2018 EXAMINATIONS
PART II
MCS.200: Critical Cultural Theory
1. “The strongest argument against modern mass entertainments is not that they de-base taste - debasement can be alive and active - but that they over-excite it, even- tually dull it, and finally kill it… They kill it at the nerve” (Richard Hoggart).
Why has ‘mass culture’ been an object of concern in cultural theory? Discuss with reference to at least two theorists.
2. According to Roland Barthes, myth transforms history into nature. Explain what he means by this, in reference to at least one media example.
3. Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer argue that popular culture works to main-tain and mirror the capitalist system. How far do you agree? Evaluate their posi-tion using examples.
4. Do we live in postfeminist times? In your answer, focus on one of the following: the sexualisation debate, the male gaze, celebrity feminism.
5. How useful is Orientalism in understanding contemporary culture? Evaluate in reference to specific examples.
6. Either :
a) Has the queer gaze successfully disrupted heteronormativity?
Or :
b) Is contemporary queer culture homonormative?
7. What did Antonio Gramsci mean by ‘hegemony’? Is it a more useful concept than ‘ideology ’ for understanding how cultural power works in contemporary society?
8. Is this the end of identity politics? Critically discuss.
9. Mehita Iqani and Jonathon Shroeder propose a “productive counter-reading of the ‘selfie’…one that advances the possibility that popular forms of female self-imag- ing may offer the opportunity for political engagement, radical forms of commu-nity building.” How convincing is this counter-reading?