Analysis of the films, "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Sheik", vis-a-vis the theories of Horkheimer and Adorno as presented in their work, "Dialectic of Enlightenment", among others.
Abstract In this paper, the author analyzes some aspects of the production and reception of the film, "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), by situating it within the industry that Horkheimer and Adorno describe in order to further an understanding of what is meant by a "dialectical" critique of film as "culture industry". The paper goes on to briefly discuss the relevance of applying this type of analysis to a film like "The Sheik" (1921).
From the Paper "In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno make the claim that film plays a key role in what they call the "culture industries" of the 20th century. Writing in 1944, they describe an "iron system", which is in large part a reference to the Hollywood system and its fascistic employment of the ?genre film (Horkheimer 154).? Of the effects of mass culture, they write: ??culture now impresses the same stamp on everything. Films, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part (120).? This criticism has specific implications for the feature film: "They are so designed that quickness, powers of observation, and experience are undeniably needed to apprehend them at all" yet sustained thought is out of the question. Even though the effort required for his [the viewer] response is semi-automatic, no scope is left for the imagination (126,127).? The standardization of the spectator, as it were, via the genre film and through the standardization of the viewing experience, is, for Horkheimer and Adorno, the crux of the culture industry where film is concerned. ?The culture industry as a whole,? they write, ?has molded men as a type unfailingly reproduced in every product (127).?"
Abstract In this article the writer looks at various journals by different authors that examine Don DeLillo's work 'White Noise'. The different writings studied are Thomas Peyser's "Globalization in America: The Case of Don DeLillo's White Noise"; Arthur M. Saltzman's writing in Modern Fiction Studies "The Figure in the Static: White Noise"; Mark Conroy's "From Tombstone to Tabloid: Authority Figured in White Noise"; critic Noel King's writing in Critical Quarterly "Reading White Noise: Floating Remarks" and critic Lou F. Caton's writing in English Language Notes "Romanticism and the Postmodern Novel: Three Scenes from Don DeLillo's White Noise".
From the Paper "As hard as it might be to imagine a man who is a professor of "Hitler Studies" at a midwestern college serving as the believable and substantive narrator of a novel, with author Don DeLillo anything seems possible, and there is always a message to his madness for those readers who are truly "listening" as they read. Is DeLillo suggesting that America is on the road to fascism? Is the media leading American down the road to all people seeing and hearing the same repetitive propaganda, like barns that are famous because they are said to be famous? That is clearly one of the author's intents."
