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

In the late 1990s, screen writer Gregory A. Howard wrote a screen play called Remember the Titans, based on the true story of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Pictures bought the script based on the fact that it is a true story, but much of the film‟s content is fictional. Gregory Howard admitted to ESPN writer Jeff Merron that “he made some big assumptions when writing his script” (qtd. in Merron 5). Though the film is not entirely historically accurate, it is successful because it appeals to Americans through its intense emotional …

Para-Romantic Love And Para-Friendships: Development And Assessment Of A Multiple-Parasocial Relationships Scale, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Parasocial-relationships (PSR) are viewers' imaginary relationships with media personae. Despite the growing body of research on PSR, the field is still lacking a clear conceptualization and precise measure of this phenomenon. The present study suggests a novel theorization of PSR as para-friendship and para-love. Study 1 demonstrates construct validity of a new Multiple-PSR scale using the logic of a multi-trait multi-method approach. Study 2 replicates the factorial solution using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, Study 3 provides evidence for the criterion validity of the scales. Together, these findings suggest that PSR encompass several types of relationships that might mediate different media …

The National Imagination (Spring 2010), Robert D. Tobin, Belen Atienza, Alice Valentine

Syllabi

What images make people think of the United States of America? Cowboys? The flag? And are there similar icons in other cultures that help define cultural identity? The National Imagination explores the concept of a national community as constructed and critiqued through literary and cinematic narratives, as well as other cultural texts.

Our underlying premise is that national languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. We are interested in examining those subjective expressions of culture—images, symbols, narratives—that lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations. We are also interested in discovering points …

Contention Of Lust, Caution: Sexuality, Visuality And Female Subjectivity, Yanjie Wang

Asian and Asian American Studies Faculty Works

This paper investigates the ways in which Ang Lee provides new insights into subject formation in his film Lust, Caution (Se Jie, 2007). In the paradigm of structuralism, the subject is defined, as well as confined, by the symbolic order or the dominant ideology. The puzzle therefore rests on how to explain the subject’s negotiation with its normative identity, its denial thereof, or even its subversion of said identity. In a close reading of the female protagonist’s subject formation in Lust, Caution, this paper acknowledges the power of ideology, specifically the power of its interpellative operation, in constructing a subject. …

Chronotope And Regional Chinese Independent Films, Jingya Liu

Lingnan Theses

This thesis aims to re-categorize Chinese independent films from a region-based perspective as a critical response to existing literature on Chinese independent films. This thesis analyzes three independent films made in three different regions of China in order to investigate regional Chinese independent cinema as a recently rising phenomenon: respectively, Jia Zhangke’s Xiaowu (1997) made in Shanxi Province, Ying Liang’s Taking Father Home (Bei yazi de nanhai, 2006) in Sichuan Province, and Robin Weng’s Fujian Blue (Jinbi huihuang, 2007) in Fujian Province.

By using Bakhtin’s concept of chronotope (literally time-space) as the fundamental framework and exploring the many aspects of …

Mr. Monk And The Emotion-Reason Dilemma, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) belongs to a tradition of brilliant but personally flawed detectives. Like others in this tradition, including his television colleague, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), Monk’s genius resides in his exceptional, even excessive, rationality. Both Monk and House embody near-perfect detection or diagnostic skills. And, in both cases, the cause of their damaged personalities is excessive emotionality, represented by their respective emotional disorders. In their internal dynamics, emotion is almost always the ‘problem,’ and both shows suggest that troubled emotionality is the price Monk and House must pay for their intense brilliance.

Anger, Cognition, Ideology: What Crash Can Show Us About Emotion, Sue J. Kim

College of Arts & Sciences Professional Work

Sue J. Kim’s essay “Anger, Cognition, Ideology: What Crash Can Show Us About Emotion” argues for the relevance and importance of cognitive studies to ethnic and postcolonial literary studies, and vice versa. After surveying recent developments in the field of cognitive studies, the essay combines cultural and cognitive approaches in order to examine anger in and around the 2005 Paul Haggis film Crash.

'Age Doth Not Wither Nor Custom Stale My Infinite Variety': Surveying The Evolution Of Dr. John H. Watson Through 70 Years Of The Hound Of The Baskervilles On Screen, Ashley Polasek

All Theses

The sixty tales that comprise the Sherlock Holmes Canon hold a unique place in the realm of both adaptation studies and culture studies. The stories were originally written at a time concurrent with the birth of cinema; Holmes was part of the vanguard of literary figures to appear on film. Since his first appearance on screen in 1900, Sherlock Holmes, his friend and colleague Dr. Watson, and the adventures in which they figure have been consistently adapted for the full lifespan of the cinematic medium. Despite this rich history, the adaptations have, almost without exception, been scrutinized through the lens …

Broadcasting Multiculturalism: Migrant Representation And Participation In Irish Radio, Kathleen Moylan

Doctoral

In the cultural context of recent inward migration to Ireland, this research focuses on migrant representation on Irish radio. Employing diverse approaches drawn from cultural studies and public sphere theory, this study examines radio programmes produced by and about new Irish migrant communities, and the ways in which 'diversity' is framed and managed by national and EU broadcast policy. This work incorporates analyses of programme content and broadcast policy in relation to Irish national public service broadcasting (Radio Telefis Eireann) and Dublin community radio.

Teaching Another Literacy Across The Curriculum, Jeana T. Rock

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in communication technology have allowed for new ways for high school teachers to incorporate these technologies into their classroom practice. However, most teachers are uninformed about media literacy pedagogy. This study investigated how using a collaborative professional development group influenced teachers' understanding and use of media literacy concepts in their current practice. A professional development group with teachers from different content areas met for five months to study the theory and methodology of media literacy. This collaborative group provided opportunities for teachers to develop and share analytical and productions skills in media literacy, as well as design lessons utilizing …

Is Disney Surfing The Third Wave? A Study Of The Pervasiveness Of The Third Wave Of Feminism In Disney's Female Protagonists, Emily S. Ellington

Senior Honors Theses

It is important to understand factors that have influenced Generation Y’s view of womanhood. One way to do this is to analyze third wave feminist messages portrayed by Disney, the media powerhouse. In order to determine if Disney reflects feminist values, the third wave themes portrayed in The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Pocahontas (1995), and Mulan (1999) are examined. It is concluded that Disney portrays the feminist values of independence and multiculturalism; however, the films are set within patriarchal societies and portray women to be domestic. Ultimately, Disney portrays four messages about womanhood: Women are equal …

Welcome To The World Of Tomorrow Today: Matt Groening's Futurama As Posthuman Mediator, Amanda Jill Taylor

Theses Digitization Project

In this thesis an explanation of posthuman theory along with a close analysis of both Fry and the robot Bender. These analyses respectively show how we are already posthuman as well as the material limitations of posthuman subjectivity.

Global Freud (Fall 2009), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

This course provides an introduction to Freud’s thinking, especially on literary and cultural topics. Reading his writing in conjunction with literary texts from a variety of cultural backgrounds, we will focus on the ways in which authors, artists, musicians and film makers from around the world have used Freud’s insights and try to determine in what ways his thoughts translate globally.

That Moment Now = 此時．那刻, Tin Yan, Celia Ko

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

Art Exhibition by Celia Ko

In a new exhibition ‘Th at Moment Now’ on show at Lingnan University, Hong Kong artist Celia Ko presents three bodies of work that take as their subject the artist’s relationship to her maternal Chinese ancestry. In pursuing her subject Ko has created a trilogy of images through which the interior life of her family is approached from diff erent vantage points. Using large-scale images and hand made garments and jewellery Ko explores the pervasive power of familial myths and narratives.

The first part of the exhibition are large-scale portraits of her mother’s parents: grandfather …

Media Literacy, Brian O'Neill, Ingun Hagen

Books/Book chapters

Across Europe and beyond, the promotion of media literacy, for children and adults, has acquired an important public urgency. Traditional literacy is seen to be no longer sufficient for participation in today’s society. Citizens need to be media literate, it is claimed, to enable them to cope more effectively with the flood of information in today’s highly mediated societies. As teachers, politicians and policy makers everywhere struggle with this rapid shift in media culture, greater responsibility is placed on citizens for their own welfare in the new media environment. Media literacy is therefore all the more essential in enabling citizens …

Etre Et Parler: Being And Speaking French In Abdellatif Kechiches Lesquive And Laurent Cantets Entre Les Murs, Dana Strand

French and Francophone Studies Faculty Work

French film-makers have long recognized the primordial importance to the nation’s ‘imagined community’ of the centralized public school system, which, since the early days of the Third Republic, has been viewed as a bulwark of Republican values. In this essay, I discuss the ways in which two recent films, Abdellatif Kechiche’s L’Esquive/The Dodge (2004) and Laurent Cantet’s Entre les murs/The Class (2008), interrogate the role French schools play in shaping national identity. Both films focus on language as a marker of difference as well as a point of tension, performance and potential subversion, by exploring the respective contrast between the …

From Dreams To Nightmares : Cross-Generational Romance In Mainstream American Cinema, Sol Stern

Theses : Honours

This thesis is concerned with the changes in cinematic depictions of romantic relationships in which there is enough age disparity that the couple could be mistaken for parent and child. These cross-generational affairs have significance within the ideology of the family unit, the heterosexual couple and the classic Hollywood ideal of romantic love. The way that these relationships have been portrayed on screen has changed drastically in mainstream American cinema from the 1950s to the 2000s, and these shifts reflect changing values and attitudes in society since all films exhibit certain ideologies. Through sampling several relevant films made between 1953 …

Du Néoréalisme En Afrique: Une Relecture De Borom Sarret, Sada Niang

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Critical evaluations of African cinema have tended in the past to confi ne the analysis of this corpus to its content. In books and articles published earlier, the colonial and postcolonial history of the continent abound, social dramas are explained at length, thefts at all levels, cultural mystifi cation, corruption as well as violence are amply described. The insights of such an approach notwithstanding, the aesthetic sources of African cinema are not limited to the rural and the traditional. Through a comparison of Vittorio De Sica Bicycle Thief and Sembène’s Borom Sarret, this paper argues that african cinema inserted itself …

“I Hope You Never See Another Day Like This”: Pedagogy & Allegory In “Post 9/11” Video Games, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Although critics and scholars have considered the extent to which the terror attacks of 11 Sept. 2001 influenced subsequent media productions, video games comprise a largely unexamined form. This oversight also applies to related forms of media production and among those who study video games is in part attributable to the ongoing debate regarding the relationship(s) between narrative and play. Even so, as early as 1997, JC Herz was investigating the role of video games in the military-entertainment complex. That said, the focus of this paper will not be the obvious games which draw settings and plots directly from the …

Chicana Photography: The Power Of Place, Ann Marie Leimer

NACCS Annual Conference Proceedings

Abstract:

The concern with space, location, place, and geographic site has received heightened attention from artists and theorists from the 1960s onward. For critics and creators engaged with these concepts, the analysis of the interaction between of the processes of spatialization, identity formation, and memory has emerged as an important aspect of critical discourse. Lucy Lippard defines space as a physical site, understood as landscape or nature, while place implies intimacy, a familiarity with a certain geographic location. For Lippard, human interaction and, most importantly, the infusion of memory into space or a geographic site produces place. Michel de Certeau …

Bibliography Of Works By And About Imre Kertész, Nobel Laureate In Literature 2002, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

The Study Of Literature And Culture Online (Theory And Application), Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

History Of Ricl: Research Institute For Comparative Literature, University Of Alberta 1985-1999, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Floating World Projects : Two Views, Delicacies, Inside Out = 浮世, Klaus Peter Knoll, Cella

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

Floating World Projects photographs and exhibition were realized through the Visual Studies Artist-in-Residence Programm and the generous support of the Department of Philosophy.

Mad About The Boy, Debra Mayrhofer

Research outputs pre 2011

The media coverage of an out-of-control teenage party in the Melbourne suburb of Narre Warren on 12 January 2008, and its construction of the protagonist who threw the party, has highlighted once again the inequitable treatment of youth, particularly adolescent males, in the Australian media. This paper examines the coverage in terms of the discursive strategies used by the mainstream Australian media to legitimise and naturalise the denigration and humiliation of the boy involved. It will discuss the ongoing demonisation of young males in general, and the concomitant ‘panics’ about their degeneration into moral lassitude, as well as the particular …

A Comparative Analysis Of A Japanese Film And Its American Remake, Shogo Miura

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.