Analysis #5

April 26, 2011

Poststructuralism and postmodernism allows the reader to view a vast

area open for discussion. Each contributor offers differing opinions for solutions to our government, society, and individual emancipation.

          Jürgen Habermas states that modernity revolts against anything that is normative, thereby, neutralizing both morality and utility standards. His work entails more “pragmatic” reliance upon intersubjective areas of specific settings for production, revision, and enforcement of communication norms. His area of interest is with regard to specific societies and how the laws are politically established versus the universal form of “reason.”

          The assessment of human evolution by Marx was that it was an economic progression leaving only a narrow margin for individual freedom—Habermas had this critique for modern society as a whole. Progress to Marx was deterministic and linear; however, “Habermas argues that the process of learning is dynamic and unpredictable from one epoch to another.”

          The postmodernists position was that “general human emancipation” (Lyotard, Norton 1463)could not be accomplished by the universalist strategies typical in liberalism (appeal of human rights) or communism (a one-class society objective). The world was marching to the beat of a utopian future; therefore, the postmodernists attempted to turn away from this worldly understanding of progress. However, Jean-Francois Lyotard proclaimed the need for respect and appreciation of diversity, for local differences, and for the plurality of ways which humans prefer to live. He felt that the government should not try to force the world and its inhabitants in one mold thereby making history move in one direction. Lyotard’s debates did not generate a feeling of postmodernism. In fact, the political objection by Habermas was about his apparent passivity.

          Michel Foucault was known as “the most influential European writer and thinker of the second half of the twentieth century" (Foucault, Norton 1469).He stood for a major source of poststructuralism, New Historicism, cultural studies, etc. Later in life, he distanced himself from being a poststructuralist and postmodernist and classified himself as critical history of modernity that was rooted in Kant. Foucault’s goal was to describe the present by an analysis of what created it—the historical and critical undertaking he calls “genealogy.” From this perspective, he used Jeremy Benthan’s creation of the panopticon for prisons and applied it in negotiating societal norms. Through use of this new structure, it has proven to be beneficial economically in the arrangement of power. According to Foucault, the disciplines discipline us by the discourse. He states that “panopticism constituted the technique, universally widespread, of coercion" (Foucault, The Panopticon 3). Panopticism has become a very useful tool in society.

          Jean Baudrillard was interested in the relationship among reality, symbols, and society. He used simulacra and simulation to apply a discussion of signs, images, and their relationship to contemporaneity. “Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is of a simulation of reality" (Baudrillard, Simulacra 1). The clip of Mirror Has Two Faces portrays the masking that Baudrillard makes reference. Professor Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) desires to have a relationship without sex—because sex ruins everything. Professor Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand) longed for a story book romance. They finally began dating. Not long after he asked her to marry him with the agreement of no sex; however, she agreed with hope that things would change. She remained the “plain Jane” married professor until the circumstances changed and he went away on business. The mirror suddenly had two faces and the second one had a makeover—head to toe! In the beginning, the marriage was replaced with a mask of happiness and contentment without fulfillment—therefore, lacking reality with the human experience. It became a simulated marriage. However, in the end it lacked nothing. Baudrillard shows simulacrum (copies of copies) as is seen in the clip—each individual was just a copy without possessing the complete package.
           There are many factors that make up poststructuralism and postmodernism; however, each of the philosophers, socialists, critics, etc. contributes to making up the final product.
Word Count: 663

Works Cited

“Jean Baudrillard.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 24 April 2011.

          Web. 25 April 2011.

“Jürgen Habermas-Biography.” The European Graduate School.

          24 April 2011. Web. 24 April 2011.

          http://www.egs.edu/library/juergen-habermas/biography/

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

          New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.
“Postmodernism.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 19 April 2011.

          Web. 24 April 2011.

“Post-structuralism.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 6 April 2011.

          Web. 24 April 2011.

“Simulacra and Simulation.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia,

          17 April 2011. Web. 25 April 2011.

“The Panopticon.” Travis Dougherty. Web. 25 April 2011.

          http://legacy.1clark.edu/~soan221/97/Panopticism.html  

Reflection 11
April 19, 2011

          The topic for today was a combination of post-modernism and post-structuralism. Modernism and post-modernism are viewed as cultural projects. Modernism consists of principles such as identity, unity, authority, and certainty, whereas post-modernism has an association with plurality, textuality, and skepticism. The previously dominant feature of modernism used the “scientific mentality of objectivity and progress associated with the Enlightenment" (Postmodernism 1) However, post-modernism does not believe in ultimate truth, sees everything as relational, and defends ideological views thereby dismissing the modernistic viewpoint. Post-modernism has no self without language, ideology, history, the world, and context. It is not the autonomous self, but is fragmented with everything textual. Post-modernism has a close relationship with post-structuralism because “anti-humanism, as a rejection of the enlightenment subject, is often a central tenet" (Post-structuralism 1) Another factor is the influence of existential phenomenology.

         Structuralism originated as an intellectual movement in France in the 1950s and 1960s. Texts were some of the items known as cultural products used to scrutinize their underlying structures. The use of analytical concepts such as linguistics, anthropology and psychology, as well as others, were used for interpretation purposes. A study of knowledge with a critiquing of the structuralist premises is known as post-structuralism, and “The concept of “self” as a separate, singular, and coherent entity is a fictional construct within this philosophy" (Post-structuralism 2) In studying a text a reader must understand the relationship of the work to the concept of one’s self.

          Today Dr. Wexler played a portion of “American Psycho” for the class and it was interesting to see how simulacrum was manifested in Patrick Bateman and his mask. He seemed to have the attributes of a robot with a superficial “self,” and a mask hiding the truth. It showed Bateman removing his facial mask; however, he needed to remove his real mask to reveal his true identity—a psycho!

Word Count: 305

Works Cited

 Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

         New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.
" Mask." En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 24 April 2011. Web.
         24 April 2011.

“Postmodernism.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 19 April 2011. Web.

          24 April 2011.

“Post-structuralism.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 6 April 2011. Web.

        24 April 2011.

“Structuralism.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 18 April 2011. Web.

        19 March 2011.

Reflection 10

April 12, 2011

          Michael Foucault’s approach to “The Panopticon” created by Jeremy Benthan was interesting. Dr. Wexler’s descriptive drawing and lecture regarding the prison gave a clear mental view. In Foucault’s view, humans discipline themselves; therefore, the Panopticon allowed the prisoners access to accomplish this training. He felt that the body was the site for discourse and disposition. Disciplines discipline us by the discourse (the way of defining its discipline). This sounds wild, but when you think about it closely it becomes clear. The circular architecture of the prison, with no doors on the cells, allowed the prisoners freedom with control because they knew the central tower had officers watching them! There was only one prisoner per cell making it easier for control while more freedom was enjoyed. Within the prison four persuasive items could be found: cloister, prison, school, and regiment.

          At this same time, psychology was born from the human sciences. These delinquents were then analyzed and received psychological help for their mental abnormalities which could include a number of things. Post stress disorder also became a large item with these children. Child labor and abuse can cause various problems in a life.

          This Panopticon was interesting to me. My mind goes back to my mother and how she was raised in a military orphanage (not to be confused with prison). Her father was a Spanish American war veteran. Her mother died when she was ten and her father died when she was thirteen leaving four of the eight children without parents; therefore, she and two brothers and a sister went to the orphanage. This orphanage was different from the regular orphanages because it was more like a college dormitory coupled with household responsibilities. She received her education plus was taught homemaking and a trade; however, chores were maintained as well as a regular military regiment. Eventually, she became a captain and taught military herself. Disciplines discipline us by discourses could be applied here.

           We saw a song clip from West Side Story that really told a story about young people and what they go through growing up. The song spoke of many things that leave them with tainted, troubled minds and behind bars. Some people learn from mistakes and others just continue to make them throughout their lives. Hopefully, more people will be attentive to their lifestyle and how it reflects upon their offspring.

Word Count: 475

                                          The Panopticon

Works Cited

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.
          New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010.  Print.
“The Panopticon.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 8 April 2011.
          Web. 14 April 2011.

Reflection 9

March 29, 2011

           Louis Althusser was a longtime member and often a strong critic of the French Communist Party. Karl Marx conceived “ideology as an instrument of social reproduction;” (Ideology 4) however, Althusser preferred to view it as a materialistic concept using lacunar discourse. “A number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is not told (but is suggested)" (Ideology 4). In Marxism, ideological concepts were viewed as secondary; however, Althusser placed them first and central. Using “The German Ideology” as his formative, he believed that ideology was a concept of pure illusion, or a dream, just plain nothingness. It was an imaginary construct with all of reality external to it. In his thesis, “ideology has no history," (Ideology 4) he believed that “while individual ideologies have histories, interleaved with the general class struggle of society, the general form of ideology is external to history" (Ideology 4). He explained how “ideological state apparatuses” (Ideology 4) perpetuated capitalism. Ideologies of capitalism became the indoctrinating philosophy of training or structuring individuals to perform the role of a subject. Social practices are the determinant factor of individual characteristics and the range of property and individual limits. His network of Ideological State Apparatuses includes the family, media, religious organizations, and the most important to the capitalistic societies, the education system. Althusser uses the concept of “hailing” or “interpellation” as the means of being transformed into a subject. He claims that awareness to other people is a form of ideology.
          Along with his conception of “Ideological State Apparatus” was the introduction of “Repressive State Apparatus.” This was the manner of inflicting repression and violence upon the people in the form of increasingly physical and severe methods such as incarceration, police force, and military intervention if necessary.
         Being an atheist, Althusser, invariably felt the need to try and annihilate any belief in God. He tried to say it was an ideology, which according to his interpretation was an illusion. He stated that the word, ideology, began when the the sciences came into existence. If his version of state apparatus was correct with interpellation being processed with the individual suddenly realizing he was a subject, what happened with Darwin’s ideological evolution occurring at the seashore? Did the tadpoles suddenly know that they were subjects?  His entire fixation about God is incomprehensible. God is a Spirit (the Word—what God thought and spoke) and all things came into existence by His Word. Individuals are people and the animal kingdom is animals with nothing evolving or changing in the life cycle. God is in the spiritual realm, not the materialistic as Althusser likes to place Him. God is tangible and manifests Himself in various ways; however, Althusser never received the blessing he could have experienced.
          Althusser introduced an anti-humanistic perspective which stressed Marxism’s scientific facets on societal structures and how they determine true life experience. He refused to be known as a structuralist; however, by using his writing skills to expatiate upon the first ideas of Karl Marx, he influenced structuralism. His life was tumultuous because he suffered being a P.O.W. during the war and was ladened with post traumatic syndrome and depression. He murdered his wife, Helene, by strangulation. After the mania attack, he kept a low profile until his death in 1990.
Word Count: 555

Works Cited

Arze-Bravo, Murray, Robertson, and Tunzelman. “Althusserian Ideology” 

             Introduction & Biography of Althusser.  

               http://froberto.dnsalias.org/shared/Althusserian_Ideology.html

             Web. 8 April 2011.

“Ideology.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 9 April 2011. Web. 5 April 2011.

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

             New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.

“Louis Althusser.” En.wikipedi.org. Wikipedia, 3 April 2011. Web.

             5 April 2011.