Ancient Mythology teaches that Venus was born from the Sky and Sea. The angel-like figures on either side of the goddess represent those two elements as she emerges into the world. Venus is said to represent motherhood. In my modernized drawing (see below), I have depicted Venus's birth on a hospital bed. I have depicted Venus to be born by a human-like figure. The ruching sheets by her feet resemble the pearl shell she stands upon in the painting. The newborn baby flies out of her mother's womb and cries in an unfamiliar realm.
With doctors on either side of her, perhaps the mother birthing on the bed is self-reflective (a postmodern quality) and Venus is birthed from herself, or emerging from the Sky and Sea.
Twentieth Century French historian Michel Foucault introduces his power theory of Panopticism in his book Discipline and Punish by using the leper plague as an example of its development. Because the leper was terribly contagious, each member in the plagued town was quarantined and required to, on a daily basis, reveal her face in the window as a means of surveillance: a mechanism confirming those who fell victim to the disease and those who survived. Simultaneously, the separation confined each individual to her own space and established a regulating order to the controversy within the society.
Foucault's theory of Panapticism is based on the Panopticon: a prison building designed by English theorist Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The building was designed in order for an omniscient viewer to be able to see the entirety of the happenings within the building while simultaneously be entirely unseen.
Foucault writes, “The major effect of the Panopticon [is] to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power" (554). Power relations are implemented in Panopticsm by imposing absolute and "understood" rules.
In John Hughes's 1985 cult classic The Breakfast Club, five high school students are forced to spend an entire Saturday in the library serving detention. Detention is a form of punishment where students contemplate the fallacies they have committed without misbehaving further. Foucault would consider detention as one of the "tactics of individualizing disciplines [that] are imposed on the excluded" (553). The students are assigned to sit in the library on a day when there are no other students or teachers present. Principal Richard "Dick" Vernon serves as physical surveillance, but in actuality, he has little power over the students.
In this brief clip, each student sits unsupervised, each occupying himself until falling asleep from boredom. When the Principle discovers the students sleeping, he attempts to use verbal authority by screaming, "WAKE UP!" The students ignore him until he calmly offers a trip the “lavatory.” If the hired authority has no control, then why do the students stay for detention the remainder of the day?
Though they show little respect to the principle, the students adhere to the role of the school as an institution itself. Through their actions throughout the movie, the students reveal their awareness of ideological rules. Regardless, the students break free from the library at various moments to run around the school rebelling against the principle. Although they do not remain seated in their original library seat for eight hours, it is significant to note that the students are submissive to Panopticsm theory. The five students remain within the walls of the school for the entirety of the day confirming the power of the school itself and thus reaffirming Foucault’s idea that, “A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation. So it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behavior” (555).
Works Cited
Foucault, Michel. “Discipline and Punish.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Second Ed. Julie Rivkin & Michael Ryan. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004. 549-565. Print.
Last semester I touched briefly on the literary theory of Structuralism in my Popular Culture class. We covered Roland Barthes’sbook Mythologies and discussed the concept of semiotics. I learned about the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, but not at length. Participating in the Structuralism group for this class furthered my knowledge on the subject and allowed me get a better grasp on signs. Our discussion is titled, "The Linguistic Turn.” I am happy to say that this experience was truly a group effort. Our group was in clear communication: each person brought creative ideas to the table and contributed just the same. In my opinion and experience, this is rare for a group assignment. Our project is one of structure, and I believe this will show in our presentation this evening.My contribution to the project was piecing together the power point presentation. My group members sent me appropriate information based on their own research about Structuralism and its theoretical movement, historical context, cultural import and the theory's practical uses. I intended to add a playful, yet structured slide-show in order to effectively lead a memorable and fun discussion. Our group ensured that this will indeed be a discussion, and not a lecture. Our intention is to provide a fun learning experience embedding Structuralism into the students’ brains.
“What’s your sign?” is a thought provoking card game that we collectively came up with. While the slide-show is intended for individual perception, our group wanted to create an interactive presentation as well. One inevitable goal for tonight is that students who may not have normally worked together will do so in order to participate in the game and ultimately understand the Structuralist concept. I cannot guarantee the shock value that footage of a raw childbirth may bring, but I feel that our assignment will be just as memorable – perhaps ending with laughter instead.
In his essay "Art as a Technique," Viktor Shklovsky writes, "The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar'" (Rivkin 18).
Sounds a bit like William Wordsworth's in the Preface of his 1878 book Lyrical Ballads: defamiliarize the familiar.
Shklovsky, however, uses Leo Tolstoy as an example with his character Kholstomer: a talking horse. Though it is unlikely that a human being will come across a mare with an English (or Russian for that matter) vocabulary, Tolstoy's creates and tells a story from a horse's point of view. For example, the horse narrates, "In life people are guided by words, not by deeds" (Rivkin 17). What a striking sentence to come from a horse’s mouth. The horse understands his identity and position in his world (the horse literally is guided by words), and in this mere phrase he points out that so are human beings.
I could not get away with writing a blog post on formalism without using Daft Punk as an example. Daft Punk is the French Electronic duo Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. The music, or art, that they create consistently uses the technique of "defamiliarization" (Rivkin 16). The French musicians dress only in space-like costumes with face covering helmets. Their persona are out of this world which is reflective of their intentionally unusual music.
The music video for Da Funk depicts an ironic story about a talking dog (dressed in clothing and standing on two legs) walking amongst human beings in New York City. While the dog partakes in normal human activities, the people around him are un-accepting. For example, in loud and roaring New York City, the dog walks around with a boom-box blasting Da Funk and is told to turn it off. Another example is a (typically obnoxious) street solicitor rejects his the dog’s offer to indulge in her survey. None of the people around him react to the fact that a Dog is walking and talking, but they seem to mind him doing things of the norm. The way in which Daft Punk (and director Spike Jones) portray the creature, it is hard enough not to fixate on the fact that a dog is walking and talking let alone his unlawful rejections amongst the crowd!
Daft Punk thrives on the abnormal byway of depicting quests for identity. The group typically creates a social commentary using abnormal constructs to highlight society's limited points of view.
I was asked to create my very own "ism." Me, the theorist! My Major Critical Theories class began with a task: define what I think is the most important thing to consider when interpreting a text.
Following the assignment was a five minute visual: a YouTube clip from the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The scene established a juxtaposition between a man and a woman each dressed up as a doll, only the woman plays the role of "a doll on a music box that's wound by a key," and the Raggedy Andy-type breaks free from his containing box to wind the key himself. “Andy” contrasts her in almost every way. The doll on a music box is completely bound and controlled.
Having never seen the movie before, I found the clip charming and fascinating - noticing the relevance of my "ism" (paying close attention to patterns, themes and connections) throughout the text. Control, gender and sex are three of the many themes prevalent in the scene.
Aside from my response to the original question at hand, I immediately thought of the relationship between this scene and a contemporary song called “Coin-Operated Boy” by the American "brechtian punk cabaret" known as the Dresden Dolls.
Gender roles have reversed in this example. In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, an attractive girl is being "wound up" on a music box - "waiting for love’s true kiss" and to be saved (from going in circles). Amanda Palmer, the singer of the Dresden Dolls reverses the gender roles that are depicted in the movie clip – she turns her boy (or doll) on with a coin instead of a key.
Coin operated boy Sitting on the shelf he is just a toy But I turn him on and he comes to life Automatic joy That is why I want A coin operated boy
Interesting how over thirty years after Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, human beings are still be objectified through mediums of art by way of dolls.
In my modernized drawing (see below), I have depicted Venus's birth on a hospital bed. I have depicted Venus to be born by a human-like figure. The ruching sheets by her feet resemble the pearl shell she stands upon in the painting. The newborn baby flies out of her mother's womb and cries in an unfamiliar realm.
In my modernized drawing (see below), I have depicted Venus's birth on a hospital bed. I have depicted Venus to be born by a human-like figure. The ruching sheets by her feet resemble the pearl shell she stands upon in the painting. The newborn baby flies out of her mother's womb and cries in an unfamiliar realm.
