Just wait until you get to the end of this post... it gets good!
There are obviously more types of texts and medias than just songs,
novels, and movies. To name a few: architecture, language, war, race, etc.
These too can be analyzed through Binary Opposition.
Berlin Wall:
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall/videos/deconstructing-history-berlin-wall
(The video is linked! It's a really nice 3-minute recap of the Berlin Wall but
won't let me share it through Blogger.
The Berlin Wall literally stood as a physical example of Binary
Opposition: The Eastern vs The Western sectors of Berlin, Germany. The poor vs
the privileged. By creating a physical barrier between the two, it not only
heightened the contrast, but further extended and exemplified the disconnect
between those in the wealthy west and those in the dilapidated east, which
is exactly what was hoped to come from the wall's presence.
Language:
"Roman Jakobson built on Saussure's work, proposing that linguistic
units are bound together by a system of binary oppositions. Such oppositions
are essential to the generation of meaning: the meaning of 'dark' is relative
to the meaning of 'light"
Have you ever really thought about how nearly every word we say has an
opposite? I'm not really talking to you Dr. McHugh, obviously you think about
these things all day long down by the river... its more of a rhetorical
question. I mean, most of the time, we can just put un- or non- in front of a
word to make it mean the opposite of whatever significance we gave the word in
the first place. For example, you are either a believer or a non-believer, or
desirable or undesirable... those are just two I thought of off the top of my
head:) Roman Jakobson (Ahh, Roman Jakobson) was right. If binary opposition
means establishing opposition between two things to derive meaning from
their relationship to one another, then language does just that. What is light?
Just the opposite of dark. They say that darkness is just
the absence of light but the words dark and light were just created
to have a way of contrasting the two notions. We could have called it orange
and banana. Orange for dark and banana for light; it would still have
established the same opposition between the two words, like light and
dark, which gives each other meaning.
Cursing:
yes, i know that
cursing is just another form of language, but how could I not have
used this example after the Lawn Chair Lesson. Just know that I did have
another example in mind to use as well-racism, but somehow that
just wouldn't have been as much fun.
Please enjoy all 11 minutes of this video even though it has very little
significance to what I have to say in terms of cursing. The bleeps may not be
as satisfying as the actual words... (as we learned, just saying the words is
cathartic, but what can I say, I just didn't feel comfortable with having a
ream of curse words in my Final!)
Okay, from my understanding of the Lawn Chair lesson, curse words are
inherently sexist, thus establishing a binary opposition between the words said
and used to refer to men, as those for women. I found it extremely interesting
when we stumbled upon the subject of what is and isn't insulting to each gender.
There are obviously words that refer to a specific gender; I'm not going to
type them but use your imagination... Now imagine saying those words to refer
to the opposite sex. In terms of women, it doesn't make much sense. A lot of
the insulting words said to men can't be turned around on women without
sounding stupid; however, try saying and insult inherently used for women to
insult a man and see what happens. As Dr. McHugh says, you'll wake up on your
back with a crowd around you. Why is that? Because there is a set of curse
words to be used for when referring to each gender... a binary opposition
between the two. If you say "you're a d*ck" you are most likely
referring to a man. However, if you say "you're a b*tch" you could be
referring to a woman or a man, and when you say this to a man is when it gets
nasty because you are essentially demeaning said man's masculinity. B*tch is
inherently feminine so when used for a male it is even more insulting. And
there you have it... "establishing opposition between two things to
derive meaning from their relationship to one another". Binary Opposition.
Boom.
Bet no one has "cussed" this much in
their final before and still passed (hopefully
Sorry if
my language got a little too "bloggy", I get on a rant
sometimes and forget that this is still an academic assignment... my last one
of high school in fact!
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