Today’s Plan:
- Attendance
- Friday Night Speaker Series
- Duffett, Ideology, Participatory Culture
- Workshopping (Maddison and Ryan)
- Homework
Duffett Quiz Questions
First, the quiz questions:
- In what ways have academics traditionally understood fandom? Provide at least two perspectives. (Adorno vs. Jenkins: What media does to fans (55-56) vs. What fans do with media. For Adorno, resistance lies in avant-garde artists that challenge mainstream conventions. For Jenkins, resistance lies in fan creations that challenge authorial intent/corporate ownership–what Duffett defines as “appropriation” (see 63). )
- How might we understand how fans make meaningful use of media texts?
- What does it mean to be a textual poacher? Why has it been useful to conceptualize fans as textual poachers? (To use the materials of mass culture in unanticipated ways, to be an appropriator).
- What is ideology? (59, I disagree, see below) What is ethnography? (61) What is a subject position? (61)
- What is essentialism (77), and what does Duffett see as its limitation? (See 77) (If we’ve got time, essentialism vs. materialism)
I find Duffett’s sense of ideology too narrowly defined by Marxism. He writes: “An ideology is a set of ideas circulating in society that can be challenged and that operates to uphold inequalities between different groups of people” (59). My problem here lies with his framing ideology as only serving a pejorative function: that of maintaining inequalities. Marx proposed that “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” From Marx’s perspective, religion taught us to accept our place in this world instead of working for more equality (to be rewarded in the next world, etc). Adorno continued this line of thinking, arguing that Hollywood, professional sports, and popular music was an extension of this mass drugging, keeping people from recognizing the financial inequalities ruining society (the Matrix is essentially a retelling of Adorno’s theoretical dismissal of mass culture and society).
Working from rhetoric, I want to see ideology differently. Do I think there are social forces that work to keep us from asking questions? Yes. But I also think that humans have an underlying need for a sense of their place in the world and of how the world should and does work. This is what an ideology is, before it is a nefarious strategy. It is our desire to know ourselves and our world. Religion plays a powerful role in establishing this sense (although, numbers show less so than in past generations). Before we dismiss religion as an opiate, we can recognize its ability to provide people with a powerful sense of “home.”
Thinking about your final projects, I want to add one more question–one that I think is productive for thinking about fan communities (and even about projects that range outside of what we might identify as “fandom”):
- What is a “canon”?
Thinking about fandom, or even about an academic discipline or a social problem, we can think of fandom of the collection of “texts” that one must be familiar with in order to be considered a true fan, discipline, practitioner (i.e., credible to participate in the community, activity, or problem-solving). For instance, I might ask: what 10 things must you have read/watched/experienced to be a true fan of Destiny? To be a “real” member of the Destiny community. Or I might produce a list of texts that you might need to know in order to be a “real” Rhetoric student. Or I might produce a list of ten people you need to read and follow in order to be a true Republican. Or a true member of the BLM movement. Or a sophisticated tea drinker. Whatever. In any socio-cultural group, there will be a collection of “sacred” texts that one must know in order to be legitimate. That’s a canon. You should be asking yourself now: what do you have to know to be a real ___________?
Thinking about how to apply Duffett to your projects, I also thought of another question, one that comes from Jenkins’ “optimistic and utopian” investigation into fandom. I hope you recognized that Jenkins isn’t talking about ALL fans when he (or Duffett, framing him) talks about fandom. Jenkins’ interest focused on the practices of particular fans, the one’s who create media, items, discourse, etc. in support or extension of their fandom. Fan fiction. Videos. Forum sites. Duffett shares Fiske’s label of these fans as “producerly” (6). Jenkins identifies them as members of “participatory cultures.”
What does this level of producerly or participatory fandom look like in your activity? What’s the difference between the mainstream and popular culture for your subculture/activity? The difference between consumption and production? What are some things that people in your community make and share (either regular texts or media or tee-shirts)? Where is the line between corporate manufacturing and audience creativity?
Workshopping
Questions for this week:
- Identify what you think is the most effective sentence in the draft. What is one sentence that really caught your attention? Tell us why you thought this sentence worked.
- Identify a sentence that left you a bit confused, or a sentence that really feels disconnected from the one before it. Explain why you selected that sentence.
- Give the author a single, concrete piece of advice: before she publishes it, what is one specific thing that you think she could do to make it better? As a reader, what more might you have needed?
- If you could ask Ryann one questions after reading this, what would it be?
Homework
Due Sunday at 11:59pm, Week 7 Writing Report.
