Transcript Rhetorical Images - Teaching Race and Ethnicity in Higher

Rhetorical Images
Visual Methodologies for Teaching
Race and Ethnicity
Barthes and the rhetoric of the image
Using Images
• Barthes concept of 'rhetoric of the image'
• Images as complex conventional codes
• Rhetoric is often contrasted with rationality
and allied with radical relativism or nihilism
• but... All discourse is unavoidably
rhetorical
• This presentation illustrates the power of
images to condition our thinking
The Elements of Myth
Denotative Level – black cadet
salutes flag
Connotative Level – French
empire, patriotism, colonial
values to be saluted,
paternalism of French state etc
Myth - Third level sign
Nation, Citizenship, Identity
Available Discourses
Racist
Romantic
Anthropological
Literary
Tourist
Romanticism
Nature ‘in the raw’
‘primeval’
‘the ruthless struggle
for survival…’
‘ancient ceremonies’
‘Rock tree and man
are one in the
Aborigines hearts and
have been since the
beginning’
Conditions at One Mile Dam
Drinking
The Northern
Territory's alcohol
consumption is one
of the highest in the
world, and certainly
the highest in
Australia. In 2001 the
alcohol consumption
rate was estimated at
1120 standard drinks
per person per year.
Beer Can Regatta
Law & Order
SHANE STONE, FORMER CHIEF
MINISTER:
People who are out there causing
havoc on our streets,
who are defecating in our car parks
and our shopping centres,
deserve to be monstered and
stomped on.
Australia’s eugenic policy
The Circuit of Culture
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Production – campaigns, intentions
Regulation – hegemony and social control
Consumption – desire economy - distinction
Identity – constant negotiation
Representation – political, basis for social meanings,
regimes of thought, discourses eg tourism, law and order,
anthropological etc..
Critical Visual Methods
• myth of objectivity
• Ethical concerns – exploitation or collaboration?
• Obtrusiveness of video recording
 Immediacy and complexity of the material
gathered
• 'the study and use of visual images is only of
use within broader sociological research
enterprises, rather than as ends in themselves.’
(Bank, M 2001: 178)
Consider the Image
• no ‘one-way’ visual method or perspective
• we don’t ‘see, we ‘perceive’
• the visual, as objects and images, exists
materially in the world but gain meaning from
humans.
• all images are regarded as polysemic
• images can be ‘researcher found’ (generated by
others) or ‘researcher generated’ (created by the
researcher).
• Photographs or film cannot be equated with
truth or reality
Conclusions
• How to address issues in a relevant way?
• Allows focus on how social meanings are formed
and circulate
• Visual material drawn from a variety of sources
is immediate and interactive
• Needs backing up with reading
• Less can be more – small interactive nuggets
which when unpacked can really stimulate
discussion and understanding
• Potential for use in virtual learning environments
Images
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Images
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Baron Cuvier's Natural History (1890) Landseer's plates Mongols, Negros
Lambe, Mick
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Hammerton, Sir J. (circa 1933) Peoples of All Nations, Amalgamated Press, London
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'Black Australia has had enough' photograph from PARIAH website - reproduced with permission of Mick Lambe
'Negro Women' at work in sugar cane field – Vol 1 p203, - Photo Service (untraceablele)
'Bejewelled Beauty of the Kabyle' Crete, (Vol 2, facing page 28)
'Fleeting Glimpses of Feminine Charms' (Vol. 1, p441)
Metropolitan Police
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Anti-Terrorism poster -
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Nucolorvue Postcard
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Northern Territory News,
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Australian Aborigines - - NCV 12972 11SZ132. –
'Go Home', Headline April 2003
Permits for Aborigines March 4th 2003
Black v White, April 26 2003
Gang of 30 Bashes 3 Teens, April 16th 2003
Spencer, S
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'John Bull Anti-Euro Protestor' (2005)
Defaced Statue of Queen Victoria (Victoria) Georgetowm, Guyana
Didgeridoos on sale at Darwin's Mindil Beach Market*
Detail of 'boat' at Darwin's Beer Can Regatta and 'tinnies' from One Mile Dam*
David Timber, Coordinator of One Mile Dam community
Scared' CRE poster, Authors picture but permission granted from CRE Louis Mackay 19th January 2005
All other stills from author's short film Framing the Fringe Dwellers (2005)
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Spooner John cartoon 'Sorry' in The Age Newspaper, Melbourne
Wheeler, H, ed. (1935?) 'Peoples of the World in Pictures'
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Woodrow Ross of University of Newcastle NSW
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People of the Desert - Australian National Travel Association
Caricatures of Aboriginal people from Queensland Figaro 1887
Bibliography
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Banks, M (1995) ‘Visual research methods’ Social Research Update Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Winter 1995
Banks, M (2000) Visual Methods in Social Research, Sage
Barthes, R (1984) Camera Lucida, Flamingo
Barthes, R, (1982) Image, Music,Text, Flamingo
Barthes, R, (1972) Mythologies, Paladin
Critcher, 2002
Hall, S. et al 1978,
Hall, Stuart, ed. (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Sage
Kumbutjil Association (One Mile Dam Community) onemiledam.org
Muecke, S. (1982) ‘Available Discourses’ in Botsman, P. d (1982) Theoretical Strategies, Sydney, Local Consumption Press.
PARIAH website (People Against Racism In Australian Homelands) managed by Mick Lambe (Better a Pariah than a Liar)
http://www.country-liberal-party.com/pages/incarc_p5.htm
W.J.T. Mitchell (1994:13) Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation University
of Chicago Press.
Rose (2001) Visual Methodologies, Sage
Said, E (1978) Orientalism, Penguin
Spencer, S (due 2005) A Dream Deferred: Ethnic Conflict in Guyana, Dido Press
Spencer, S (2005) Contested Homelands: Darwin's 'itinerant problem' in Pacific Journalism Review, Auckland University: New Zealand
Also Available Online http://onemiledam.org/pages/Framing_the_Fringe_Dwellers.htm
Spencer, S (2005) 'Framing the Fringe Dwellers': Visual Methods for Research & Teaching Race & Ethnicity: A Sample Case Study, in CSAP Monograph
Spencer, S & Todd, M (2005) Reflecting on Practice: teaching and learning issues in race and ethnicity, C-SAP Monograph, University of
Birmingham
Woodlock, R. (2002) Muslim Feminists and the Veil: To veil or not to veil - is that the question?
http://www.islamfortoday.com/feminists_veil.htm
Woodward, K (1997) Identity & Difference, Sage
Yegenoglu M (1998) Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism Cambridge Univ Press
Sonia Smallacombe(July 2004)
Chas Critcher interview (June 2004)
Steel Bands
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Samosas
Saris
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MULTICULTURALISM