The main topic in week three was the study of film as a cultural phenomenon and the application of structuralism as a methodology used to analyse visual texts.
Films are said to have certain structures or conventions which often reflect the social beliefs prevalent in a society during particular points in history. According to Saussure’s linguistic approach to the study of visual texts, structuralism is the idea in which language constructs meaning by being governed by precise rules and organised through grammar. It is in this way that language of a text can be manipulated to create a prescribed sense of reality. Levi-Strauss argues that beneath the homogeneity of structure is a collection of heterogeneous ‘myths’ which are used to create meaning by structuring the world with binary oppositions such as good/bad, or man/woman, etc.
It was discussed in the lecture how Will Wright elaborates on this use of structuralism to illustrate the way in which the interplays of different structural oppositions within a particular visual text, such as the Hollywood Western, can result in a sense of Americanised social ideas being put forward. Laura Mulvey’s post-structuralist ‘male gaze’ analysis was also discussed bringing forth the feminist notion that films constitute a highly patriarchal purpose in that women are portrayed as ‘desire objects’ or ‘threats’. Both of these examples show that the narratives of films are open to a plurality of readings.
It may be concluded, as evidenced from the task in the seminar, that the most popular films today which dominate British culture and satisfy the escapist interests of much of middle-class society, fuelling the consumerist culture industry, are in fact American. These ideas, therefore, seemingly convey a sense of American individualism and predominant social beliefs which evolve in films parallel to the views of Western society.
Alexandra Ncube
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