Walter Benjamin and Shepard Fairey

As I read this week’s reading, I couldn’t help but think of Shepard Fairey and his “HOPE” piece on Obama as I read Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. It was interesting to read about Benjamin’s perception on the origins and value of art and how they “are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out: with one, the accent of cult value, the exhibition value of art work” (1237). As arts is viewed by the masses, the value shifts to a more commodified form, and subsequently away from the “magical” value that was emphasized in more prehistoric times. As this distancing of values widen, and “with emancipation of the various art practices from ritual go increasing opportunities for the exhibition of their products” (1238). The word that hit me here was the use of “products” and how it disenchants the idea of art and artistic expression, and cheapens it to a factory form. Art is no loger seen as a documentation of humanity, or even a material circumstance at best, but is created for conspicuous consumption that is perpetuated by the elite.

The most influential piece of pop art that immediately popped into my head as I read this was Shepard Fairey’s Obama “HOPE” piece (which has been thought of as Andy Warhol meets Social Realism) that was absolutely instrumental in the campaigning techniques for this past election. Shepard Fairey, who started out as a street artist and skateboard designer (famous obey line and Andre the Giant—thought as a guerilla artist), created an iconic art piece that was mass produced, replicated and even parodied. This propaganda piece appeals to those who frequent the Lenisits critisim approach to art: art that is explicitly committed to the political cause of the time. Ironically enough, Shepard’s gear was for the liberal side, whereas Lenin outlawed such liberal views in the 1934 and direct control over literature and art was exerted. (Barry) Even though Shepard Fairey is attempting to move away from his celebrity status and has created breath-taking pieces that reflect his guerilla roots, he will never be viewed again as a cult or even a cultural artist, but rather will be remembered for his propaganda image and a “sell out” by his pre-Obama followers.

As the purpose art continues to drift away from the ritual, the more art is able to be reproduced. “Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice—politics” (1237).

Phallolocentrism in Entertainment

As I read the Barry section on Feminist Criticism, the section that stuck out the most would have to be the section concerning language. The idea behind this section is a discussion on gender oriented language and it’s restraints on women writers “so that when a woman turns to novel writing she finds that there is ‘no common sentence ready for her to use’” (Barry 121). This male-oriented language creates a bias in the medium which effectively disables the female writer from expressing herself in an unrestrained fashion. These constructs perpetuate gender bias language and impedes female expression.

This bias doesn’t only exist in literature or other genres of writing, but gender variation language has been a recent subject of interest in the field of sociolinguistics concerning oral communication and entertainment forums (eg: cartoons, sitcoms, etc.) In The Study of Language by George Yule, he discusses current findings on such studies in contemporary English concerning “male and female talk”. He found when analyzing dialogue between genders that:

“[t]here is a pattern documented in American English social contexts of women co-operating and seeking connection in language, whereas men are more competitive and concerned with power via language. In mixed-gender pairs having conversations, the rate men interrupt women is substantially greater than in reverse. Women are reported to use more expressions associated with tentativeness, such as ‘hedges’ (sort of, kind of) and ‘tags’ (isn’t it?, don’t you?), when expressing an opinion: Well, em, I think that golf is kind of boring, don’t you?” (Yule, 2002, 242).

So, although we currently are in the “3rd wave feminism” movement, the focus of gynocentrics seems to be dominated on literature (at least on what we read in Barry for this week), it seems to me that focus should also be split to re-evaluate other mediums, specifically media: television and programs aimed at the youth that perpetuate such phallolocentrism ideologies. If such mediums are overlooked, then the "mechanics of patriarchy" will continue and female traits will be determined by cultural and social constructs of America.

Determinist Marxism for some . . . miniature Liberal Marxism flags for others!

Although Marxists share the same baseline of thought when it comes to literary criticism, “that a writer’s class and prevailing ideology have a major bearing on what is written by a member of that class”, I was unaware of the division between Determinist Marxism and Liberal Marxism in the context of gauging how much social, political, and economic variables influence writers. (Barry 152) Determinists, according to Barry, believe that art is a passive product of socio-economic forces while the “liberal-line” believes that these forces are much more distant and subtle. Jameson argues that political interpretation of literary texts are not “some supplementary method [. . .] but rather [functions] as the absolute horizon of all reading and all interpretation” (On Interpretation 181).

This hermeneutic view of cultural literature made me reevaluate readings of some canonized texts that are taught in the secondary classroom, and I came to realize that, in some degree, this rings true. Almost all science fiction can be seen as social criticisms (Fahrenheit 451, 1984, even the commercialized Halo series), Shakespeare wrote his plays in response to political, social, and economic commentary (Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar), the Beats rebelled against the country’s ideology and literary practices of the time (broke away from traditional conventions of subject matter, religion, syntax and prescriptive grammar). I bring up these specific pieces up only because they are on the curriculum I teach at the high school level.

Although poetry seems to be autonomous from this hermeneutic view (a genre that is popularly thought of as individualized expression) inspiration for such pieces can be traced back to socio-economic or political strife if the reader digs deep enough.

Now, I understand that this is a huge generalization, and I know that many will refute this, but I believe if we put enough effort and research behind any major literary piece, we could find some degree of social, political or economic context. So, I can agree to some extent with Jameson on his “On Interpretation”, that “[t]he only effective liberation from such constraints begins with the recognition that there is nothing that is not social and historical” to some degree. (183) So, depending on the text, I can rationalized taking a determinist stance on some works (like Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle) or the liberal-line approach (Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”) depending on genre and piece that is being interpreted.

Latter-Day Platonism

What intrigued me the most about Barry’s reading on Post-Modernism was Bauldrillard’s theory of “hyper-reality” and its parallels to Plato’s Cave. This illusion and misrepresentation of ‘objective reality’ was articulated as a response to electronic media in the 1980s and its nature to blur the lines between reality and illusion. These gilded representations create a fabricated mood, tone, attitude and abstraction for an individual who becomes bombarded with fragmented experiences and interpretations. The production speed of these images creates a distanced reality composed of images and experiences devoid of depth and truth of basic reality. This idea of Bauldrillard’s simulacrum creates emptiness because the surface value of images collapses reality and makes it hard to distinguish it from simulation. This concept reminds me of today’s youth and their reliance on electronic media.

In such a technologically advanced society, the younger generation is born into a wealth of simulated reality. With the popularity of role-playing games, interactive media, social internet sites, reality television and the jaw-dropping speed of innovative technology, it is almost impossible for individuals to distinguish between basic and simulated reality. This distancing also creates a malsocialized generation terrified of human interaction (which, as a teacher, is a frightening peek of humanity in the not-so-distant future.

What social, political and historical ramifications may result as this generation takes the helm?