Tuesday, November 4

Today’s Agenda

1)      Last time we began our new unit:

 

a.       The Literatures of Everyday Experience. We talked about how vital aspects of our culture are not only examined in written works, but also in the visual arts, including movies, television, video games, and the internet as they are experienced by you on a day-to-day basis.

 

b.      In our journals, we took the time to break down a television show or movie into its basic literary elements. For homework today, you had to break down another example. Let’s take a moment to review what we have produced. We will start in our groups, and then have a general class discussion.

 

c.        One of the reasons that we want to be aware of the literary dimension to our everyday entertainments is because we are so frequently exposed to these subjects. As a critical thinker, you can choose to be an active participant or a spectator, which leads us to our journal entry for today.

 

2)      Journal Entry:  One of the hallmarks of an educated person is that they are an active participant in their culture. For many of you, this has traditionally meant being involved in groups, sports teams, or clubs. These are organizations that contribute to the community. However, many of you are now entering a new phase of your lives, one in which you are no longer simply a participant in your culture, but an active critic of your culture.  In your journal, I want you to spend the next 10 minutes telling me about a time when you were a spectator and a time when you were an active participant. How were the experiences different? What led you to be a spectator in one situation? What led you to be an active participant in the other situation?

Advertisement Activity:

            This is an ad for the APPLE IPOD. I want you to break it down into its LITERARY COMPENTS and its THEATRICAL COMPONENTS.

After you have broken it down, I want you to discuss how an understanding of these components can help you develop a more complete understanding of this advertisement.

Let’s perform a similar activity with this advertisement for Croc shoes:

 

There is much more to the average advertisement than may first meet the eye. One of the reasons why we need to understand these kinds of publications critically is because they have a significant impact on how people shop and live their lives.              

 

Now that we are beginning to understand how literary and theatrical components come together in advertising, let’s turn our attention to a couple of well known works of art. While you may not encounter works of art every day in your life, I want you to see that you can bring these same tools to bear when you critique these kinds of images:

 

Let’s look at a painting that may look appear a little familiar to you:

 

Now let’s look a paining where the image may be a bit less familiar:

 

Now let’s look at a painting where the situation may not be all that obvious:

 

Now let’s look at a work that may be even harder to critique:

 

 

 

Homework:

Find and critique 2 advertisements and two works of art using the skills we have developed in class today.

 

 

 

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