• Q1: How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
  The concept of orientalism (Edward Said 1978) can be applied to Common’s Letter to the Free in multiple ways. For example, the setting – the prison is used to exaggerate the oppression of black people and how a government with a majority of white males can profit from the wrongful imprisonment of African-American people, solely based upon the stereotypes they hold against them as individuals as well as their culture. In addition, the lyrics also express the amount of pain and abuse black people have experienced over time and in the present, the mentionings of ‘Jim Crow’, ‘the American dream’, ‘amendment 13’ and how instead of slavery people of colour are now being treated as criminals. All of these lyrics refer to how black people were treated and how not much has changed, emphasising how previous stereotypes are still around but only in a modern form – instead of slavery, people are treated as criminals. This lack of changed that is expressed relates to the concept of orientalism as the stereotyping of a culture and race is still prevalent.

• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?

Assimilation – “In order to assimilate the culture of the oppressor and venture into his fold”. – The setting of the music video, the prison, acts as a device to show how African-Americans are supposedly treated fairly in modern times, in the music video the prison is open and the singers/ artists would be able to leave, though in reality this is untrue and evident due to the mass incarceration of innocent black people.

Immersion – Begin to remove the colonialist ideologies. This can be related to the music video as it is being used as a device to fight for equality and freedom, removing any stereotypes, such as the treatment of African-Americans like criminals.

Revolution – This can also be related to the music video as it is a source used to stand up for black people and their culture and fighting against the racism and oppression they have and do still face.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

The audience is addressed several times throughout this music video, through the use of different codes and conventions used in music videos such as lyrics and visual aspects and shots. For example, the beginning shot is of the camera making its way through a prison, there is no subject, implying that it is in fact in first person and is meant for the audience to feel like they are walking through the prison, creating a sense of fear and distress among the audience, which many innocent black people who have been wrongfully abused/ imprisoned would have felt. The use of the personal and collective pronoun “we” also is used to directly address the audience in conjunction with the ‘first person effect’ as it acts as the the singer, Common, is telling his/ many others story in regards to racism. There is a subtle lack of stabilisation in the first-person frames which is also used to create the effect of a person (the audience) swaying in time with the music or walking.

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?

Hybridity – Is evident through the band members, the combination of the two toned band which fuses traditional ska with musical elements of punk rock and new wave music. or, a mix of both British and Jamaican street styles; the combination of two cultures. 

Ambiguity – The meaning of the music video will most likely be different for each viewer depending on factors such as age, occupation, race and education. But primarily it is evident that the music video is aiming to emphasise what racism can do to society through the title and lack of other characters.

Cultural Polyvalency – Belonging to more than one culture. This can also be linked to the band members and how their combination allows them to experience and be part of different cultures.

• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?

Assimilation – The joining of different cultures, creating the two-toned band which fuses traditional ska with musical elements of punk rock.

Immersion – Begin to remove the colonialist ideologies. The removal of stereotypes is emphasised by the bands unity as well as the lack of people in the town, juxtaposing what was actually occuring in cities at that time (riots relating to racism and unemployment).

Revolution – The ending scene sees the band sees the band in unity, where they are all throwing rocks and there is no fighting, suggesting their emotions and how this is what society SHOULD be like – without racism.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

Similar to Commons ‘Letter to the Free’, this music video addresses the audience through the use of codes and conventions found in music videos; specifically, using the camera angle to create a first-person effect, allowing the audience to feel as if they are part of the video. There are also times in the video when the fourth wall is broken, allowing the band members to look directly at the camera, as if they were looking at and addressing the audience. In addition the lyrics also you direct address through the use of the personal pronoun “you” and the use of rhetorical questions.

Postcolonial Definitions

Postcolonialism Recap –

After the abolition of slavery, slave owners were compensated for THEIR loss. This shows how much of an economic impact the slave trade had in britain, as slave oweners were compensated an equivalent of £17 billion.

Orientalism by Edward Said– link between culture, imperial power and colonialism.’the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism’.

 ‘An accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘ (Barry, 2017 : 195)

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’ V. G. Kiernan.

The recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.   ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves. The mirror stage.

Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’. ISA= ideological state apparatus. ‘all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject ‘(Althusser 1971:190) . Society is structured to keep you in place.’ The ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’,’ (2014:245). Ruling ideas are your ideas. You are interpellated or hailed in that society as a subject (the way in which you are constructed by dominant ideology, i.e if dominant ideology is male you will be interpellated for being a women and you are the ‘other’.)

Black face was when black or white people pained black over their face and acted stereo typically and in a racist way depicting black people.

‘from America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light .- FRANTZ Fanon

1. Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

Gramsci believes culture is a tug of war for power, its a hegemonic struggle. Fighting the power and reclaiming power. N-word reclaiming the language.

 the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others, usually in line with the dominant ideas, the dominant groups and their corresponding dominant interests.  Gramsci ,1993:59).

Orientalism : Edward Said. Link between culture, imperial power and colonialism. “The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”. creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘.

V. G. Kiernan : ‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’.

Jacques Lacan : exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

Louis Althusser : ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation, Ideological state apparatus is a theoretical concept developed by French philosopher Louis Althusser which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity.

Frantz Fanon : In terms of post-colonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many (Barry, 2017, McLeod 2000 etc) is a key text in the development and ancestry of postcolonial criticism. As an early critical thinker of post-colonialism, Frantz Fanon took an active role, proposing the first step required for ‘colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony. Tug of war for power. Chance to reclaim. Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others.

Paul Gilroy : Is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

Double consciousness. Cultural polyvalency.

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?
• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?
• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

• Q1: How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

• Edward Said – Links culture, imperial power & colonialism
• “The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism.” Edward Said – Culture and Imperialism, 1993
• imperialism is economic, normalise this through culture
• Postcolonialism operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating “an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness” – Edward Said – 1978
• “The East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive.” – Barry, 2017
• The west has duality – it can create itself and others
• the media is not neutral
• Europe is made to seem better
• Orientalism related to the rising and setting of the dun – relates to binary opposite
• Orientalism makes the middle east seem anything from erotic to dangerous
• Could be considered stereotyping
• Production of culture affects worldviews
  • The Orient as ‘The other’
  • “We cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not” – Jacque Lacan
  • The mirror stage – our first recognition, we use our reflection to understand who we are. We are exploring ourselves as ‘the other’
• Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’
• Ideological state apparatus (ISA), 
• “All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject.” – Althusser – 1971
• Society is structured to keep you in your place – socially constructed
• The ruling ideology constructs us (the ideas of the ruling class)
• Althusser says we cant escape, we are interpellated in this system
• Frantz Fanon – wrote about how white men pointed out his blackness, he articulated how a black man living in france was constructed as ‘The Other’
• He said we need recolonisation – colonised people need to take back their past
• Fanon presents 3 phases of action ‘which traces the work of native writers’:

• Chinua Achebe – “somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European” – 1988
  • Antonio Gramsci – Hegemonic struggle the chance to reclaim
  • About fighting the power
  • N-word an example of reclaiming language and identity
  • How certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others
  • But the power can change, it can change through culture
  • Post colonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire 
• Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridization
• Mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities
• Paul Gilroy
• ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural poly valency’ within post colonialism
• ‘cross-cultural’ interactions
• ‘identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’
• ‘unstable’ as in less clear
• Ghost town = eclectic mix + double consciousness
• “narrative of white supremacist was created” – justice initiative
  • black British – David Olusoga
  • Paul Gilroy – double consciousness, involves black Atlantic, duality, hybridization e.g. black British, not just British
  • terms “hybridization” & “double consciousness” came from W.E.B Du Bois

• LTTF & GT explore something that didn’t exist in the past – representation of age, class, gender, race etc.
• Media is not reflecting society, why people believe stereotypes
• no black in the union jack
• Lacan says we need a mirror to understand who we are
• Orientalism – Eward Siedd
• the orient cannot represent itself, there is a dominant culture. They don’t have the power to the west represents it
• link w culture & violence
• Through art, literature, narrative etc shows how the west painted the orient
• identity formation is formed by looking at things, what were told
• not everyone has the power to create a narrative for themselves so they have stories ted about them
• Althusser – ideological state apparatus (ISA) describes all the things which have an impact on us & makes us who we are
• the way society encodes you is called interpellation, it shapes us, forced to look & think
• For example, blackface. They are scared of black people rising up & taking power
• Gramsci – tuck of war over representation, we are not trapped. We can show this through music & video
• we can change these set ideas through music, video, literature, TV etc

Orientalism – Edward Said

The link between Culture, imperial power and colonialism.

“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

“an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness“

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’ V. G. Kiernan

the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan We are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’

all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject

ISA stands for Ideological State Apparatus

we are socially constructed and what socially constructs us is ‘despite its diversity and contradictions . . . the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’

“Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing“

Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth

“mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared“

As an early critical thinker of postcolonialism, Frantz Fanon took an active role, proposing the first step required for ‘colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others

Hegemony is a struggle that emerges from negotiation and consent.

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities

Paul Gilroy – is insistent that “we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.”

 Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois

“hybridity”, “ambiguity” and “cultural polyvalency”

• There will always be slavery, it will never completely fade away. People were separated from their families and sold to people in different towns. Slavery is still here today, it’s just more subtle
• 40,00-435,000 (People thought slavery was abolished however there were way more slaves than people thought)
• Links to the 13th amendment (Common’s letter to the free), black people more likely to go to prison for the same crime as a white person committed.
• Jim Crow laws, links to Clttf
• “Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” — A proposal for a new flag for the UK and other socially engaged art work by Gil Mualem-Doron
• Atlantic slave trade was a highly visible and tangible operation, was accepted in society

• Edward Said – Orientalism, the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism. ‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism‘. Link between power and colonialism

• V.G. Kieman – ‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous‘
• ‘The desire to contain the intangibility of the East within a western lucidity, but this gesture of appropriation only partially conceals the obsessive fear.’ (Suleri, 1987:255)
• Post colonialism  operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238)

• Paul Gilroy – ‘A civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ (2004:8)
• Paul Gilory – Talks on the theme of double consciousness
• Barry notes about Stress on cross cultural interaction is a needed characteristic of pc. individuals could belong to more than one culture simultaneously
• Paul Gilroy is a British academic, spoke about the ‘black atlantic’ motion striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency

• Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage – ‘The Other’ is a way of exploring ourselves, other people/things and lends itself to media studies. Mirror stage ( we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not )
• Lacan – Mirror theory
• We cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to to understand who we are or who we aren’t

• Louis Althusser: ISA’s ( Ideological state apparatus ) & the notion of ‘Interpolation’ – ‘All ideology hails or interpolates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject’.
• Used to describe the way in which structures of civic society – education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity
• Althusser – ‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing‘

• Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
• Frantz understands ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared‘ (McLeod 2000:20)
• Frantz – ‘From America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light’
• Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)
• Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
• Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

• Gramsci – Hegemonic struggle, the chance to reclaim  “from America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light ”
• Certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others
• Hegemony is a struggle that emerges from negotiation and consent

• Sycretism, double consciousness and hybridisation – Derived from W.E.B. Dubois
• DC – You think you are safe from police but because you’re black you are watched more and not so safe
• mechansims for understanding cross-cultural identities:
• Barry notes about Stress on cross cultural interaction is a needed characteristic of pc. individuals could belong to more than one culture simultaneously

• Orient couldn’t represent itself, doesn’t have the power to represent itself
• Link between culture and violence
• Media suggests our perception of ourselves and identity becomes clear when you are young
• Ideological state apparatus is a theoretical concept developed by Louis Althusser, is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society – education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity.
• Interpellation – All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject
• Blackface – White people dress up as black people to entertain people, related to people having fun and enjoying themselves ingrained in American culture, came from fascination but also hatred for some people

POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238)

ORIENTALISM:

The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism Edward Said Culture and Imperialism –  Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and Imperialism (1993) are key texts written by the respected academic Edward Said

“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism” – Edward Said

‘the East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness, and so on). At the same time, and paradoxically, the East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical, and the seductive.’ (Barry, 2017:195)

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous.” G. Kiernan

the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

JACQUES LACAN = MIRROR STAGE of child development, whereby, as we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not.

Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’

Society gives you an identity without you realizing it. society is structured to keep you in your place. Socially constructed by the ruling ideology. (ideas of the ideal class)

Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by French philosopher Louis Althusser which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society.

Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon– is a black man living in France, articulating the way he was constructed as ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood. How people saw him through the lens of Empire – racial stereotyping, derogatory abuse – as acceptable social interaction

Fanon presents three phases of action –

1. Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

suggests that power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture. Concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others.

hegemony is a struggle that emerges from NEGOTIATION and CONSENT – postcolonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire 

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

Paul Gilroy  British academic is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture

His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, how can you be black and British.

‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’.  Barry notes the stress on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism.

Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’ ‘2 things put together’, or ‘unstable’.

Orientalism – Edward Said

” the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism “

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’

‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘

we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.’– Jacques Lacan

ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’ -Louis Althusser

‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing. ‘

Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by French philosopher which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society . (society is structured to keep you in your place)

interpellation is the way in which your subject identity is formed and which, more often than not, corresponds to the dominant ideology.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

• power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture
• Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation- Paul Gilroy

Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’

Orientalism

• Edward Said
• the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism
• ” the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“
• POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238). 

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’ – V. G. Kiernan

THE ORIENT AS THE ‘OTHER’

• the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.
• A good way to develop an understanding of this term is in his exploration of the mirror stage of child development, whereby, as we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

Louis Althusser

• ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’
• “all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject”
• ISA = Ideological state apparatus
• we are socially constructed 
• Althusser noted that individuals often believe that they are ‘outside ideology’ and suggested the notion of ‘interpellation‘ as a way to recognise the formation of ideology. In that ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way as to recruit subjects among individuals. In other words, the way in which society calls / addresses / hails you is interpellation, which is the way in which your subject identity is formed and which, more often than not, corresponds to the dominant ideology.

Frantz Fanon

• The Wretched of the Earth – book
• the book is articulating the way he was constructed as the ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood because he is a black man

 Hegemonic struggle (Gramsci) the chance to reclaim

‘from America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light’ – Frantz Fanon

1. Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

•  Achebe writes, ‘a new situation was slowly developing as a handful of natives began to acquire European education and then to challenge Europe’s presence and position in their native land with the intellectual weapons of Europe itself’

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

•  Gramsci suggests that power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture. 
• hegemony is a struggle that emerges from NEGOTIATION and CONSENT.

Common’s letter to the free: Orientalism questions

• Q1:How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

The specials Ghost town: Orientalism questions

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?
• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?
• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

Paul Gilroy: Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

• Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ (2004:13) His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency

• Barry notes the stress on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism. Often found by foregrounding questions of cultural difference and diversity, as well as by celebrating ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’. A unique position where ‘individuals may simultaneously belong to more than one culture – the coloniser and the colonised’. (2016:198) Even Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’.
  

• the atlantic slave trade

Orientalism – Edward Said

The link between culture, imperial power & colonalism

• “the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, it is very important to culture and imperialism”
  • this means that the rise of dominant ideologies is ensured

• imperialism is a system based on economics

• in english literature, it creates “an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient int Western consciousness”

• the production of culture affects the view of the world of the public

The Orient as the ‘other’

• the recognition of the ‘other’ is mainly attributed to the french philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques lecan
• Lecan proposed that in infancy the first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror
• culture and literature works as a way of identifying ‘the other’
• for example the dominant ideology: white male and the ‘other’
• ‘US vs THEM’

Louis Althusser: ISA’s and the notion of ‘interpolation’

• all ideology hails or interpolates concrete individuals as concrete
• society is structured to keep you in your place
• “we are socially constructed”
• “what constructs us is the ruling ideology”
• ruling ideology is the ideology of the ruling class
• you are interpolated/hailed in that system as a certain subject
• marxism

Franz Fanon

• from martinique and went to france
• wrote about how white strangers would point out that he was black
• black man in france was constructed as “the other”
• encourages colionalised people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity:

1. find your culture – your mother country.
2. immerse yourself in your culture
3. fight for your rights: revolutionise

Gramsci – Hegemonic struggle

• culture is a ‘tug of war’ for power
• reclaiming language – slurs
• culture can change the world
• some cultural norms can overtake others
• certain ideas are more influential
• hegemony is a struggle that emerges from negotiation and consent
• in order to take control of that power, the set minority must rise up

Common: Letter to the Free

• How can you apply Orientalism to Letter to the Free?
• Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• How is the audience hailed/interpoled/etc?
• in letter to the free the imagery of a black mirror is used. this may refer to Lecan’s theory of the ‘other’

Ghost Town

• Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ambiguity,

Paul Gilroy

• double consciousness: the idea of the duality of “black” and “british”. “British” and “black British” are different.
• hybridisation: as mix of nationalities: cultural polyvalency
• cross identities
• syncretism
• identity as ‘doubled’ or ‘less clear’

Equal Justice initiative: a narrative of white supremacy

• in alabama even after the slavery ban slavery skyrocketed up from 40,000 to 435,000
• montromery biggest slave capital of america
• 13th amendment (no slavery except as a punishment)
• southerners who were angry after losing the civil war killed and murdered black people
• black person 6 times more as likely to be enprisoned as white person

Letter to the Free

• slavery is still here in ‘different forms’ – incarceration

Dubois: the “veil”

POSSIBLE ESSAY STRUCTURE

(note don’t forget to support all of your ideas with details, examples and illustrations from the 2 CSP’s)

1. What is the link between society and media (ie McDougall/ Fenton)
2. How best to link 2 music videos and society? Postcolonialism
3. Postcolonial theory – Gilroy & WEB du Bois (double consciousness, hybridisation)
4. Postcolonialism is a way of understanding ‘the other’ Lacan – mirror theory / Edward Said Orientialism
5. How can music videos change ideas? Culture as a site of struggle – Althusser ISA / Gramsci Hegemony
6. Conclusion

Lecan: Mirror Theory

• seeing yourself in the other
• we use “the other” as a way of exploring ourselves
• for example, if you were black in the 1970s, you would have no appearance of identity due to a lack of representation

Edward Said and The “Orient”

• The orient could not represent itself
• media is the lens at which identity is formed

Hegemonic Struggle (Althusser)

• ideological state apparatus (ISAs) used to describe the ideologies tht are displayed to children through media that forms an identity
• interpolation – all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject
• a ‘tug of war’ – forced to look and think but you can reject ideology to create a struggle within society

Blackface

• historically popular stereotype that is a combination of mockery, fear and fascination from the white majority