Final Exam

Ready... Set... GO!

[Instructions: Write around 3,000 words total. You have until noon, Sunday. And then you have to go to a wedding in New Jersey. And then you have to go to an office party in Manhattan. And then you have to spend 30 minutes with your son before the weekend is over.]


1) How does Stuart Hall's argument recuperate mass culture? What is mass culture, and what does it mean to "recuperate" it? How must Hall redefine the circuit of communication in the course of his argument? Compare Hall's attempt to recuperate mass culture with ONE of the following authors: Venturi, Radway, or Jameson.

2) Mark Poster writes: "The question may be raised, then, of the narrative structure of second media age communications: does it or is it likely to promote the proliferation of little narratives or does it invigorate a developing authoritarian technocracy?" ("Postmodern Virtualities," p. 544). Explain what Poster means in this passage, particularly what he means by "little narratives" and "authoritarian
technocracy." What is the postmodern subject? What are the challenges it must face? Include a discussion of ONE of the following authors: Nakamura, Mohanty, or McRobbie.