Monday, May 7, 2012
The RIGHT sample document test!!
Fortunately nobody has commented on the sample exercise I put up yesterday, so there's been no wasted effort (whew). So, here it the right sample document test. It would be great if you could put up your comments in response to the questions raised by these two documents. We'll gather up you thoughts in the tute of week 11 as a way of finetuning your preparation for the final test which happens in week 12.
I hope this is clear enough to read. I'll have paper copies for us to work with in week 11.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Question 1. Gobineau sees civilisation as divided into three racial classes: the negroid, yellow and white races. He believes negro traits, such as little intelligence, mean they make up the lowest class, while the yellow race has enough intelligence and docility to be the middle class. Finally, Gobineau believes that the white race is the ideal ruling class due to it's 'energetic intelligence', courage and idealism. He also suggests that civilised societies can only be created by white people due to their 'love of liberty' that neither the yellow or negroid races have becouse of their lack of intelligence or energy.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2. This poster shows WW1 as a total war. Not only is it propaganda, it directly appeals to peer pressure by asking 'who's absent' and assumes that anyone who is eligible should be serving in the military. Anyone who is eligible but not serving is, in fact, not where they should be. From this we can assume that the British saw the war a the work of an entire country and they thought that every citizen should be aiding the fight in some way.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: Gobineau believes that civilisations are made of three types of races, in the form of a hierarchy. At the bottom of the hierarchy is the negro population that he believes has a narrow intellect and will kill for the sake of killing, above those in the middle class is the 'yellow race' that is prone to apathy and has little physical energy. Gobineau believes this to be an ideal middle class however as they are practical and can take over what is useful to them. At the top of the hierarchy is the white population who he believes has the highest level of intelligence and possess the greatest and most desirable virtues. It is because of this superiority that they deserve to be the upper class of civilisation.
ReplyDelete- Zac Cook
Question 2: The poster is designed in such a way to guilt a British citizen into joining or supporting the war effort. This is due to the fact that Briton believes the war is incredibly important and that a whole Nation should be motivated and support their Nation in its time of need. Anyone who identifies themselves as British will have to support the war effort, less they be labelled as a coward or they can accept the fact that they essentially don't belong in the proud British Nation.
ReplyDelete- Zac Cook
Q.1. Gobineau’s understanding of civilisation is that it is made up of a variety of groups that contribute differently to the society. Gobineau is making it clear that his view of a civilisation includes a strict social hierarchy based upon race. “The negroid variety is the lowest and stands on the foot of the ladder”. In saying this he states that a civilisation does not require these ‘blacks’ and they take on an animalistic form in the eyes of Gobineau. He is therefore referring to the ‘negroids’ with their ‘narrow intelligence’and carelessness towards life, as the barbaric or uncivilised group of people that are unnecessary but very much a part of the civilisation he describes. Gobineau suggests the ‘yellows’ to be the middle class that are the majority of the civilisation and more importantly the working class. “Every founder of a civilisation would wish the backbone of his society, his middle class, to consist of such men”. Here Gobineau suggests the yellows as the workers of the civilisation. They are well acknowledged for their efforts in society but are not particularly respected as highly intelligent, superior beings as suggested by Gobineau stating “No civilised society could be created by them”. This implies the yellows as the individuals who carry out the ideas of the superior beings through their efforts in industry etc. And finally the white race is recognised as the superior race within society. They are of high intelligence and are courageous, libertarians unlike the yellows with the “formalism under which they are glad to vegetate”. They impose a sense of despotism to control the negroids which further implies the social scale under Gobineau’s viewpoint
ReplyDeleteMeg Hibbert
Q2. This poster is demonstrating the attitude of total war, and appeals to the patriotism of the British people. The British flag is used as a symbol of the nation, and supposedly invokes an emotional or patriotic response. The caption that asks "Who's absent?" draws attention, not to those fighting, but those who are not. It fosters the idea that those who do not fight and can are cowards. These types of propaganda images attempt to instil national pride, and exclude those who do not meet the national standards.
ReplyDelete-Jessica Bishop
Q2. The poster suggests that the First World War was a collaborative. Not only that, but it implies that those who were not involved should be shamed for their passiveness in taking part. The union jack flag displayed on the man’s shirt also suggests that it is unpatriotic to be uninvolved in the war. This poster serves to instill a sense of pride in the British Nation by serving in the war and by also shaming those who do not. Given that the poster only displays images of men, it can also be determined that the war is to predominantly focus on the actions of men and their role in the army.
ReplyDeleteShani Wu
Q2. This poster shows that the British people saw the war as not just a soldier or governements war but a total war. This poster which is directly appealing to young men of fighting age, uses direct second person language to connect directly with the audience, "Is it you?". This is meant to embarrass young men who haven't volunteered to fight yet, shamming them for letting their fellow brothers in arms risk their lives for their country while they remain safe at home. The portly figurer in the centre of the poster serves as a symbolic figure of British nationalism with the Union Jack represented on his shirt.
ReplyDeleteTara Pocklington