| Dates/Topics | Concepts | Class Activities | Homework Assignments |
| Week 1
T 2/02
Unit 1: Disorientation (3 weeks)-The World as a Text
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-Signifier -Signified -Cultural context -Semiotics -socially constructed signified |
Read and discuss excerpts from * #1 “Criticism and Meaning” by Belsy (page 43-44)- 1.Review syllabus 1.Introduction: The Problem of Meaning: 2. How does meaning occur? The nature of the sign. 3. How is language a social fact? 4. How is ideology signified in “inscribed in signifying system”?5. How does a text come to have meaning?View and discuss “Duck Amuck” |
Bring in an ad and your “reading” of the ad. Your response should be about 1-2 pages . Be sure to include-
· Descriptions of the signifiers in the ad · The signified meaning each signifier conveys · The ad’s purpose · Your analysis of whether or not it’s effective Read & annotate “Last Duchess” by Robert Browning |
| 2/3 Wed.
Signification/ Representation and History |
Representation institutionalized -indexical representation -paradigm-shift in conventions -literary representation( genres) |
We’ll read and discuss * # 2 “Representation” by W.J.T Mitchell
-How is meaning constructed? -Why is meaning plural? -Examine an interpretation of the “Last Duchess” poem
In small groups, share your ad and response. Be sure to provide constructive critiques |
1.Revise your writing based on the peer review and turn it your #1 Thinking paper. In order to write an interesting thinking paper, be sure to find an ad that speaks to you in an enriched cultural contexts. You may even go as far as discussing what the ad may mean to the mainstream culture but to you, its meaning may be slanted or even offensive.
2. Read * # 3“The Jeaning of America” by Fiske |
| Th 2/4
Representation and History
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-ambiguity
-cultural resistance -pop culture is n expression from the subordinate and disempowered -pop culture contradicts itself -Intertxtuality |
#1 Thinking paper is due. 1. In class, look at a slide show of jeans design from 1960s to present day. Discuss :What do jeans mean to you? Why do you wear them? 2. Based on the cluster of meanings, explore topics of- · Individuality within communal allegiance · Deny class difference · Freedom, Nature & sexuality · Masculinity & femininity · Intertextuality: meanings can only exist in the cultural space between texts that precedes the texts (pg6 in “The Jeaning of America” · We, through commodities, by living it, we validate and invigorate it ( ideology)-pg14 · “A commodity is ideology in material. |
Respond to the quotations from “the Jeanings…”. Let the quotes speak to each other-
“ A mass culture produces a quiescent, passive mass of people, an agglomeration of atomized individuals separated from their position in the social structure, detached from and unaware of their class consciousness, of their various social and cultural allegiances, and the totally disempowered and helpless” (pg 20)
“Popular culture always is part of the power relations; it always bears traces of the constant struggle between dominion and subordination….” (pg 19)
“The process of adopting the signs of resistance incorporates them into the dominant system and thus attempts to rob them of their oppositional meanings” pg 18 2. Bring several images of the same commodity that signifies the shift in meaning in its historical and cultural context. |
| F 2/5
How does meaning shift and change?
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-plurality of meaning -shift in meaning -ideology -dominant culture -subordinate culture |
1. Share your writing based on the three quotations.
2. In small group, share and analyze the images you have brought to the class. 3. Each group presents its finding through discussion. 3. Discuss the writing prompt. |
Start composing your #2 Thinking Paper based on our class discussions and the following prompt-
Identify and describe a “text”, which can be music, dance, fine art, poetry, fashion etc. that was originated from cultural dissent. Do research to explore how the dominant culture absorbed the “subversive text” and made it mainstream, therefore, robbing it of any resistance or oppositions. Be sure to use one quotation from the “Jeaning” essay as your theoretical lens. Bring in your draft tomorrow to class. |
| M. 2/8
How does meaning shift and change? |
1. Share 1st draft of #2 Thinking Paper in small groups. Peer review.
2. Round-robin to share more interesting parts of “The Jeaning of America”. 3. In class, share and discuss ideas from the draft of #2 Thinking Paper |
1. Revise the #2 Thinking Paper based on peer review feedback
2. Read and Annotate * # 4 Nealon & Giroux, Chs. 1 “Why Theory?” & 2“Author/ity” |
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| Week 2
T 2/9 Understanding system.
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Objectives: Students will gain deeper understanding why meaning is plural and cultural. Resources: ads access Do Now: In pairs, share an observation about meaning based on the four texts you have read( Belsy, Representation, Jeaning and Author/ity). Mini Lesson with Guided Practice
Independent Practice: In pairs,share your responses to the quotations based on “Criticism” and ” Representation”. Assessment: What ideas do you have about the 2nd Thinking Paper? 2.Share and examine parts of “ Why Theory & Authority” using annotations. |
Read and annotate * # 5 Nealon & Giroux, ch. 3 “Reading.”
Work on Group presentations |
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| W 2/10
Understanding system.
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-natural
-cultural |
1. Small groups present “Jabberwocky.”
2. Share and examine parts of “Reading”. 3. Visit the slide show at http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/introduction.html about semiotics. How do we take for granted signs and symbols, and not things themselves as “natural” aspects of life but in reality, that are anything but. How does this social phenomenon may have important social implications? |
1.Write a one page response to today’s presentation.
2. Bring in an ad that presents a narrative. If you cover up half of the ad, the image has one meaning; when you reveal it in relation to another symbol, it has a different meaning. |
| Th 2/11
Understanding system.
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-paradigm of past-ness
-constructed narrative |
Thinking Paper #2 due
1. Class Image presentation. 2. Continue the presentation of semiotics and its suggested meanings http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/introduction.html |
1.Read and annote * # 6 Nealon and Girooux, ch 7 “History” 2.Start your #3 Thinking Paper based on the prompt: Find an image from any source of the media that connotes a narrative. Describe the image and explain how your interpretation ( meaning of the visual) is constructed. Be sure to use all available signifiers in the image to explain the signified. Piece your fragmented interpretation together to construct a well-thought meaning of the narrative. Be sure to do research to go deeper with the contextualized meaning, and incorporate the appropriate theoretical concepts. |
| F 2/12
Understanding system.
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-codes
-myth |
1. Share notes on “history”
2. Continue the presentation of semiotics and its suggested meanings http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/introduction.html 3. Share your draft on #3 Thinking Paper |
1.Consider: how is the narrative of your image mixed with other signs such as “ myth to suggest richer meaning? Revise your #3 thinking paper.
2. Respond to Q1 pgs118-119, Nealon and Girooux, ch 7 “History” |
| M 2/22
History as representation
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1.Telling histories Group presentations of Q1
2. Issues of gender, race, class and how they were represented in history ( paintings, photographs, literature, song lyrics) |
1.Read and annotate * # 9 Nealon and Giroux, ch 10 “Differences.” 2. Bring in one “text” that issues of gender, race or class are represented. 3. Complete #2 Thinking Paper 4. Read * #9 “Unconscious” by Meltzer |
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| Week 3
T 2/23 |
-Metaphors and metonymies | 1. #2 Thinking Paper due
2. Small groups share representational texts. 3. According to Lacan, “´Metaphor and metonymy’ are shared structure of the unconscious.” ( Discuss Ads) |
Read and annotate Browning, “My Last Duchess”
& *Tobias Wolff, “Say Yes” in the light of the lens that ´Metaphor and metonymy are shared structure of the unconscious.” |
| W 2/24
Metaphors/ |
1.Small groups share “My Last Duchess”
& *Tobias Wolff, “Say Yes” 3. Discuss “Metaphor &Metonymy” pd 160 “Unconscious” by Meltzer in Critical Terms Literary Study 2nd Edition |
1.Read and annotate “Blake, “The Lamb.” * # 10 McLaughlin, “Figurative Language” 2. *Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz” 3. Karl Shapiro, “The Fly” |
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| Th 2/25 | Group class present Blake, “The Lamb. & Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz” | 1Respond “How unstable is meaning? How ‘relative’?” based on the three poems we have discussed in class.
2.Read and annotate “Chimney Sweepers” by William Blake |
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| F 2/26
How unstable is meaning? |
How ‘relative’? |
Objectives: Students will be able to understand why meaning is unstable as well as the issues embedded within through discussion and analysis.
Lesson Focus: How unstable is meaning? What are the issues?
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Complete #3 Thinking Paper |