TEXT AND SIGNsession 5

narratives of the 90s

• 90s epigrams

– “You shouldn’t have to sacrifice who you are just because somebody else has a problem with it.” (Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City)

– “You know it’s not your style, but it’s right there and you try it on anyway”

presence

• Being present: what does it mean?• A strong identity is based on receiving

undivided attention.• Relate to living in the world symbolically

through personal experience of the world.• Authentic living vs. dictated agendas.

rebecca miller

arthur miller & inge morath

miller & monroe

morath/monroe/magnum

miller & daniel day-lewis

cultural production

• painter/sculptor• actress• writer• movie director• the move across fields of cultural production is

determined by various negotiations which ensure and determine the degree of a subject’s successfulness in a field of cultural production

critics as gate keepers

• “I always had this compulsion to tell stories and I was so visual at the same time. Making films just seemed the right way to unify those things.” (Rebecca Miller)

• “Probably given the fact that everybody in my family is an artist, I became one. But I think that happens with doctors too”. (Rebecca Miller)

pierre bourdieu

• economic capital: consists of economic forces money• cultural capital: consists of non-economic forces family,

background, social class, prestige. – (symbolic capital)

• the dominated class has fewer economic means it engages in producing works of culture

• the dominating class possessing economic capital engages in investing in the preservation of works of art.

Personal Velocity: Greta

• Greta– ambitious, speedy– ‘hates’ her job– gets things done

• Lee– a quiet man– slow– loves his job– has no aspirations

• Greta’s character is a reflection of her father ‘interesting’– through success, her assets

get converted into money and prestige.

• Lee’s character mirrors the values of his family ‘nice’

themes

• Identity – established from the outset– mediated and negotiated– determined by realizations not decisions

• Aspirations• Personal velocity• Challenging of social institutions

symbolism

• Shoes– are a reflection of the dynamics of a field– are a manifestation of personal velocity– are a standard by which we judge others– are a manifestation of different negotiations

between fields

context

• Religion

– Christianity (Protestantism and its work ethics: the aim is to be as good as others)

– Judaism (stresses interpretation: the aim is not to be as good as the others, but better)

style

• performative– Miller’s writing emulates Greta’s editing– no redundancies– flat delivery (compare to the deadpan voice-over

in the film)

• irony– no sentimentality

• interior monologue