Essay+Exam

Essay Exam IDS 3123 Summer 2010 Answer any three of the following questions. Cut and paste the question at the top of the page in single-space format. Type your answers on a separate page, double-spaced, with one inch margins, 12-font Roman Times. Make sure you address all aspects of question. All references should be formatted in APA style. Make sure you insert a header that includes your name, date, and your student number. Each answer should be about 1 double-spaced, typed page. Be concise, but thorough. 1. How is culture evident through the arts? What is the relationship of culture to art, sculpture, literature, or music? Select a piece of art or a selection of music or literature and describe the relationship of this artifact or item to your own widened understanding of ‘culture’. Use concepts of folk, high and popular culture in your response. If applicable, discuss hegemony, cultural identity, and aesthetics. 2. Popular culture is one of the principle sites where divisions of race, gender, social class, age, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion are established, negotiated, and contested. What does this mean? How does popular culture serve help establish or maintain dominant interests and or foster resistance among subordinate groups? Give an example. Why is this struggle important to those who study culture and power? 3. Postmodernism has many dimensions and complexities. Describe the evolution of modernism into postmodernism. Then, discuss some of these complexities of postmodernism that you’ve come to understand. What is meant by the ‘postmodern turn’ in the arts? Cite citing examples. What is the relationship between capitalism, consumerism and postmodernism? Using the film, The Beauty Backlash, how can we understand the nature of ‘late capitalism’? 4. Hegemony is the process by which the ideologies and structures of society are maintained and managed in an ongoing process of negotiation between dominate and non-dominate or subordinate groups. Describe the nature of cultural hegemony and relate the ways that the Latin American art work at the SAMA depicts the process of hegemony over time. If possible, offer another example of cultural hegemony from a more current issue or social dilemma.