. Use Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model to write a partial analysis of either “Eighth Grade” or “Sorry to Bother You.” Explain one aspect of encoding and one aspect of decoding as they attach to either film.

. Use Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model to write a partial analysis of either “Eighth Grade” or “Sorry to Bother You.” Explain one aspect of encoding and one aspect of decoding as they attach to either film.

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LIT 281 Midterm Exam

 

Write a 750-word (about 3 pages) response to each question.

 

Due: Friday, October 19 by the end of the day (11:59 pm, submit your answers on Blackboard)

 

Your answers should not be formal essays. You can skip introductions, conclusions, and all “filler.” Your answer should be formatted this way:

 

·         Paragraph 1: ANSWER THE QUESTION (or state your response’s main point)

 

·         Use the rest of your answer paragraphs to explain as precisely as you can how you get to that answer. Do this by interpreting textual evidence and then explaining the ways in which your interpretation(s) of your evidence supports your answer. Show your thinking. The goal is not the “correct” answer; the goal is an analysis that reveals your thinking. Your ability to move through and document your thinking process is key here.

 

Obviously, Paragraph 1 (your answer stated clearly) cannot be written until you know your answer. Don’t try to formulate your answer backwards, i.e. don’t write an answer that requires you to then, after the fact of your answer, make evidence “fit” your answer. Figure out what you know using textual evidence first so that you come to a strong answer, an answer that truly reflects what you know and think. Writing that first paragraph last might be a good idea—depending upon your own study and writing habits of course.

 

Watch out for repetition and/or a lack of interpretation of textual evidence. Use language fully and yet economically (this cuts down on repetition). Think hard about the textual evidence you use to make sure you’re using the right evidence to support your response and explain how you understand the textual evidence as leading to, or being a part of, your overall argument.

 

1. Use Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model to write a partial analysis of either “Eighth Grade” or “Sorry to Bother You.” Explain one aspect of encoding and one aspect of decoding as they attach to either film. Then use those 2 aspects of Hall’s model to describe what happens at the determinate, discursive moment in which meaning materializes (when those 2 aspects you’ve chosen to interrogate meet). So, your first paragraph (answer) should explain how these 2 aspects, when considered together, make X, Y, or Z meaning(s) occur. The Hall essay is key here, so know it well.

 

2. Watch the trailer for the film “55 Steps.” The text from which you will derive your answer to this question is this trailer (also often called a “preview)—not the full-length film. So, take this trailer as your text. Use one of the following quotations from thinkers you have studied so far in the course as a way of thinking through the text, analyze an aspect of the trailer. Again, your first paragraph should contain a succinct but thorough description of the results of your analysis.

 

…each new class which puts itself in the place of one ruling before it, is compelled,

merely in order to carry through its aim, to represent its interest as the common interest of

all the members of society, that is, expressed as an ideal form: it has to give its ideas the

form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.

            Karl Marx, “The German Ideology”

 

A style might be called artificial which is imposed from without on the refractory impulses of a form. But in the culture industry every element of the subject matter has its origin in the same apparatus as that jargon whose stamp it bears.

            Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”

 

What is represented in ideology is therefore not the system of the real relations which govern the existence of individuals, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real relations in which they live.

            Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)”