Here is your first writing project assignment. You may select one or two historical or contemporary TV programs. If you have any questions, feel free to DM or email me.
Best,
JF
MEDST 322W:
Writing Project #1:
The Semiotically
Adhesive Child
DUE: Wednesday, Oct.
9
5 pages, maximum
Dr. Joy Fuqua
“Like all myths, the innocent child has a history. In fact,
one reason it can carry so many contradictory meanings is that our modern sense
of the child is a palimpsest of ideas
from different historical contexts – one part Romantic, one part Victorian, one
part medieval, and one part modern. We do not so much discard old conceptions
of the child as accrue additional meanings around what remains one of our most
culturally potent signifiers.”
Henry Jenkins, 15
As we have discussed, there are many different meanings that
we have stuck to the “semiotically adhesive child.” These meanings circulate as
myths, ideas that structure and shape our ways of understanding childhood (teens)
and children. These sticky, semiotic signs, can as we have seen, obscure the
individual child and only encourage us to see him or her through various layers
of semiotic adhesive. What would it take, we might wonder, for us to peel back
these semiotic layers to see differently?
This assignment asks you to describe and analyze the layers
of semiotic adhesive in relation to two teen characters in either one or two
teen TV programs. In particular, you should identify at least one myth per
character and explain how the character represents these myths. Drawing from
the class lecture in which we stuck various meanings to the figure of the
child, select your myths from that instance. Questions you should address: how
do these characters represent or embody specific myths? How do these myths work
in the program to construct particular meanings about these characters and
encourage a particular way of seeing the characters? Does the teen character
tend to reinforce or challenge these myths? What is the role that these
characters play in the overall structure of the program(s)? What are the implications
of these semiotic adhesives for our ways of understanding the child/childhood?
Note, this last question asks about implications, not effects. We cannot know
the influences or effects in advance, but we can talk about implications of these representations for
reinforcing or challenging our own assumptions about children (teens) and
childhood.
