hjkl;
Foucault Film Paper Prompt
In their introduction to Ways of Reading, David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky write that as you read a text “you begin to see the outlines of the author’s project, the patterns and rhythms of that particular way of seeing and interpreting the world” (Bartholomae 2). This quote suggests that each essay in Ways of Reading is constructing a worldview, or lens, through which the reader can analyze and interpret everything he or she may read, see or hear. Because we are always already born into a world premade for us, before we have learned to read sentences we are already deciphering the world through a particular cultural lens created by others. Everything from our race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, nationality and religion affects how we view events around us.
While most of us are unaware of the cultural assumptions imbedded in our worldview, the authors we have read in this class are hyper- conscious of premade constructs of the world and have attempted to push aside these cultural assumptions to create their own systematic analysis. In fact, several of your assignments this semester have asked you to analyze a place, text or event utilizing the lens created by one of our main authors.
Your next assignment challenges you to take Foucault’s essay, “Panopticism,” and apply it to a film of your choice. There are unique dangers inherent in working with film, including becoming comfortable with the language of images, but many of the same skills you have developed up until now will come in handy for your third unit paper.
Because themes of observation and the gaze are prevalent throughout many movies (we are conscious of ourselves as viewers and of the camera as a lens that pierces into private spaces), the medium of film is at times particularly suited for a Foucauldian reading. In order to pick your film, you should think about movies that best grapple with some of his major concerns: surveillance,
In their introduction to Ways of Reading, David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky write that as you read a text “you begin to see the outlines of the author’s project, the patterns and rhythms of that particular way of seeing and interpreting the world” (Bartholomae 2). This quote suggests that each essay in Ways of Reading is constructing a worldview, or lens, through which the reader can analyze and interpret everything he or she may read, see or hear. Because we are always already born into a world premade for us, before we have learned to read sentences we are already deciphering the world through a particular cultural lens created by others. Everything from our race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, nationality and religion affects how we view events around us.
While most of us are unaware of the cultural assumptions imbedded in our worldview, the authors we have read in this class are hyper- conscious of premade constructs of the world and have attempted to push aside these cultural assumptions to create their own systematic analysis. In fact, several of your assignments this semester have asked you to analyze a place, text or event utilizing the lens created by one of our main authors.
Your next assignment challenges you to take Foucault’s essay, “Panopticism,” and apply it to a film of your choice. There are unique dangers inherent in working with film, including becoming comfortable with the language of images, but many of the same skills you have developed up until now will come in handy for your third unit paper.
Because themes of observation and the gaze are prevalent throughout many movies (we are conscious of ourselves as viewers and of the camera as a lens that pierces into private spaces), the medium of film is at times particularly suited for a Foucauldian reading. In order to pick your film, you should think about movies that best grapple with some of his major concerns: surveillance,