Jacques Lacan

According to Lacan our desires are an attempt to satisfied the needs of our childlike state. All human desire is based on the satisfaction had as an infant, with our mother. That being said, any desire we have will not be able to fulfill our urges because as young children, teens, and adults we are no longer permitted to have such a physical closeness with our mothers. True satisfaction is an impossibility.
This is an interesting concept to think about considering our American culture. Specifically advertising and all the products ranging from cars, make-up and so on that are made to look like they will provide some sort of satisfaction. Food for thought.

Oedipus, Hamlet. Hamlet, Oedipus. Wait! Have you two already met?

At our last session we discussed psychoanalysis and Freud. That being said we of course also discussed the Oedipus complex. Simply put this is where a son desires his mother and sees his father a threat.
The example we were given in class was Shakespeare's play "Hamlet." Many, including myself are familiar with the Freudian analysis of "Hamlet." Considering this analysis, we see that Hamlet desires his father's possessions after his death, including the throne and his mother. Which may have been conceivable with his father now dead, but his uncle has since taken the throne and his mother as his wife. Hamlet then sees his uncle as the treat and attempt to take the throne and his mother.
As previously mentioned, I have heard this analysis before. What was new for me in the last class meeting was the clip from Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet starring Mel Gibson. This film adaption of Hamlet effectively depicts the title character as suffering from Freud's Oedipus complex.

A Life Lost

Lily looked around at what was once her childhood home. Suddenly hundreds of memories began to flood her mind. The small school house where she found a passion for reading. The general store she would so often go to with her younger brother to buy sweets without their mother's knowledge. The beautiful park where a boy named Marshall gave Lily her first kiss. And of course her parents' home. The home she learned to cook in, with the help of her mother. The home she read to her father in every night.
Everything was gone. There was nothing left to reassure her that any of it once existed.
She had been away from home for three years. But it was clear that it could not have taken more than one day, more than one terrible storm, to take her entire life away from her.

Structuralist Analysis of the photo:
In his "Course in General Linguistics," Ferdinand de Saussure says the "language is a system of signs that express ideas." If that is true of language, the same can be said of any other system of expression, such as art, specifically this photo. Language, according to Saussure, is constructed of signs. These signs are the combination of concepts (signified) and sound-images (signifier).
This photo is also constructed of signs. The most prominent sign in the photo being a woman. The other signs in the photo are secondary to her, because she is in the forefront. These other signs are the sky. the hills in the distance, the water, and the one that i chose to focus on for my word picture was the emptiness. I chose this photo because I felt i sense of emptiness while looking at it and this emptiness was conducive to creativity. Because there is not much going on in the photo I could "fill" it with whatever signs I wanted to create with the woman's memories.

In his work Poetics Aristotle describes tragedy as “a representation of an action that is serious, complete, and of some magnitude; in language that is pleasurably embellished, the different forms of embellishment occurring in separate parts; presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the catharsis of such emotions” (Aristotle, 64). Aristotle goes on to give examples of successful tragedy as well as some conventions that a tragic poet should follow. The song and music video for “Cath,” by Death Cab for Cutie, follows the conventions laid out by Aristotle and fits his definition of a tragedy.

Aristotle gives the tragedy six elements that determine its quality: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and song. The most important of these elements according to Aristotle is plot. This is because” tragedy is a representation, not of people, but of action and life, of happiness and unhappiness – and happiness and unhappiness are bound up in action” (Aristotle, 65). The story of the song and video “Cath” is that of a woman who’s “heart was dying fast” and decides to marry a man who she does not love (Gibbard). This is a complex plot according to Aristotle’s definitions because she decides to go through with the marriage after coming to recognition. As seen in the video Cath reaches a point where she is truly second guessing her actions when she notices a man in the pews that is possibly, as the lyrics state, one of the “many men who could have loved [her] more” (Gibbard). After kissing this man, in what seems to be a moment that is apart from reality, Cath comes to some recognition that leads her to continue the wedding ceremony. Although the watcher cannot know for sure what she came to realize the lyrics “your heart was dying fast and you didn't know what to do,” suggest that she feels that she is of the age where she should be married rather than continue looking for true love. It may happen that if she continues to look for love she may end up alone. Perhaps her recognition is that she is unwilling to take that chance.

Aristotle also mentions that a tragedy should rouse feelings of fear and pity from the audience. He says “our pity is awakened by undeserved misfortune, and our fear by that of someone just like ourselves – pity for the undeserving sufferer and fear for the man like ourselves” (Aristotle, 73). Those who watch the video for “Cath” can possibly feel pity for both Cath and the man in the pews. Although one can argue that Cath has put herself in a situation of misfortune, it seems that the man in the pews does not deserve this misfortune. Both characters seem to be average people, most watchers would be able to identify with them and perhaps feel fear of being put in their situation.

Cath’s story ends in misfortune and suffering, just as Aristotle suggests that the best tragedies should end. Although the video is short it can still be seem as a tragedy that even Aristotle would recognize as successful and worthy of praise.

My own "ism"

“What is theory?” This question seemed to baffle the entire class at our first meeting. There was not one student that spoke up and gave their thoughts on what theory may be. Yet once our discussion began it became clear that each student had many ideas that they may not have known related to theory.

It was the second question asked to the class that facilitated our ideas on theory, “What do you believe is the single most important thing to consider when interpreting or analyzing a text?” Once every person was able to express their ideas there were two major theories that were blanketing what most were saying, authorial intent and context. Both are two very important aspects to consider while analyzing but my theory focused more specifically on the text itself. It is my belief that when analyzing it is important to start with the words themselves, the diction. An author has an infinite number of ways to deliver their message but he or she chooses only one. The words are chosen specifically; know their meaning, sounds, and connotations, to illustrate a specific message. When analyzing and interpreting the words themselves one might find that the words support the themes and ideas derived from the intent and context. Or perhaps the words will oppose those ideas creating a new way of interpreting the text.

For instance the clip “Doll on a Music Box” aroused ideas of subordination, classism, imprisonment and so on. The lyrics of the song support these ideas.

You cannot see, how much I long to be free

Turning around on this music box that's wound by a key

Yearning...

Yearning...

While I'm turning around and around

It is the words that demonstrate the previously stated ideas because without them the audience is only able to infer the true message of the scene. The lyrics of the song confirm these ideas.