Semiotics: Focus is on the meanings for signs and codes that are socially and culturally constructed. So, when we watch a Coors Light ad, what images suggest physical attractiveness? Wealth? Rock music?
Narrative Analysis: Focus is on identifying archetypal kinds of stories, like the “initiation into adulthood” story like Stand By Me, or the journey/quest story like Lord of the Rings. You might ask why a creator chooses to follow or deviate from the motif common to their subject matter or genre.
Post-Structuralist Analysis: This approach sounds a lot to me like what we refer to in literary analysis as “deconstruction.” It identifies binary opposites then details how those things play out – like good and evil, male and female, true and false.
Critical Discourse Analysis: Looks at the large, thematic discourses that happen. A discourse is something that has its own language set and community set, like a lawyer would engage in the discourse of law and a preacher would engage in spiritual discourse. Two main “discourses” to study could be race and class.
Psycho-Analytic Analysis: Everything is a dream world of penises and vaginas… obviously. Boys want to sleep with their mothers and kill their fathers, girls will have oral fixations if something traumatic happens during the first year of life. I will likely never use this approach. Sorry Freud.
Gender Analysis: Asks the questions, Which gender has the power in this thing? Are characters under pressure to perform in a masculine or feminine way? How are the characters affected by gender issues? I never use the word feminism.
Post-Structuralist Analysis: This is what this critical approach says… “[Insert noun, any noun at all] is bunk.” Basically rejects stuff, especially stuff that was cool in the “modern” period like high art, master narratives, progress, truth. A post-structuralist writer might blend genres, tell a story backward, or explore different what ifs – think Memento and Run Lola Run.
Post-Colonialist Analysis: Asks the question, if someone/something were are colonizer here, who would it be? And who or what is being colonized?
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Interesting re: gender analysis. Do you choose not to use feminism--when that's what you are talking about--because of how you think it will be perceived or another reason?
ReplyDeleteI've always thought gender analysis was a better term to use since you're not strictly talking about females when you use that mode of analysis. Your term seems much more equitable!
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