Sunday, January 9, 2011
Course Description
In our era of global capitalism, consumption and consumerism are considered to be key to managing a healthy global economy and a healthy self alike. Consumer activities and flows are thoroughly mediatized. In this course we will discuss how the intertwined operations of media and consumption have impacted contemporary lives and given rise to new theoretical, political and ethical configurations in the past decades. Some of the major sites we will explore are films that foreground eating and other forms of consumption; television, particularly reality programming, soap opera and advertising; memory and history; travel; citizenship and politics; friendship; fashion; fandom; and youth culture. We will draw on a range of media texts and an interdisciplinary collection of theoretical and critical readings related to consumerism and consumption encompassing cultural studies, film and television studies, communication, feminist and postfeminist approaches, tourism studies, history and studies of political economy.
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(I don't know how to add my post so I placed it here)
ReplyDeleteWhile cannibalism is at the forefront of Svankmajer’s examples of consumption, he includes various other examples of consumption—the Stadler family partaking in meals at the dinner table, Mrs. Horakova shopping at the neighborhood market, Horak and his wife purchasing a home in the country as escape, and Mr. Stadler’s visual consumption of television commercials.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to serve the dual purpose of posting my reflection on this week’s reading and screening as well as announcing some personal news. Earlier today (Tuesday, January 18), I became the father of a healthy baby boy. Michael Nottingham refers to the “old sacrificed to the sustenance of the young.” No truer is it than the sight of a minutes-old baby sucking on his mother’s nipple, consumption at its most basic human level, reminding me that I am now about to be cannibalized by my child. My son’s suckling mouth was reminiscent of Otik’s multipurpose hole, which could see, smell, and eat. While Svankmajer’s method of cannibalization chosen for his character Otik in Little Otik (2000) was the old-fashioned way of just eating his victims, the method chosen by my son for me will most likely be a long, drawn out cannibalism taking place over decades. Our son will devour our resources—time, money, love—as if he were a tree-child come to life devouring the appetizing body parts of a delusional and desperate childless couple.
My son just started sneezing. I have to make sure he’s fine. There goes my foot.