BFI Study Day: follow-up work

BFI Study Day: follow-up work

1) Type up your notes from the day.

Simulacra- An imitation that seems more real than the things it's imitating.

Meta-narrative- A totalising cultural narrative, that organises thought and experiences into a a grand 'story' that makes sense of our lives. 

bell hooks believes that traditionally masculine attitudes and behaviours aren't natural but rather constructed by a patriarchal society. 

Van Zoonen believes that in a patriarchal society women bodies are sexualised and vulnerable whilst men's bodies are sexualised through power and strength. 

Butler believes that gender is a performance: a repeated system of behaviours and costumes that are used so many times they may become seen as 'natural' 

Barthes believes that signs we assume and denotations are actually 'dominant connotations' that hide ideologies. 

Constructing and performing gender: "gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalized." Gender roles are constructed, men and women are victimised from a patriarchal society.

Authors 'encode' their work with meaning. Audiences often do not decode meanings the way a texts creator intended, same from negotiated or even oppositional meanings. 

2) Write a one-sentence summary of the ideas of the theorists Matthew Daintrey-Hall covered (you can use your notes from task 1 here if relevant):

Bell hooks: Traditionally, masculine attitudes and behaviours aren't natural but constructed by a patriarchal society.
Liesbet van Zoonen: In a wpatriarchal society, women's bodies are being sexualised and become vulnerable whilst men are sexualised through power and strength.

Judith Butler: Believes that gender is a performance; a repeated system of behaviours and costumes that are used so many times they may become seen as natural.

Saussure: Saw society as a system of institution and social norms that form a collective system that provides conditions for meaning-making and hence decisions and actions for individuals.

Barthes: Believes that signs we assume and denotations are actually 'dominant connotations' that hide ideologies. 

Stuart Hall: Says that audience members adopt one of the following positions when they decode the text
- Dominant/Preferred Reading
- Oppositional Reading
- Negotiated Reading

Lyotard: Believes a totalising cultural narrative, that organises thought and experiences into a 'grand 'story' that makes sense of our lives.

Baudrillard: Hyperreality – a condition in which ‘reality’ has been replaced by simulacra.” 
Simulacra- Imitation that seems more real than the things it's imitating.

3) Choose one of the films we saw extracts from and watch the whole movie: Captain Fantastic (2016), Pulp Fiction (1994) or Inception (2010). Write a 300 word analysis of your chosen film using theories from the study day (use the exam paragraph structure we were shown on the day - theory introduction, examples from text, why this 'proves' or 'disproves' the theory).

The whole narrative of Inception is quite fictional as it is based on the main character; Daniel Cobb, getting straight into someone’s head whilst they are asleep so it’s like their dreams in order to find out information rather than using what’s known as normal methods to find things out such as raiding their personal things; whether that’s hacking into their device or breaking into their home. He then gets offered a job to implant something in people’s minds instead of reading them; which is where the name inception came from. The preferred reading of the narrative could be that the director; Christopher Nolan was trying to introduce a new theme to the fictional genre by using an idea that no one else has before. However, newer audience may not find it interesting and wouldn’t show interest in stories that are too fictional as they would think the director is trying to fool them with surreal context.