Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle For decades, Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle was only available in English in a so-called "pirate" edition published by Black & Red, and its informative, perhaps essential, critique of modern society languished in the sort of obscurity familiar to political radicals and the avant-garde. Originally published in France in 1967, it rarely receives more than passing mention in some of the fields most heavily influenced
Politics as Media Spectacle - Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California recall election gubernatorial victory demonstrates the increasing collapse of the boundaries between entertainment and politics in an era of media spectacle. Over the past decades, major struggles around politics, race, gender, and sexuality have played out in the media. In the 1990s, the O.J. Simpson trial, the Clinton sex scandals, and the proliferation of tabloid
active/male and passive/female. In her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" Laura Mulvey asserts the fact that in mainstream films, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed. That is to say, the woman is both an object of desire and a spectacle for the male voyeuristic gaze. The male's function is active; he advances the story and controls the gaze onto the women. Interestingly, the spectator identifies with the male through camera technique and style. In an effort to reproduce the so-called
tragic hero, and every tragic hero has a tragic flaw. Two examples of this would occur in Hamlet and Macbeth. Both title characters possess the equalities of a tragic hero. What is tragedy? Aristotle defines tragedy: "A tragedy must not be the spectacles of a perfect good man brought to adversity. For this merely stock us" (1). Not in every play where a hero dies is considered a tragedy. Also, "Nor, of course, must it be that of a bad man passing from adversity to prosperity: for that is not tragedy
hero is fate, or, moira. It is Oedipus's actions that set the events into motion, but it is ultimately his fate, and his attempted aversion to it, that brings about his downfall. This downfall, and elements such as plot, character, diction and spectacle (Aristotle 175), that cause Oedipus the King to be a tragedy. In order to describe Oedipus as a tragic hero, one must begin by describing a tragedy. A tragedy must consist of a variety of elements in order to truly fulfill its purpose. According
The Horror of the Death Penalty The death penalty has existed for well over 4000 years. In 1728 BC the code of Hamurabe was passed to allow legal execution. For centuries capital punishment was a public spectacle: states used executions to demonstrate the ultimate consequence of attacking the state. During the 18th century in England executions attracted tens of thousands of people and in some cases there would be riots. Also in England the church was allowed to burn people
Interpretation Alternatives of The Tempest A production of The Tempest should emphasize the idealized methods in which Prospero uses magic to solve the problem of revenge which is so prevalent throughout his tragedies, perhaps the production might be a direct allegory for the magic of the theatre itself. In this conception of the play, the scattering and bringing together of the characters in the script is significant in that theatre also could be said to bring people together and allow them
even involve humans. The bull was often put into a small enclosure with another predatory animal, such as a tiger or lion, and the beasts fought to the death. The spectacle eventually evolved into a struggle between man and bull gaining similarities with what we know today as bullfighting. Along with these changes came the spectacle and formalities that are now an integral part of the corrida de toros. Arguably, the first of the modern bullfight took place in Vera, Logroño, Spain in 1133. The
analogically on the ancient theatre to contextualize wrestling as a cultural myth where the grandiloquence of the ancient is preserved and the spectacle of excess is displayed. Barthes's critique -- which is above all a rewriting of what was to understand what is -- is useful here insofar as it may be applied back to theatre as another open-air spectacle. But in this case, not the theatre of the ancients, but the Middle English pageant presents the locus for discussing the sport of presentation
not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Thought, Diction, Spectacle, Melody. (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html)” Later in history, William Shakespeare wrote tragedies that epitomized Aristotle’s outline of a tragedy. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one such tragedy. The first part, the plot, is the most important
Colonel Martin, who refused it; and swore he had rather see the quarters of Banister, and the Governor himself, than those of Caesar, on his Plantations; and that he cou?d govern the Negroes without terrifying and grieving that them with the frightful spectacle of a mangl?d King.? (p. 99-100) This is the second to last paragraph in the book, where Oroonoko is being decapitated. The executioner, Oroonoko and all the towns? people, who were looking on, were involved. The child of someone who was watching
The Relation between Comedy and Tragedy On the surface, comedy and tragedy seem to be complete polar opposites of each other. In terms of the actual narrative, examining the consequences of the character's actions reveals the biggest contrast. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus' 'sin' of not listening to the Gods and trying to avoid his fate assisted in his downfall. Not only does his internal blindness result in him marrying his mother; it also results in a "plague" across his land. In addition, the
motifs, such as sexual dysfunction and alcoholism, which are found in earlier melodramas. Apocalypse Now helped to establish a new film genre - the operatic melodrama - that combined the historical representations of classic melodramas with the raw spectacle of modern filmmaking. Although distinctive melodramatic traditions developed in multiple countries, the Italian model is the most similar to that of the 1970's epic. While some melodramatic traditions evolved through novels or the theatre, "in
from their graves, an unearthly light flickers about the head of the doomed man. The special popularity of Hamlet and Macbeth is due in part to some of these common characteristics, notably to the fascination of the supernatural, the absence of the spectacle of extreme undeserved suffering, the absence of characters which horrify and repel and yet are destitute of grandeur. The reader who looks unwillingly at lago gazes at Lady Macbeth in awe, because though she is dreadful she is also sublime. The whole
stanza describes the crowd that has gathered to watch the enactment of our human lives. Lines three and four states "an angel throng, bewinged, and bedight in veils, and drowned in tears." Poe is stating that a group of angels is going to watch the spectacle put on for them, although they are already drowning in the tears from plays before. The orchestra that plays for them is another set of characters that have meaning. They represent the background in everyone's life by "playing the music of the
In Ruth Gilbert’s At the Border’s of the Human, she discusses society’s interest in hermaphrodites in terms of “people’s desire to examine, scrutinize, and display objects which are alien, strange and other” (6). The anomalous and bizarre spectacle of the hermaphroditic body has drawn the focus of scientists since the early sixteenth century. Hermaphrodites have long evoked a “mixture of disgust and desire, and fear and fascination”(Gilbert 150) that has led to their position as objects of
off the napkin, telling the audience that there is a charge for her performance, but death to her is nothing but a big strip tease. Do I terrify? she asks rhetorically, she knows her effect on them. Lady Lazarus intentionally contributes to the spectacle that fetishises her; she compartmentalises herself, These are my hands, / My knees, harshly mocking the gentlemen and ladies as she reveals their morbid avidity. She is both pitying and scornful: Do not think I underestimate your great concern. Her
critique of Shakespeare’s works and plays, Charles Haines describes Macbeth as “one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, containing just 2,108 lines.” He further states that it is a vigorous, headlong drama, a relentless spectacle in red and black. (Haines, p. 105) This red and black spectacle reveals itself to the reader and audience through the use of blood imagery. Blood, or the imagery attached to it, appears 42 times in this play. This imagery of blood begins as a representation of honor and progresses
the entrance of the angel, the one expects some type of epiphany to occur. Early in the story, the people of town along with pilgrims from afar try to find miracles in the angel. The angels novelty soon wears off and the angel actually ends up a spectacle to the townspeople. They treat it like a circus freak throwing scraps of food to it and housing it in a chicken coup. Thoughts even cross their mind such as “clubbing him to death (Sic)”. (Marquez) Through magical realism he separates the angel from
provides a social commentary on the 1920's in this novel. The Great Gatsby is an important American novel and not just a mere historical document depicting life in the 1920's. Like other writers of the 20's Fitzgerald was fascinated by the spectacle of what had become of the American Dream and how it had become corrupted by greed andmaterialistic possessions. At the end of Chapter One, Nick catches Gatsby stretching his arms out towards a green light. At the time it is not revealed to