Material culture and its significance
Five page semiotics and material culture analysis of Coca-Cola. Asked to take one item and provide an analysis of it – for example, what is the history of the product, how is it similar or different to related products, what are its important semiotic elements, what cultural purpose does it serve, what promises does it make to consumers, why is it popular (or not), how do different consumers react.
Film theory: key concepts and applications
Laura Mulvey's piece, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" is divided into three sections. The first section is the introduction, the next section is called "Pleasure in Looking: Fascination with the Human Form." The third section is called "Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look," which is followed by a summary of the entire work. Mulvey makes numerous assertions in her work, but one of her primary intentions of "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" is to call serious, critical attention to the act of looking as part of the cinematic experience. She calls attention to three fundamental types of looking: the looking of the camera at the frame as it records the footage, the looking of the audience upon the screen, and the looking of the characters between and among each other within the frame. Mulvey proceeds to elaborate upon each time of looking and how the look functions as part of the cinematic experience as well as the connection between the types of looking within narrative cinema and the duplication of experienced gender stratifications in reality between men and women.