EMERGENCY FINAL STUDY GUIDE: THE NORMAL
Appropriate, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, 2013 U.S.
A. 3rd text we've looked at that considers lynching B. Determination to keep lynching a secret— characteristically. C. Lynching becomes a fact of white life; white america gets constituted by the literal remains of people who have been lynched. D. Violent act of white supremacy also becomes a meta-problem: not just that lynching happens but how to talk about it. E. Lynching in previous texts functions as a spectacle that is staged in order to make witness available. But lynching is a secret proceeding. Kkk masks; won't be seen. Yet, it was relatively photographed, collected, traded F. The lynching image stages violence enacted on black bodies —> also acts as as a site for a coalescence of white community identity. Lynching is always directed toward a white audience. G. American family drama; play is interested in the ways whiteness is encoded in ideas of americanness and also family. H. How does branden make whiteness visible? There are no black bodies on stage - White out; white characters glossing over slavery, pedophilia, anti semitism; masking of problems. I. River: "this has nothing to do with being white, this has to do with you guys being a bunch of a-holes!"- p 68 - Black people mentioned 1. Bo's black roommate in college 2. Juanita the nurse 3. The one's in the photo album 4. Slaves buried in the slave cemetery J. We never see juanita on stage but the family relies on her to survive. K. The fight scene in act 3- when ainsley comes down with white kkk hood—> the action grinds to an awkward halt. Suddenly no one knows what to do. There is actual artifactual evidence of the family's participation in the kkk, and racist violence. L. The play is interested in critiquing the genre of american family drama M. The unmarked story, unmarked graves; how can you start to reveal that the dominant narrative is written on top of a story that isn't being told? - We don't see juanita, don't see the images of the slaves - See the effort and violence that it takes to suppress that alternative narrative N. Space where it takes place; abandoned plantation- fundamental part of the story. - Space not only occupied by slaveholders. But also by this narrative. - When ainsley comes; represents that in the next room, the kkk is waiting to be discovered. - Racism exists in history but also in the same space as them! (rn, on the plantation). - House is physically occupied by this other history O. Branden jj: instead of just showing a diff story, we retain a story of the white american family drama, but found a way to see it in a different way. P. Cicadas! - Start and end of play - Cicadas seem to insist that there is more than what we see— writing becomes a commentary on the characters- helping us see what their limitations are. - Cicadas something we can experience 1. Engage in listening/ seeing: what is being ignored in order to tell this story 2. Cicada song brings attention to the ignored black body - Cicadas functioning as a kind of chorus. —> aligned with sexuality, violence, harm (think rhys masturbation scene). - There is an encouragement to pay a different kind of attention, what is unheard or not present—> want to us to pay attention to elements of everyday life, of that which we did not notice.
Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville, 1853, U.S.
A. A tale of wall street ooooh B. Bartleby is a scrivener- a copyist. C. Think of writing as a product of labor - mindless and repetitive behavior, so that economy can run D. The narrator, the boss, is the one who reads bartleby E. "I would prefer not to" (i) Prefer: to advance or elevate in status or rank (ii) To favor - He uses it in this sense - he does not say "i will not." - To prefer is a specific position to take. F. Wall street on a sunday: when work ceased. Emptiness and silence of sunday - —> bartleby is the presiding ghost of this silence. - Camps out in office on a sunday, later on refuses to fkn leave at all. Blurs the space of the office/home/ a place that isn't his - Also he's low key catatonic; described as pale, motionless - Stares at a dead brick wall all day - Won't move, won't work G. Civil disobedience ; acts against, just by passively disobeying H. Workers are cogs in a machine; except bartleby, he threatens to bring the machine to a screeching halt. I. Bartleby sticks out bc he doesnt do anything - Resistance against the spirit of work J. Narrator goes through several emotional upheavals, tries everything, doesn't know what to do 2009 K. B doesn't ask for help or charity, and refuses to let the narrator be a benefactor. L. B remains stationary- the capitalist system loses energy - The system itself takes care of the problem of bartleby - imprisons him in jailhouse called the "tombs"- which has a connotation of death. - Narrator visits B M. B dies. His lack of motion leads to the opposite in other people—> sends the narrator into a frenzy N. Through death, B ceased to be a product of capitalism once and for all O. Wider event of death as a victory/ critique of capitalism. P. After he dies, we find out he used to work in a dead letter office. - Under capitalism, work defines you. So when the narrator tries to understand why B was the way he was, he goes to his place of work. Q. Ending: "ah bartleby! Ah humanity!" - Relationship between bartleby and humanity; B becomes less of a person, more of a thing. We see bartleby as an exception to humanity—> heart of what results when humanity persists through capitalist injustice.
The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776, Scotland/Great Britain/U.K.
A. Adam smith: inventor of modern economic theory. B. Hannah arendt- behaviorism we are more likely to conform, to behave, to act normal — mostly world of work and economies are at fault. C. Economics groups people statistically- doesn't group particularity of people D. Wealth of nations- interested in why one country is wealthier than another. In that way he takes a statistical approach to human beings. E. Age of surveillance capitalism (i) Surplus value— extracting unpaid labor. (ii) Wealth of nations- analyzes economics to increase general prosperity (iii) Division of labor - breaking down into subdivisions - Pin factory example: pin manufacturer can produce 48,000 pins a day- more pins, more people buying, more prosperity - (P 7) - "improvement of dexterity of the workman..." - The artisanal pin maker has to produce 18 diff operations but with the manufacturer- just does 1 really good job. F. —> specialization: no one can be economically self-sufficient. Capitalist society causes us to specialize + then depend on one another. G. (P 8): "the rapidity with which operations performed, exceeds what the human form can do" H. Devil's bargain: despite optimistic view of how capitalism works, there's a split within yourself. - Producer: alienation, boring, repetitive task. - Consumer: my life outside will be better H. (P 5); "occasional increase in productive powers of labor" - —> focus on productivity - Free markets distribute more efficiently and productively. - Division of labor; makes labor more productive - Productivity is also a social and cultural norm. I. The labor theory of value - How do we know how much commodities are worth? how can we exchange things at all? - By the amount of work it took you to make them — the value of a commodity is the value of the labor that went into it. (P 314); sometimes labor produces value, sometimes it doesn't J. If a worker adds value; maintain him and provide profit to the owner of the company. Worker's don't cost their employers anything. The dichotomy between manufacturer and servant differentiates productive and unproductive labor. Accumulation of capital= productive labor A servant's labor disappears in moments, or shortly thereafter. A country with too many menial servants is not gonna get richer. K. (P 315); smith entirely revalues entire society based on the distinction between productive and unproductive labor. - Doctors, lawyers, kinds; not relevant, don't produce anything—> unproductive. - The norms of the economy extend into society as a whole. - Church priests- unproductive - Productivity becomes a general social imperative. What you do, you are judged based on whether you are productive or not. L. (P 316); incentive to reinvest in the productive. M. The distinction between the productive and unproductive now attached to merchant or lord. - Lord; aristocrat, land ownership, money comes in: no incentive. But will spend money on servants —> capitalist. You'll reinvest productivity. N. (P 319); england and netherlands are prosperous because people are working because capital makes people industrious - France tends to spend on servants for nobility - England and netherlands are more prosperous because its inhabitants are more industrious. — it is the structure of the economy that determines this. - If you are idle, the structure of your economy, structured you toward idleness. - The economy programs behavior into you O. The economic hero of smith's system is the hard worker P. But position of precarity: the driving force toward labor is work and be passionate about what you do, out of fear of being fired. Q. Hustle culture: allows you to exploit yourself. Turns productivity in an end to itself. (it is its own reward) R. New forms of capitalism: 1. Surveillance 2. Precarity 3. Hustle culture T. Productivity is divorced from material reward. The fact of being productive is a reward in and of itself. U. Capitalism generates new norms and invests them with a new agency and coercive force.
Mythologies, by Roland Barthes, 1957, France
A. Everything has the potential to be fascinating. B. "To live in full, a contradiction of my time" - Imagery of embeddedness; wants to be a part of it, live it in some way C. "Sapponoids and detergents" - About soap - Barthes employs a set of tricks to embed - Breaks things apart, awareness of objects implicit metaphors, attentive to weird excess of emotional/ political/ libidinal content, attention to oppositional terms, how are you implicated or called into action, how is object part of life/ histories, take microscopic or zoomed out view D. So barthes changes the way we see in the name of being able to call out problems of society, E. Showing us - What seems natural is actually historical (specific to society and its specific structures of power - And what is common sense is actually ideology F. natural= a term that makes it seem politically neutral/ insignificant. G. "Novels and children" (i) "Natural" for women to want to take care of babies (ii) P 57; elle says you can also do. But husbands are also assured that wives won't be taken away from them (iii) Women will remain natural and available "genitrix" ; a woman who produces babies (iv) Root to engender; make us notice the way 2 concepts are put together without noticing; the desire to think of women/ femininity as fundamentally maternal (v) Barthes talking about how elle article feeds into our assumptions (vi) DW women are still mothers; hillary clinton is not a castrating bitch! Holds babies on campaign trail. (vii) Problem of thinking its natural for women to want to take care of babies; encourages us not to see actual circumstances that make it harder for women not to take care of children (wage disparity). (viii) Natural, prevents us from seeing it as a whole history of human actions - Relations of power and resources; natural means unchangeable. H. Barthes shows us that things that look natural/innocent are actually doing political work I. He reads and unpacks specific objects of representation J. Chap on "toys" - Problem with gendered toys: preparing children for their role in society - Utilitarian logic; teaches children to plug into behaviors that already exist. - Discourages creativity but also intervention - Can't build/envision a new world—> just teaches us to accommodate ourselves of making that which already exists. K. What seems to be universal/ human, is in fact shaped by a particular social reality. naturalness/ universalness obscures the possibility of change L. We can change the political M. "We are at once retained to that myth of the human community (i) Exoticism is stressed (ii) "Variations of the species are manifested (iii) "From this pluralism, a unity is derived" (iv) "Why not ask emmett till, what they think of the great family of men" - Subject diff people to diff violences. A person victim to systemic oppression would recognize a myth that we are the same—> doesnt do a lot to explain what we're like. N. Within the "natural," try and look for the operation of history and domination O. But some things are universal. " birth, death? Yes, they are facts of nature, universal facts." - "To repeat birth or death teaches literally nothing" P. —> comforts us in some way; its reassuring that global injustices can be bracketed and put aside while we stand and admire how babies share a fundamental babiness. Q. Essays we looked at btw: "Saponids [or Soap-Powders] and Detergents"; "Operation Astra [or Margarine]"; "Novels and Children"; "Toys"; "Wine and Milk"; "Steak-Frites" [or "Steak and Chips"]; "Ornamental Cuisine"; "Strip Tease"; "The Great Family of Man"
Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon, 1952, France
A. He was born in a french colony in the caribbean. As a child did not have a confrontation to see himself as "other." B. Fought nazis in ww2, experienced racism in french army C. Got a scholarship to study medicine and psychology in lyon —-> ran a psychiatry department in a french colony in algeria D. "Well? Well i reply quite calmly, there are too many idiots in this world" - p1 E. Race works differently in different times and places - he experiences becoming black in france F. (P 4); "the effective disalienation of the black man entail an immediate recognition of social and economic realities." —- the black man's alienation is not an individual question G. (P 74)- sees black patient who had a dream that he was white- "this dream fulfills an unconscious wish" H. (P 3 +4); black man wants to prove his whiteness—> prove intellect I. Idea of race is created upon conquest/ colonization - Colonialism is justified as a process of civilizing the colonized - Subjects may experience internalized colonialism. J. Whiteness exists as the norm that the world seeks to conform to- p 83-84: "for several years laboratories have been trying to produce a serum for denegrofication... make it possible for the miserable black man to whiten himself" K. Chap 5; the fact of blackness, or the lived experience of the black man - Fanon confronted by the french child; experiences himself as black; a subject formation - "Mama look! A negro! I'm frightened" L. "Glances of the other fixed me there" - This happens through language - He is interpellated/ hailed by a child as a particular species/ object in the colonizers language. He became "a mere exterior without subjectivity" - Especially humiliating for a child to do this to him - Fanon sees himself being seen M. White gaze; includes non reciprocal recognition— he saw himself as marked N. (P 88); "look i will accept the lot as long as no one notices me"- he does not have the privilege of being invisible—> deemed hypervisible. Oscillates between invisibility and hypervisibility O. Notion of humanism is explored. Blackness "against" the human form, or black people as a particular kind of human. P. "And already i am being dissected under white eyes, the only real eyes" - Real eyes? What does this mean? 1. His being/ body is only something to be dissected bc of its non whiteness. They are the only real eyes, only eyes capable of putting him under a microscope bc of their position as white. Their "Realness" is a mode of power; in which looking, or a gaze becomes dissective or rather destructive. 2. White eyes also have the power to make things real. - Position of power— can make real the thing he or she sees. It's what gets counted, recognized. - "Looking" = preserving, maintaining, changing - "Really looking" = sight as power, as a faculty, a way of intervening in the world - In a way the black subject himself sees himself w white eyes 1. Internalized racism 2. Certain whiteness to all of our eyes 3. The cognitive process of recognition is always gonna involve white eyes - The experience of racialization is an experience of being looked at. The power to look at is white and the condition of being looked at is associated with being oppressed. Q. The figure of the jew comes up - p87 - is the predicament of the jew in european culture same as a black subject in white society? - Fanon decides its not. - Jew is a white man- can go unnoticed. - Fanon says "i am overdetermined from without"- truth of me comes out just by someone looking. - "I am the slave not of the idea that others have of me but of my own appearance" - the oppression that he suffers, he can locate in his body and feel physically— as if its his own fault.
Passing, by Nella Larsen, 1929, U.S.
A. In passing there's that one mention of the jewish character claude- a black jew. The book is about blackness and whiteness but also the experience of being in between those 2 terms. B. Novel interested in experiences of race in terms of looking and being looked at. 1. Race is lived through visual experience 2. Looking itself always a racialized and racializing experience C. Imbrication of race and looking takes off on bottom of p 15; "an attractive looking woman...." D. Irene looking @ clare. What is being seen? - Economic status - Ivory of her skin; wealth, privilege, whiteness E. The looking continues - process of looking entails a process of evaluating or judging. - Judgement seems to be moral and sexual: "a shade too provocative for a waiter. - Before the novel is even about race we have a condensation of of race (connoted) sex (provocative) and class ("for a waiter") F. "The white hand slit the melon" - Quantity of money and racial identity; clare gets $ from being white. G. Irene registers that she's being looked back at. Looking is identified as an exchange; monetary connotation but also something to do with the reciprocity of the gaze. H. Looking can be detained: "her unseeing eyes" I. "Aware that someone was watching her" - Sight becomes tangible in a way. Something you can feel. - Irene sees the woman, sees the woman seeing her, sees the woman who sees her seeing her. J. Clare then exhibits her willingness to look; how we use our eyes becomes a medium of choice - "Feeling her color heighten" - blushing. But the condition of being looked at exacerbates her color, the color of her skin. — play with words K. "Gradually rose in irene a small odious disturbance... could she know i was a negro?" - The first mention of race is through a complex experience/ exchange of looks L. Both irene's and the reader's consciousness are brought to the point of making a racial declaration—-> race can be spoken. Race is a matter of seeing. The character becomes black through looking. M. For clare it's not just how she looks (performing her identity, her whiteness) but also how she looks in the active sense (what she does with her eyes)--> marks irene's otherness. N. Other themes: 1. Danger - Novel sets itself up in this retrospective moment, we are presented with this letter. Irene reading it "she was wholly unable to comprehend such an attitude toward danger as she was sure the letter's content would reveal" - p 9 - Were invited to look for what is danger in this novel. What irene wants more than anything is safety and security - "Hazardous business of passing" - "Disastrous desire to laugh again" - "A faint sense of danger brushed her" - The danger irene senses in the looking exchange is exposure. Clare acts as a direct threat to irene's home and security - Clare faces a social and economic danger- danger of falling back into poverty. ' - Clare as a threat to irene's marriage. O. Scene where irene passes for john bellew - "outwardly she was calm, inside she was seething"- this in itself is a mode of passing. P. In this novel, whiteness is not just not having to pass racially, but not having to live this experience of self division. - John bellew; 1st white character; "he most certainly as undisturbed within as without" 1. 1st thing out of his mouth is a racial slur 2. His first monologue- immediately outs himself as obnoxious racist 3. He does the opposite of self policing that irene and clare are doing 4. Incredible openness- reflexively speaking everything inside of you - White people have a stupid way of looking - bad at seeing, DK how to read race. - Whiteness is also power - the stakes for being found out as black- "idea of being ejected." Q. Queer reading of this novel - Description of brian, irene's hubby 1. "Queer unhappy restlessness" 2. "He had made such efforts to repress" 3. " a feeling of uneasiness"- not really wanting to go to brazil. Brazil as this figure of something else. 4. "Something offered in its stead"- clare is substitute for brazil. Clare "salvages" his sexuality—> returns his desire to the familiar/ normal 5. Clare steps in to occupy/ satisfy a desire R. Fascination with clare's body/ beauty 1. Figure of irene's desire. 2. Clare talks about her desire to see irene ( "terrible, wild desire), also a desire for her own blackness that she has lost in passing. 3. Irene's intense physical attraction to clare is a constant up to and through the murder. 4. Does irene experience clares passing as a type of desire? 5. All diff kinds of passing in this novel! 6. Irene's life as a social and sexual passing. - Her marriage as a shell S. (P 108) - random declaration of americanness 1. Americanness itself as a racial shell 2. Brief discussion of lynching. Irene's insistence on not to tell the kids 3. American — propriety on hiding the truth of lynching in america
Art as Technique, Viktor Shklovsky, 1917, Russia
A. Shklovsky is a big figure in poetics. B. Asks what art is trying to mean- or ought to try to do as an artistic text. C. He thinks art should defamiliarize: show you the stuff that's real, show you a thing as if for the first time, by making it strange. D. "Such habituation explains the principles by which in ordinary speech we leaves phrases unfinished and words hald expressed"- increasing algebraic expression of language E. Art trying to break us out of this F. Art makes us remember object —> makes strange, makes us see it. G. Once we recognize an object, we no longer see it H. "Art exists that one may recover the sensation of life" I. "Art makes the stones stony" - the experience of art marks an end in itself. —> heightened mode of perceptual, make us feel, hear, see more broadly J. The platonic mode of defamiliarization not about feeling, but about knowing truth. K. Shklovsky says the problem with everyday perception is almost a problem of quantity —> see less than there is to see. Shklovsky takes plato's cave metaphor and makes it not a metaphor. The image maps onto a q of knowledge and truth L. perception—> metaphor for faculty of knowledge. Shklovsky takes interest in this representing the lack of knowing/truth. But that's the prob, we dont see whats in front of our eyes. M. For both plato and shklovsky; thinking and feeling is an end in itself - Plato; truth is an end - Shklovsky: seeing/ experiencing stone as stony is a value- and in itself an end. N. Kinds of defamiliarization they are interested in have political stakes - For plato; people's unwillingness to let go of false knowledge—> causes poor decisions; plays into how you vote. O. False wisdom is especially dangerous in a democracy—-> defamiliarization is necessary for the health of a democracy. - Philosophy is something you have to do with other people. - Socrates in the apology was like "to fear death is nothing other than to regard oneself as wise when one is not"- im not gonna beg you to not put me to death - nobody knows what happens after death; philosophy helps you accept that you don't know what you don't know. - Philosophy is politically necessary. Socrates likens his position to a fighter in trojan war. Philosophical courage translates to military courage. Q. Also for shklovsky the defamiliarization that art accomplishes is also political (i) "Habituation devours work, clothes, furniture,one's wife, and the fear of war." - Habituation - something becomes so familiar that you're not aware of it anymore. - just through numbing of perception we become disabled as political subject - —> lose sight of our own feelings about the fact that and by extension of our own agency we can do anything/ affect the probability of our country going to war. If art can make you feel fear of war—> make you change as a citizen. - Ex; tolstoy made the phenomenon of whipping unfamiliar (which was everyday thing). He describes the phenomenon with vivid lang, and also renders it with harsh specificity. He then creates an analogy with the unfamiliar; "why not prick the boy with needles"
Plato's Apology, 400 BCE, Ancient Greece
A. Socrates went on trial and was condemned to death. Plato wrote after these events. B. Society is nervous about democracy and the viability of democracy—> punish individuals who undermine popular rule. C. Socrates and plato notion of philosophy: most people dont know whats best for them D. (P 3); starts out telling a story; in trouble, accused of impiety and corrupting youth, but suggests people are sick of being bothered by him E. Socrates friend (chaerephon?) goes to oracle and asks if there's anyone wiser than socrates - —> goes to guy everyone thinks is so wise, turns out actually not that wise. - —> sees politicians: helping people see themselves and see each other differently. F. Socrates is wise bc he is the only one who understands how limited the basic way we look at things is. G. —-> sees the poets (looking to see who will be wiser than him) - The writers of the plays have no idea what they wrote. - Theater- practice of looking; poets are arranging spectacles/ ways of looking that the population of athens will share. Socrates is challenging the way we look, the way we see. He takes down great spectacles. What we think we see we actually don't know! H. —> goes to the crafters (carpenters); each performed his craft well but because they're too good, they think the objects they understand are an adequate map for the world beyond (don't appreciate the pathetic nothingness of their own knowledge) I. (P 5); i'm too involved with god i don't have enough time to be productive, bc i care so much about truth, about god —> socrates destabilizing norm of work. J. Dialogue is fundamental to his philosophical method — calls melotos on stage. P 7- presses interlocutor until they reveal there's a contradiction in what they are saying. - Melotos is like your corrupting the youth. Socrates is like your assumptions don't make sense. K. Title; apology. (i) Older use of the term: synonym for defense. (of himself) — calling attention to the conventional procedure of trial itself (ii) Says i'm not a great speaker; " so i am simply a stranger to the manner of speech here" (iii) Starts by saying please disregard the way i talk - but keeps saying it! He wants you to be aware; there's a difference in the way he speaks and the norms and speech of the trial (iv) P 14; he doesn't obey the conviction of begging judges to go easy on you (v) P 19; after sentenced to death he goes "revenge yourselves on my sons" - He's being ironic; if i am so bad, treat my sons the way i've treated you. - He's inverting the value: taking the notion of justice (exacting payment/ revenge) and turning it on its head. - —> defamiliarizing athenian legal culture. - —> makes it look strange, makes you notice it.
Cruising Utopia, Jose Esteban Muñoz, 2009, U.S
A. Talks about queerness as a defamiliarization B. Book of queer theory C. "We must dream and enact new and better pleasures" D. —> keep alive a possibility of new and and different society. E. Excerpt from chelsea girls by eileen myles. ; writes about her time taking care of james schuyler - Whats queer about description of the relationship between these 2 people? It's not a queer relationship, not even a sexual relationship but shows us a kind of relating that does not fit into established categories of relationships - "In this passage we see the anticipatory illumination of the utopian" - Works of art, and queer and sexual practices are about imagining a different world F. He talks about ernst bloch - Performed and utilized facts of past and future - A critique of totalizing and naturalizing. - Devastating logic of the world: notion of nothing existing outside the sphere of the current moment - We had norms but society tends to assert that these are our only norms. — imposition here. - Part of the function of society discourages us from being able to imagine difference G. —> way in which society tries to persuade us that the way things are, are the way things should be. We're supposed to accept structures and work within them. No! Sad. H. We need training, in FEELING, that things can be different I. —> need to nourish a deeply felt longing/ desire for a different world J. Let yourself went beyond what is available to you now. That is queerness. K. Page 1; "here and now is a prison house" L. —> strive to think and feel a then and there. M. —> dream and enact new and better pleasures N. Queer; see past norms of our present world and recognize them as norms, imagine how things can be different O. That is what defamiliarization is.
The problem with work, Kathi Weeks, 2011, U.S.
A. This bitch B. We like didn't talk about her C. But she defamiliarizes the role work plays in culture and the notion that work is the most fundamental source of our individual value - Employees become gendered in and through work (pg 10) D. You can't envision an alternative if you're trapped in "the natural" E. In the beginning she questions why ppl work so hard and why its valued above all other pursuits - "There's not more active resistance to this state of affairs" F. She challenges the idea that work (waged labor) is an inherently social and political good (i) Marxism and feminism have fought for equal pay, better working condition but they still have tended to accept work as a inevitable activity - They basically appropriated and internalized the capitalist work ethic - They should focus more on the values underlying work not the organization and distribution of work G. Instead of taking work as a given we have "depoliticized" it or removed it from the realm of political critique H. Employment is largely privatized and work based activism has atrophied I. We accept that waged work something for income distribution, an ethical obligation, and as a means of defining ourselves and others as social and political subjects J. HER SOLUTION: we need a post work society that allows people to be productive and creative than just bound to employer employee contracts (i) She talks about a autonomist Marxism → it's a broader political movement and a greater focus on resistance. Autonomism makes the goal not to simply see work more justly distributed or more meaningful but to see work play a different, less social role in society. - Ex. by shortening working hours or reinforcing a gender division of labor we can transform our system of employment and family into a democratic one that promotes freedom K. One way she defamiliarizes work → Page 5 → "As a way to describe the buying and selling of that very "peculiar" commodity labor power . . . Marx presents the story of two free self interested individuals each an owner of property and both equal under the law, who enter into an exchange of the equivalents: one consents to give the use of his or her labor power for a limited period of time and in return the other agrees to pay the first a specific amount of money" - Basically talks about the employer employee relationship is a way more complicated way than it is.
Birth of a Nation, D.W Griffiths, 1915 (film), and Melvyn's Stoke's writing on BON (2007), U.S.
A. Turns lynching into a necessary defense B. KKK as heroic saviors C. But this film revolutionized film production and perception (1st full length feature film). But massively racist and disturbing. —> white supremacist propaganda D. Stokes talks about dealing with this problem - Separating form from content- appreciate its form while condemning its content. - But problematic, bc to appreciate the form is always gonna downplay the severity of the content. "By separating it from its racism, we effectively collude in the perpetuation of white racial supremacy." E. Time period and performance traditions (i) Minstrelsy 1. Mode of blackface performance 2. Veers between tragic and comic moments (ii) Melodrama 1. Genre that jumps back and forth between intense emotion and low brow comedy 2. Always combines tragedy and comedy; thrilling visual spectacle. 3. Features: a virtuous hero, and an unmistakable villain - Lydia brown- mulatto servant of stoneman house; physically out of control, sexually voracious - Virtue gets redistributed to white characters (scene flora the white girl, and gus the former slave, predator) - Moment of slave being beaten: feature of melodramatic stage representation — able to expose versions of the black body. - Whipping scene (i) Melodramatic and also displacing it (ii) Punish loyal former slave for giving loyalty to former master: transposed next to black people being violent toward each other. - BON transposes and flips (i) Real history: raping of black slaves. (ii) Bof; white women in danger of the appetites of black men (iii) Trope of uncontrollable sexual frenzy —> elsie stoneman displayed erotically. Film dominated by the trope of rape of white women by non white men. (iv) Conundrum of sexuality for whites: whiteness generally constructed as a category for sexual purity. Projecting animal desire onto non white subject. Blackness, traditionally thought of as an exaggerated sexuality. (v) Implies that whiteness is asexual. How can the white race survive? Inevitably paranoid anxiety about whether the white race can continue , and the predatory black other seems to be a figure of that anxiety. F. So how do we represent white sexuality? (i) Family relationships; incest ; the scene where the sister is waiting for the brother to get home. Brother sister relationship is supposedly purged of sexuality, but it carries a strong sexual charge. (ii) The movie needs familial love as a white alternative to sexuality.
