Representing the “Real vs the Spectacle” and the Desire for a Shared Experience of War Dr. Morse “War” Winter 2016

Class Announcements Essay Due Friday, 11:59 p.m. (5 full pages minimum, MLA formatting, works cited, acknowledgments) Blog Site Due Saturday, 11:59 p.m. (all blog texts into a word doc and uploaded) Class Evaluations (25 LP for completing) – I don’t see results until after grades released - only who completed it. –Used for rehiring –Useful for making class and course improvements –Due by Tuesday, noon Finals Week

 Group Scene Analysis: In your groups you will analyze your assigned scene by discussing which of the below tropes shape meaning or promote a particular message in the episode. Also, answer the accompanying questions and gather specific evidence to show how filmic elements operate in the scene in class presentation.  Surveillance/VisibilityOtherness/OtheringReliability  Truth/The RealAlienation/DistancingViolence  Dramatic IronyMemory/RememberingIdentity  “Construction”Media ConvergenceSecrecy  Agency

 Group 1: Second Scene “10 months later Carrie back in Washington” (Chapter 2 – 3:14)  What do we learn about Carrie from her apartment and her use of this private space?  How are items in her living space revealed to us through editing choices and how do these details inform or construct her identity? (items on the walls, clothing, the ring, inventory of bathroom medicine cabinet, unpacked boxes, etc.)

 Group 2: “Carrie Watches Brody’s Sexual Encounter with his Wife” (Chapter 7 – 26:57)  What roles do surveillance and looking play in the scene?  In what ways is this scene defined or characterized by violence?  (For example: How does the wife’s relation to her husband change when he reveals his “tortured body”?)

 Group 3: “Carrie Can’t Decide What to Wear” (Chapter 10 – 44:56)  How do the different clothes Carrie puts on characterize an internal struggle she is having?  What role does music play in this scene?

 Group 4: “Watching Brody Barbecue through the Window” (Chapter 10 – 46:28)  Contrast the two different conversations depicted in the scene.  How would you characterize the non-verbal interaction between Brody and his wife?

 Group 5: “Carrie Goes to See Saul and then Brody Goes Running” (Chapter 11 – 50:45)  How do editing “cuts” contribute to or shape meaning in this scene?  Does the scene put the audience in a “lean forward” and interactive orientation or does it put the audience in a “lean back” and distanced orientation?  How does the episode end, what questions are we left asking and how does it set up the next episode?

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SECTION THREE: First Long Essay - Passage Analysis (ca. 40 Minutes) 26 pts (26% of final exam grade) The following passage is taken from (Fountain or Coetzee). Read it carefully and then write a passage analysis in which you clearly explain what is going on in this particular excerpt and describe the way the novel depicts or characterizes what is going on. Then, relate the passage and the argument to the concerns and themes of the text as a whole and to the course theme of war. Your answer should include warrants and specific reference to class discussions, lecture and the text. Remember, pay attention to the implications of word choice and applicable examples, and realize that claims about the text as a whole derive from a close-reading of particular details. Note: You might be asked to consider the role and function of the narrator or a particular theme (witnessing/complicity/language), etc. Please read the directions carefully.

On the Final Exam I might ask a basic question or identify specific themes to guide you through your analysis. Below are some strategies for this essay… 1) Describe the meaning of the passage (summarize the main point, purpose, argument of the passage) 2) Locate the passage in the text 3) Write an analysis of the passage (identify main theme, point out significant key terminology and logical connections between claims and concepts, word choice, use and function of example, etc. and explain meaning, purpose etc.) 4) Relate the passage to the concerns and themes of the text as a whole (Make connections that go beyond the passage) 5) Demonstrate how the themes present in the passage relate to the themes of the course theme of war (make connections to other texts or to specific lecture arguments)

 Role of Media/Truth Production/War Experience/ Agency  “The entire stage has become a blowup of foreplay aerobics, rocket-thrusting, dancers are twurking Bravo and not a damn thing you can do except stand at attention and get pole- danced in front of forty million people. It’s not right. Nobody said anything about this. What might be merely embarrassing in real life is made obscene and hostile by TV” (239). “If there was ever a prime-time trigger for PTSD, you couldn’t do much better than this” (230)

 The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.  The spectacle in its generality is a concrete inversion of life, and, as such, the autonomous movement of non-life.  The spectacle appears at once as society itself, as a part of society and as a means of unification. As a part of society, it is that sector where all attention, all consciousness converges.  The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.

“Oh God. Why do you have to go?” “I’ll be back on furlough. Probably in the spring.” She lifts her head. “Seriously?” “Seriously.” If I’m still vertical, he thinks. “Then you better make time for me.” “Count on it.” He can’t speak. He can barely breathe. She’s looking from his left eye to his right, back and forth … “I know it’s crazy, but we’re in a war, right? All I know is that it’s right, it just feels right. I want every second I can get with you.” She shivers, shakes her head. “I’m not the type to get bowled over, not like this. I’ve never felt this way about anybody.” Billy pulls her close; her head falls against his chest. “Me either,” he murmurs, the sound of his voice vibrating through their bodies. “Girl, I’d just about run away with you.” She lifts her head, and with that one look he knows it’s not to be. Her confusion decides it, that flicker of worry in her eyes. What is he talking about? Fear of losing her binds him firmly to the hero he has to be (Fountain 305).