ASSIGNMENT 1

Paper , Order, or Assignment Requirements

Answer all questions in each of Parts 1, 2 and 3 for a total of 10 responses. Unless otherwise indicated, each response should comprise no more than three sentences.

PART 1

1. According to Turner, how does de Saussure’s linguistic theory differ from our common sense understanding of language?
2. Why does Turner argue that semiotics has become “part of the vocabulary of cultural studies” (16)?
3. How does Turner’s traditional definition of Marxism differ from the “Marxism which informs the cultural studies” (18)?
4. What are some examples of “ideological state apparatuses,” and why did early cultural studies scholars consider them to be important?
5. In one paragraph of no more than 100 words, describe the debate between structuralism and culturalism, and explain why Gramsci’s hegemony theory is useful in bridging the gap between the two.

PART 2

1. Why does Turner state that “meanings generated around the figure of Hamid Karzai within Western media . . . have little to do with a material Hamid Karzai you could call on the phone”(26)?
2. According to Turner, how do “the headlines, captions and photos” of Sally Jackson’s article represent Karzai to her readers? What codes and discourses are used to frame this representation?
3. What does Turner claim to be the “purpose or ideological function” of such representations in his semiotic analysis of the Jackson article?

PART 3

1. What was the “culture and civilization tradition” in Britain, and why was it critical of postwar “American style” popular culture?
2. Turner points out that “key figures [Raymond Williams, et al.] in the next generation of cultural criticism in Britain” were different from their predecessors (such as Arnold, Leavis and T. S. Eliot) (35). What were these differences, and why does Turner claim they existed?