Dr. C. Bigwood 2014-2015
HUMA 1780B.6
Answer the following questions as concisely as you can and in your own words, using only course materials. Any answers that include information outside course materials (i. e. from browsing the internet rather than course materials) will receive an automatic 0 on that question. You may also face plagiarism charges so please review what constitutes plagiarism. Please type your answers . You will need to hand in a hard copy in your tutorial as well as an electronic copy to turnitin (on moodle website for the course). The take home is due on the day of our final class: May 4th.
There is a word limit of 500 words for each question, although I will permit you going over this limit if you really feel the need in two questions.
1. Using only your course readings/viewings and the lecture notes and your critical thinking, compare and contrast comics and film in terms of how the medium exploits its own possibilities and restrictions.
2. Using only your readings/viewings and the lecture notes/powerpoints and your critical thinking about them, discuss how representations of the Hollywood “Indian” in popular culture informed the identities of these colonized peoples in order to serve dominant political as well as aesthetic interests. In other words, make sure you discuss how the produced identity can change according to developments in the media industry, social change, and popular tastes.
3. Using only your readings/viewings and the lecture notes and your critical thinking about them, describe the different sides of the debate regarding mass culture with the advent of television and make clear where you stand in the debate (i.e. what side you are on and why).
4. Using only your readings/viewings and the lecture notes and your critical thinking about them, explain how the documentary The Control Room exhibits the fact that news has to be constructed (10 marks) and the difficulty in achieving the ideals of accuracy and fairness.
5. Using only your readings/viewings and the lecture notes and your critical thinking about them, discuss how the film Pulp Fiction exhibits four different aspects of postmodernism.
6. Using only your readings/viewings and the lecture notes and your critical thinking about them, explain Baudrillard’s concept of the simulacrum (hyperreal). Use your own examples in your explanation. Then turn to the film The Matrix and how the film supports Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacrum and how it does not.