Keywords

Learning outcomes

The study unit introduces the student to questions of representation and identity and their interrelations in media and cultural studies. After completing the course, the student is able to critically evaluate different media forms and genres, to analyze their materialities, affordances and modes of address. The student is able to discuss notions of representation and identity as well as apply them in the analysis of multimodal media landscapes.

Contents

The course analyzes media materials in terms of multimodal products and practices. The focus is on the ways in which different forms and genres of representation and performance construct understandings of reality through aural, visual, gestural and written modes, and how these modes are connected with identity formation, agency and action. The actual materials analyzed with the concepts of representation, performativity, mimesis, race, ethnicity, gender, ableness and humanness are films, videos, music, television series, live performances, news, online and social media contents. Particular themes examined during the course include digital self-expression, images of suffering, the non-anthropocentric worldview and imaginations of past and future.

Teaching methods

Teaching method	Contact	Online
Lectures
Group work
Exercises

Lectures (20 h) that include study assignments and group discussions based on course literature. There will be readings throughout the course and each lecture includes a study assignment. The course is completed with final essay. The study assignments and the essay can be written in English or in Finnish. English is the teaching language in the course.

Teaching language

English

Evaluation

Numeric 1-5.

Study materials

Literature will be compiled from the following sources and recent research articles:

Ahmed, S. (2004) Cultural Politics of Emotion
Gillespie, M. (1995) Television, ethnicity and cultural change
Hall, S. (ed., 1997) Representation
Nakamura, L. & Chow-White, P. (2011) Race after the internet
Orgad (2013) Media representation and Global imagination
Paasonen et al. (2007) Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture
Skeggs, B. (2004): Class, self, culture: transformations: thinking through feminism
Thumim, N.(2012) Self-representation and digital culture
Webb, J. (2008) Understanding representation
Zelizer, B (2011): About to Die
Potolsky, M. (2006) Mimesis
Plato (e.g. 2012) The Republic, Book X
Diamond, E. (1997) Unmaking Mimesis: Essays on Feminism and Theatre
McRuer, R. (2006) Crip Theory
Butler, J. (2005) Giving an Account of Oneself
Fischer-Lichte E. (2002) History of European drama and theatre
Bay-Cheng S. & al. (2010) Mapping Intermediality in Performance
Causey M. & al. (2015) Through the Virtual, Toward the Real: The Performing Subject in The Space of Technology
Boddice, R. (2011) Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments
Siapera, E. (2010) Cultural Diversity and Global Media
Anderson, D. (2002) Identity and Ecology in Arctic Siberia.

Option 2: For the book exam, choose three books from the following list:

Ahmed, S. (2004) Cultural Politics of Emotion.
Bay-Cheng S. & al. (2010) Mapping Intermediality in Performance.
Boddice, R. (2011) Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments.
Hall, S. (ed., 1997) Representation.
McRuer, R. (2006) Crip Theory.
Orgad (2013) Media representation and Global imagination.
Siapera, E. (2010) Cultural Diversity and Global Media.
Skeggs, B. (2004): Class, self, culture: transformations: thinking through feminism.
Thumim, N.(2012) Self-representation and digital culture.
Webb, J. (2008) Understanding representation.

Belongs to following study modules