[Week 9 Oct 28] Narrative analysis

1. Code: syntagm, paradigm

1.1. Paradigm: a class of objects or concepts

1.2. Syntagm: an element which follows another in a particular sequence

1.3. Example: menu

		Paradigm
Syntagm	Appetizer	(salad, wine, cheese, … …)
	First course	(soup, pasta, … …)
	Second course	(beef, chicken, mutton, fish, … …)
	Side Dishes	(potatoes, eggplant, spinach, tomatoes, … …)
	Dissert	(cake, fruit, cheese and nuts)

1.4. Example: The narrative of Stephen Chau's movie

		Paradigm
Syntagm	Beginning (Difficulty)	史提芬周失敗（《食神》）、少林弟子當拾荒者（《少林足球》）、阿星一事無成（《功夫》）。
	Middle (Struggle)	「十八銅人」、努力發揚少林功夫、努力學做一個「壞人」。
	End (Victory)	當上食神、上了時代周刊封面、練成如來神掌打敗火雲邪神。

2. Narrative analysis
2.1. Narration: the process and effects of representing time in texts

2.2. Narrative: any text that functions through these processes and effects

2.3. Two basic elements of narrative: story and plot

-Plot is the narrative as it is read, seen or heard from the first to the last word or image.

-Story is the narrative in chronological order, the abstract order of events as they follow each other.

-Every scene of Stephen Chau's movie is plot. The story of most of his movies is a


3. Analysis of character and function (Vladimir Propp 1895-1970)

3.1. Eight characters (spheres of action) of folktales
-The Villian
-The Hero
-The Donor
-The Helper
-The Princess
-Her Father
-The Dispatcher
-The Falso hero

3.2. Thirty-one functions/ plots
Examples:
"A member of a family leaves home"
"The punishment of the villain"
For details, please visit here.

3.3. Example I: Princess Diana and fairy tale

3.4. Example II: Stephen Chau's movie as a maile-centric narrative


4. Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Equilibrium (Tzvetan Todorov)

4.1.Todorov argues that all stories begin with "equilibrium", the state of balance between different forces.

4.2. The movement of narrative breaks down the equilibrium but reaches another equilibrium.

4.3. Equilibrium refers to a status quo or the establisment.

4.4. Example: Golden Chicken II ends with a rhapsody of the status quo (economic prosperity, tax-free, no unemployment, strong currency, development-oriented).

4.5. Example: Infernal Affairs was "forced " to end with "the punishment of the villain".

4.6. Example: The proposed political reform is too slow, too fast or appropriate? Where/ When is the starting point? When/where is the ending?

-Now=a new beginning=preparation for launching a spaceship?
(「我們不能太急進」、「大家上太空的目標一致，現在要做好地面工作。當科研、人才培訓等方面有一定把握，下一步才會有升空日期和計畫，到時自然會有普選時間表、路線圖。」)

-The late 1980s?

-Hong Kong in the 21th century=The US in the 18th century?
(「美國也要一百年女人才有投票權！」)


5. Narrative: subject-character, pleasure and desire

5.1. Readers get a variety of pleasure from narrative

5.2. Narrative plunges readers into its movement towards the (expected or unexpected) ending.

5.3. Narrative put readers into the subject characters (the viewpoint of narrative)
-Example: The contribution of Lee Ka Shing to medical science development

6. Case study: Narratives about Hong Kong

6.1. The narrative of "a self-sustaining Hong Kong society" (Lui Tai Lok)

6.1.1. Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Equilibrium

-Equilibrium I: political apathy (the early 1970s)

「所以，我必須承認，在中五會考以前，社會事件如『爭取中文成為法定語文運動』、『保衛釣魚台運動』、『反貪污、捉葛柏』等，並沒有對我造成任何思想上的衝擊。」（頁662）

-Disequilibrium: Ten years of social transformation (the 1970s)
*The reign of Sir Murray McLehose
*Economic booming after oil crisis
*The rise of local popular culture
*The rise of local identity
*The flood of refugees from mainland China

-Equilibrium II: 1980
*Cancellation of ”Reaching base" policy (抵壘政策)

6.1.2. Character analysis
-An ordinary Hong Kong-born man
-Lui Tai Lok: an hidden identity of intellectual

6.1.3. Cultural codes
-The birth of Hong Kong as an imagined community
-An apolitical identity
-A non-nationalist identity

6.1.4. Pleasure and desire
-A desire for pursuing self-identity in history
-A pleasure from identifying a collective imagination

6.2. The narrative of Golden Chicken & Golden Chicken II

6.2.1. Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Equilibrium
-The golden age of the 1980s-1990s
-The groomy period after 1997 (Economic crisis and SARS)
-The golden age in the future

6.2.2. Character analysis
-Ah Gum as heroine: materialistic, independent, flexibile, optimistic, local but worshipping everything foreign, "Hongkonger"

6.2.3. Cultural codes
-Narrator: "Supersitious" belief in individual effort and fortune
-Equilibrium/ Status quo: Unquestionable developmentalism

6.2.4. Desire and pleasure
-A desire to rescuing or rebuilding a Hong Kong identity from crisis
-The pleasure from re-affirming an identity in crisis

References:
重構記憶，出賣感情 ─《金雞2》
《金雞2》：其實意淫也是一種美

7. Ideology and narrative
7.1. Analysis of narrative structures as cultural codes
7.2. Viewpoints
7.3. The functions of narrative
-Making and imagining the past(s)
-Explaining the present
-Projecting one's identity and desire onto the future

Readings for next week
*Mulvey, Laura. 1975. "Visual Culture and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16.3 Autumn, pp. 6-18.
佛洛伊德心理分析學說與教育

[Week 8: Oct 21] B1. Semiotic approach

0. Content analysis

0.1. The imbalance between the represenation of women and men in media

0.2. Examples:
-Over-representation of women's sexuality in entertainment news
-Under-representation of women as professionals in advertisement

0.3. Weakness
-Over-emphasis on proportion rather than relationships
-Making comparison between reality and media (but media is more and more irrelevant to reality).

1. Why Semiotics?

1.1. A modern cultural transformation

1.2. Discontiunity of history and tradition

1.3. Mass media: a machine for producing signs

1.4. Postmodernism: Symbolic pastiche and collage
Example: Andy Warhol

1.5. Example: From Rococo to "Lolita"

1.6. The patterned relationship between signs



2. Ferdinand de Saussure: structualist linguistics
2.1. Sign: Signifier / Signified
-'signifier' (能指或符號具) : the form which the sign takes;
-'signified'(所指或符號義) : the concept it represents.
-Signification (指涉過程或意義化): The relationship between signifier and signified

2.2. The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary

2.3. The value or meaning of a sign depends on its relationship with other sign (signifier/ signified)

2.4. Example: Traffic light (Red, Yellow and Green)

























3. Denotation and connotation

3.1. Connotation (外延): The set of a sign's possible signifieds.

3.2. Denotation(內涵): The most stable and apparetnly verifiable of its connotations.

3.3. Example: The incident of June 4
References: The controversy over the incident of June 4

3.3. Example: Body-trimming

Signifier A: The body shape in the photo
Signified A: Thin

Signifier B: Thin
Signified B1: Self-confidence
or
Signified B2: Healthy
or
Signified B3: Sexy
... ...



5. Metaphor(隱喻) and metonym(轉喻)

5.1. Metaphor is an implicit or explicit comparison between signs. -Example: “Gun” and “Man”(and phallus)

5.2. Metonym is a sign associated with another of which it signifies either a part, the whole, one of its functions or attributes, or a related concept.
-Example: “Gun” and ”power”


















6. Code
-A conventional system which enables signification
-It is a relatively stable relationship between signs

6.1. Encoding

6.2. Decoding

7. Representation (呈現) and stereotype (核板印象)
7.1. Representation: The way or form of how groups or possible identities are represented in the media.












Who is girl? Who is boy? How do you identify their gender identity?

7.2. Stereotype:
Figures who represent a concentration of attributes considered ideal or contemptible.

Example: "New immigrant", "mainlander", ... ...

8. Myth (Roland Barthes)









Myth: Naturalized codings of social meanings and values

8.1. Myth: Multiple orders of signification:
-The first order of signification
-The second order of signification
... ...

8.2. Myth: Metaphoric and metonymic transformation
-Signs are interrelated with one another in metaphorical and metonymical way as social convention.
Myth of masculinity: "Man"<-->"Gun"<-->"Power"

9. Ideology and Hegemony (霸權)

-Ideology: naturalized myth and its naturalizing process

-Hegemony: the social process of consensus in which power relations follow the cultural leadership of a dominant group


10. Example I: Luxury motor and woman's body
















10.0. Question: How does woman's body come to be symbolically associated with luxury motor?
Some photos of women and luxury motor

10.1. Analysis of the orders of signification

10.2. Analysis of metaphoric and metonymic relationship

Metaphor: Women's body-->Men's sex object

Metonym: Sex object-->sexual desire

Metaphor: Sexual desire-->materialistic desire

Metonym: Materialistic desire-->luxury motor

10.3. Stereotype: A pretty woman is something like a motor rather than a good driver or car owner.

10.3. The Myth of "beauty and motor" perpetuated by men's desire and fantasy

10.4. Hegemony of commodity culture, sexuality and patriarchy

11. Example II: Woman and printer

Semiotics for beginners

灣仔基層行業展

如何做文化研究／分析

我這個題目，其實是想大家認識，做文化分析可以是怎樣的，不管是方法還是分析架構，都可以多種多樣，這裡我不妨把David Guterson與John Fiske的文章給我們的啟示說一下：

首先，從文化研究角度看，研究購物商場的文化，其實是要研究它的意識形態，意識形態我們以前也說過，有許多定義，不同的定義，可以看到不同的東西，研究分析的方法也不一樣。

Guterson 比較是商場的空間設計著手，他分析了商場如何建構出美國人的日常生活，所以，對他來說，商場其實是一套指引我們日常生活實踐的制度，即所 謂物質性實踐（material practices），而且是從設計者及管理者角度中的制度及規訓（discipline），這是Guterson的分析對象（object of analysis），例如，它鼓勵我們不斷閒逛，忘記外在世界，所以沒有時鐘，沒有窗戶，也不容易找到出口，美國人的閒暇生活離不開這種迷宮。

所以，Guterson以一位觀察者身份，在商場裡觀察了一段時間，寫下了自己的印象及故事，這是一種參與式的觀察（participatory observation），再算是一種民族誌的（ethnographic）方法。

至 於John Fiske，雖然這篇短文看不到他的方法，因為他主要引述別人的看法，但是，他的出發點剛好是批評Guterson這一類型分析，他指出，許多人都把商場 看成是消費的聖殿（cathedral of consumption），消費者就是信徒，缺少反思，卻主要是跟從，但是，他認為這個比喻不當，因為沒有教會可以容許有百分之八十的教徒不信教 （"don't buy"），而商場中的閒逛者恰巧是這一類人－－不一定會消費的市民。

Fiske把商場看成是游擊戰場，他的分析對象， 雖然也可稱為意識形態，但已不再是設計者及管理者眼中的制度與規訓，而是人與制度／規訓之間角力與商議， 所以，他點出那些無產階級消費者（proletarian consumer）的存在，他們的策略（tactics）與抵制（tenacity），才是他的分析對象，即一個意識形態的過程（ideological process），即所謂強者與弱者的角力。

從中你可以看到，研究方法與理論概念，是緊密結合的。

照片來源：AndiH

[Week 6: Oct 7] A2. Ethnographic methods I

1. Cultural studies, Sociology and anthropology

1.1. Cultural studies: a field of inquiry about how culture is constitutive of and constituted by everyday life.

1.2. Two questions:

A. How and in what ways human beings use and make culture, why and to what end.

B. How culture and the cultural shape social relations and how culture takes its place in instigating or resisting social change.

1.3. Challenges from sociology and anthropology

A. Scale and breath
-Cultural analysis draws on limited number of respondents and is inadequately in representative-ness and generalizability.

B. Depth and duration
-Compared to anthropological ethnographer, cultural researchers spent a relatively short period of time at a particular site and fail to immerse themselves in it.

1.4. Scale and breath
-Cultural analysis is usually qualitative.
-Unlike sociological survey, cultural analysis explores "meanings" invested in cultural text or practices.

Examples:

Sociological questions: What is the sex, class and race of the consumers of Barbie dolls? To what extent girls agree with the sexual and gender image of Barbie dolls?

Cultural studies questions: What is the meaning of sex in Barbie doll? In what way people identify with the sexual appearance and gender features of Barbie dolls?

1.5. Depth and duration
-Cultural studies is concerned with the process and context of meaning production rather than long-term observation at a particular site.

Example:

-An anthropologist might conduct fieldwork in a girl's home and focus on the relationship between Barbie dolls and her personal growth over a year.

-A cultural researcher might combine the various media images of Barbie with girls' talk of gender and sexuality.

(Cultural studies challenges the assumption that "culture" is found within a particular physical or geographical boundary.)


2. Ethnography: articulating experience

2.1. Three aspects of articulating experience

Aspect I: Experience works as common sense concealing its relevance to social structures and changes.

Please avoid the following common senses:
-"Demand and supply": We tend to explain away cultural meanings of commodities by market forces.
-"Media corporate power": We reduce the complexity of cultural meanings to the power of big companies or media.
-"Nationalism" or "regionalism": We take all phenomena as national or regional characters.

Aspect II: Experience speaks of the social structures and changes.

Examples:
-The desire of little girls to acquire a Barbie doll.
-Two hygiene inspectors took off their hat in Hong Kong Disneyland.

Aspect III: The critic's experience and its social relevancy.

Example:
-"Why didn't I have Barbie doll?"
-"Why didn't I want to have a Barbie doll?"
-Why did I find Yan Yi-Snow White so "offensive" or abominable?

2.2. Anti-essentialism
-The instablility of experience
-The context of experience
-The inter-connected-ness of experience

2.3. Anti-reductionism
-Theorizing rather than THEORY
-The complexity of experience could not be reduced to a pre-given theoretical framework.

3. Some suggested procedures

3.1. Generating research questions
-What is the ideology of Barbie doll?
Ideology: a process of cultural negotiation
->How do people negotiate with the dominant values or stereotypes delivered by Barbie?

3.2. Articulating experience: thick description

「第一次看見芭比，是因為一個幼稚園同學。... ...」

3.3. Contextualization

-The context of personal history
-The context of toy industry
-The context of media
-The global context

3.4. Reflection upon one's own and others' experiences

*Example: "Emphatic femininity"
In what way does Barbie doll provide a role model?
-Barbie always looks feminine
-Appearance and demeanor
-Perfect, ideal, faultless, ... ...but not real at all
-Barbie's body shape is an exaggeration.
-Girls play with her hair and outfit (Barbie.com)

(Rogers 1999)

4. The importance of experience

4.1. "Surprise"
-Articulating experience as a "surprise" to our conventional wisdom.
Example: Barbie is not simply a sex object or a role model. It is a gender game for making femininity.

4.2. Identity
-Human beings are active agents whose self is projected onto and experessed in an expansive range of cultural practices, including texts, images and commodities.

4.3. The plurality of cultural meanings
Barbie Liberation Organization
Ugly girl

4.4. Self-understanding and re-positioning
-Reflection upon socialization and gender stereotype


Reading for next week:
Music Consumption and Gender Performativity: a case study of Jay’s fandom in China

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