Carnivalesque Grotesque Analysis

One of Mikhail Bakhtin’s most famous works Rabelais and His World deals with the event of carnival. Bakhtin begins by explaining that the essence of carnival is, “life itself, but shaped to a certain pattern of play” (7). Yet, it is not an expansion of real life. Bakhtin says, “It is the world standing on its head” or it is

In this discussion, I hope to put a different spin on surrealism and the grotesque by drawing on the works of Sartre, and if we're not too dizzy from spinning when all is said and done, I shall have put together a way to investigate the grotesque in Modernist art and contemporary life. After a summary of the surrealist's use of Freud and a look at Sartre's criticism of surrealism, we will look at surrealism in Sartre's work and derive an existentialist definition of the grotesque and examine how this might reconfigure the surrealist goal of liberation. Surrealist art is almost always analyzed in terms of Freudian psychoanalytic theory because the surrealists openly announced Freud's study of the psyche as the inspiration for the practice of surrealism. Andr‚ Breton, author of the many surrealist "Manifestoes" and the self-appointed spokesman and scribe of the surrealist movement, eulogized Freud, who died in 1939, by writing that: ". .

Things: A Story of the Sixties by Georges Perec (1965) explores consumerism through the lives of a young couple, Sylvie and Jerome. The novel looks at their growth, from college students to part-time surveyors to faceless employees, always looking for fulfillment via the newest trend. Whether it is an abundance of vases, or living in Tunisia, Perec shows how influential the language of advertising truly is. To feel like their life has meaning, Sylvie and Jerome spend money and energy on intrinsically useless items. They work towards goals that society has given weight to solely so they can achieve an illusion of worth. In the Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord discusses the complex concept of the spectacle--a distraction that has consumed

The classic texts, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, will be engaged to observe the realities that lurk beneath the polished Victorian society. Both these Urban Gothic tales display the transgression of moral codes, and question the superficiality of Victorian society. They both similarly document the escalating anxieties towards the Fan-de-siècle by depicting different forms of transgression. These transgressors within Gothic Literature break away from the repression society imposes upon them. It is imperative to apprehend ideologies and moral codes of society, and to question their origin and existence.

A carnival is an event that entails some form of public celebration which includes a simplified version of a circus, costumes, masks and is aught time accompanied by some form of street or community party. With this in mind, Pulitzer Prize Winning novel, Dressing up for the Carnival stories, written by Carol Shields, enlists the reader for getting ready to go to the carnival. However, Shields is not getting us ready for an actual carnival, The stories that were analysed from the book are, “Dressing Up For The Carnival”, “A Scarf”, “Weather”, “Flatties” and “Keys”. Each story ultimately offered its own individual flare and highlighted how effective Shields was in captivating the interest of the reader through the entire collection of stories.

In Stuart Ewen’s All Consuming Images, the preface “Introduction to the New Edition” opens by giving the audience varying progressing images, from break dance to Madonna to Windows 95. This demonstrates a fast change in society: what matters in the history may not be an important issue now. Ewen then questions how a book written earlier still remains important and deserves republication. The book is durable because of the fact that it was written when the idea “images are everywhere” begins to develop. From political stand point, all the images, or specifically propaganda, that people see are to manipulate people’s emotions. In economic sphere, due to the ubiquitous advertising, marketing

Cirque Du Soleil’s show in Downtown Disney is a show that I have wanted to see for a very long time. The creative marketing that I have seen has made me very interested in the shows. Many of my friends and colleagues have already seen the show and have highly recommended it. “Cirque du Soleil is one of the rare companies that utterly redefine their industries. It takes the circus’s raw materials – trapeze artists, contortionists, strong men, clowns – combines them with surreal costumes, nonstop New Age music, and dazzling stagecraft, and then ties it all together with a vaguely profound theme like “ a tribute to the nomadic soul” or “a phantasmagoria of urban life”” (Kreitner, 231).

There were two principle views concerning imagination, the Victorians and the Romantics, who didn’t accept each other’s ideas about imagination. But, despite their clashes on the status and views of imagination, the Romantics and Victorians share similar ideas through different angles of perspective, which we could assume are linked in part to their era. The long poem, named Goblin Market, written by Christina Rossetti shows the contrast between the ideas of Romanticism and the Victorian image of imagination while utilizing the same motifs. Goblin Market centralizes its theme on the Victorian approach towards Imagination as being a destructive, alien force that

Since the viewer tries to resist the advertisements, this commercial is quick and effective, and thus uses codes of gender display because they are familiar to us all (Jhally, 2009). Evidently, the commercial aims at depicting men as metrosexual or rather intruded by the everyday activities to reinforce the features of masculinity: active, aware of the world and in charge of their surroundings. This point echoes Sean Nixon’s genealogy of the development (1996) of how the representational practice of masculinity is derived from fashion (metrosexual imagery) and advertising (masculine features) (Gill, forthcoming, para 8). Additionally, this is furthered by Gill’s reflection on Foucault’s ideas on all identities are socially constructed and non-essential (forthcoming, para 8). On that condition, the men must engage with the dominant masculine identities that are portrayed by the

John Carpenter’s Halloween is an example of what a great film composer can achieve with any budget. When it comes to film genres, Halloween has to be one of the greatest examples of what a horror movie is. Throughout the film, many of the story elements can easily be seen contributing to the idea of what makes a film fit in the horror genre. There are many horror films that stray quite far from the basic idea of what a horror film usually is; however, Halloween is a great example of classic horror. Typically, horror films have a set of basic guidelines or expectations that can be seen portrayed; such examples of what is to be expected in a horror film would be the presentation of a ‘monster’ or something that violates the natural world in a perverse way, something that is unknown, or that a monster is unintentionally unleashed, and the film takes place in creepy setting or suburban neighborhood/summer camp (slasher sub-genre). In Halloween, Carpenter brilliantly matched his film to the genre guidelines of horror. The variety of ways he did this can be seen in the presence of an unknown being which extends human knowledge, introduce the killer into the story by an accidental release from a facility, and depict the sub-genre horror being a slasher film.

One example of a horror convention seen on the cover of the DVD would be the use of the dark figure in the background. This represents the supernatural, as the figure is wearing all black, its face is covered, and it’s standing upright, which may come across as quite intimidating and creepy to the audience, which we can relate to Bulmer and Katz theory of visual pleasures for the audience, which involves scary or dark figures and physical effects that can scare the audience and pleasure them visually. The supernatural is an example of a typical horror convention as the purpose of the supernatural in a horror movie is to scare the audience because of the unlikeliness of a supernatural being existing. The idea of a being that is out of this world

What is a grotesque character? In literature, a character or location that is irregular, extravagant or fantastic in form. When used as a device, the purpose is often in the style of expressionism, making the grotesque a parody of human qualities or a distorted reflection of a familiar place. In many ways grotesque characters have some kind of problem in society, and example would be a veteran who lost a limb in war and trying to fit back into society, or anything that we see as not normal in our society. Characters in this particular subject can be deformed, obsessed, or in our terms just not normal or right. Another definition of a grotesque

This essay will be addressing ideologies of consumer fetishism and pseudo-individuality through examining the commodity signs found in the mass marketing and advertising of designer cosmetics, particularly Chanel.

At the turn of the century Paris was one of the capitals of culture and art to the outside world. However, the truth of the matter was that this taboo-ridden society was being run by an aristocracy that was repressing the arts. Naturally, when World War 1 broke out, the suppressed French society finally had a release and a rebellion against order arose. WWI specifically affected the theatre of French and it’s aftermath. From the ashes of war the avant-garde theatre grew and styles such as Dadaism and Surrealism were born. It was both the climate of culture before the war and the devastation of the war that lead to the outbreak of avant-garde theatre in France.

In this summative essay I would like to explore and analyse the influence that Graphic design has had on popular culture and consumerism. Graphic design can be defined as “the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The form of the communication can be physical or virtual, and may include images, words, or graphic forms.” (aiga.org) Designers are problem solvers and it is their job to come up with a suitable solution to a problem. They have to find the best suitable means to communicate a particular message. Graphic Designers are at the forefront of advertising and the battle of selling giving the designer even greater responsibility, because of this graphic designers play a big role in consumerism. Consumerism, “as a social and economic order and ideology encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-greater amounts.” (wikipedia.org) Society have been gradually made to believe that they can increase their happiness through buying and spending. Consumerism is an international problem, but has existed for many years, people purchasing goods that exceeded those of their basic needs dates way back to the first civilisations, in the eras of ancient Egypt and Rome. A turn in consumerism arrived just before the industrial revolution, people worked long hours and earned low wages, so they didn 't have the time or the disposable income for excess spending. The industrial revolution welcomed the use of assembly