We’ve talked a lot on the show in the past about Roland Barthes’ influential literary essay “La mort de l’auteur” or “the Death of the Author” and what it means in practical terms for cultural studies and related fields. Recently however, friend of the show Andrew Darowski, texted Mav and casually asked if that concept applied to images and most specifically memes? It turns out that this is a concept that Mav talks about in a class that he teaches regularly. After talking about it for about two seconds Mav and Andrew both realized this was obviously a show, and so… well, here you go. On today’s episode, Mav explains the influential theories of John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing and how he sees them as applying to meme culture of today as we talk a trip through media and politics and a bunch of other stuff. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Citations and Links:
- John Berger’s Way’s of Seeing (book)
- John Berger’s Way’s of Seeing (documentary series)
- Our original episode on the Death of the Author
- Listen to Andrew’s show, Disney Animation Minute Essentials and follow him on Twitter: @disminute
- Listen to Andrew’s other show The Protagonist Podcast
- Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme
- Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick
- Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast
- Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast
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