These stories, more than any of the other stories in the collection, are about love and romance and sex. Most of these stories are told from the male perspective and these men seem to be quite fastidious--from Federico's routine while traveling on the train ("The Adventure of a Traveler") to Antonio's obsession with the perfect photo ("The Adventure of a Photographer") to Tomagra's torturous attempt to feel up the widow on the train ("The Adventure of a Soldier"). What do these stories seem to say about men in postwar Italy? What do they say about heterosexual love in that milieu? It seems to me that "The Adventure of a Bather" is the one story told from the female perspective. Is that the only difference between it and the other stories in this section? How are these stories different than the other stories in the collection? Why are they all titled "The Adventure of..." How do you define that word "adventure"?
Since this is our last week on the blog, I'd like you to also make some concluding remarks. What have you learned about postwar Italy by looking at a few of its pop culture texts? What have you learned about popular culture this term? Has the class made you look differently at any of the popular culture you consume in your daily life? For example? Which texts did you like the best? Which did you like least and why?
One of the main things I have learned this term is how to better analyze pop culture. For instance, the way we had to analyze an album of our choosing for the first assignment. It gave me a better perspective of the album and I learned new things that I hadn't known before about the band and their music. Moreover, the novel Wiseguys was one of texts I enjoyed best because I felt like the movie Goodfellas was playing in my mind as I read the book.
ReplyDeleteThroughout this course, I learned a lot about pop culture in the USA and also outside of the USA. I also learned how to analyze an album, which I never did before. I found that to be very interesting because I learned very cool background history of one of my favorite pop singer of all time Selena Quintanilla.
ReplyDelete"Adventure" refers to the mental struggle of all those people in all the stories who were trying to define their emotion related to sexual desire. Women's body is descried in a sensual way in almost all the stories. As it mentioned that all those descriptions are from male perspective, it justifies the narratives. There must be a reason why in all the post war stories those emotions were mentioned. The difference is seen in the "Adventure of a Bather" where the nakedness of the woman was something devastating to her. She tried to define her nakedness for that specific moment in a normal way but certainly she was defeated by her conscience. Obviously there is a huge difference how men and women observed nakedness.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to learning pop culture, I learned to realize how I used to analyze texts in my unconscious mind. I believe we all do the same. Whenever we read or watch a text, we start giving those texts different meaning according to our point of view. What I learn in this class is to be aware of how I am analyzing a text.
These stories tell me that men wanted to feel love and make connections after the war. The soldier went about it in a messed up way though. Besides how understandably embarrassing it was for the bather to ask for help, her negative opinions of people also did not help. It seemed that her husband is the only one that she could have told about what happened to her. After hours of being in the sea, she still couldn't ask for help. she couldn't ask anybody for help, because of her preconceived notions about people. She let women pass by. One would assume she would have been more comfortable with women helping her. It got to a point where I felt like she was being irrational. If the father and the son did not know her situation and decided to help her, would she have had anybody to help her? Would she have ever asked for help?. The difference between this story and the others in the section is that it seems that the main character's husband is the only person that she trusts, have a positive view on and connected to until the end of the story. It doesn't seem like she wants to reach out to anybody even in a desperate situation, that's the difference between her and the other characters in the section. I'm sure it was embarrassing for her, the fact that she was exposed to the father and the son but they proved themselves to be decent people and she ended up liking their company and wished her trip with them lasted longer. That probably would have been the case with most of the people that she let passed by without saying anything. There was a barrier between her and the rest of the world until the father and son helped her.
ReplyDeleteIn Renzo and Luciana, difficult love is depicted in the environment where the couple lives. As it was discussed in the class, some scenes in the film look dystopia but, given that it is post-war period, people must have been happier and having a peaceful life. The problem is how they rebuilt the world after WWII. During the war, there was a fight between dictatorship vs. communism, socialism, and capitalism. The dictatorship lost the war and, after that, there was a fight between socialism (Soviet) vs. capitalism (USA). Italy and Japan went to capitalism and German was split into socialism and capitalism. The goal for all of them was to build up peaceful but stronger country. People may say that the pen is mightier than the sword. But, in real world, the money is as mighty as the sword...or maybe it is because the world has been reconstructed like that.
ReplyDeleteIn Capitalism, who is the strongest? people who have the pen? people who have the sword? it is the people who are good at dealing with the money. It may depend on a personal talent or a hereditary property. People have equal opportunities for handling the money but, of course, there is some distinction whether they are good or bad at it.
The couple in Renzo and Luciana, lives in capitalism because Italy went to that direction. One side, there are people who lent apartments and, on the other side, there are people who rent those apartments. It is possible to change the side but it is normally very difficult. The lady's face at the last scene looks empty. She can be herself only before her husband. It seems to me she goes to work because it is the duty. She (and her husband) live in a system that they can't go out. Capitalism puts the people into a certain class based on people's property, education, and position. All factors are theoretically modifiable and these are not unmodifiable factors such as, race, gender, or nationality. But it is difficult to change the class because all these factors are tightly connected and, even one factor is modified, it does not change the over all.
Pop cultures in post-war seem to be influenced by this system (capitalism). Folk songs represent people's defiance against the authority. Criminals break the rules in order to find out a way to wisely earn the money. But they are ironically struggling in the system and never going out side of the system. In Goodfellas, there are the students who are in good education but also in violence. This is a good example, one factor does not change their class. Violence is an interesting factors that exist in either class. Gunshot itself may not be a special culture in the recent era but the reason why the number of the shots has increased in USA may be associated with some systems in the capitalism. The Hunger Games shows a capitalism in a fantasy way. Pop culture I've learned through the term, any of them fit in the capitalism because the capitalism is the back ground that creates these cultures. I am now interested in different cultures that have been established outside of the capitalism (for example a culture in North Korea or Cuba or a small village somewhere in the earth). There would be similarities and differences with our cultures.
learned that popular culture is all around us. It shapes our ideas in society. The music we dance to, the films we watch and even the clothes we wear is influenced by popular culture. It entertainments and fulfills our souls.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Analysis was Bob Dylan's Highway 61 album. My favorite songs were Ballard of a thin man, Like A Rolling Stone and Desolation Row. The rhythm, lyrics, and pattern of choices of his Highway 61 album were deep, toughing and ironic. Bob Dylan made his iconic lowbrow album into popular music.