Week 4 – Understanding key terms

 FORM, GENRE, DOXA, INTERPELLATION, OTHERING and AMERICAN DREAM

Form:

          Form is the base for any narrative. It represents the logical sequence of events. It creates the feeling of anticipation. The desire to know what happens next. An example would be a person who says they know how to paint, so they proceed to show you the painting they made.

Genre:

Texts can be categorized into genres because of their stylistic features. When we think of genre, the first few ideas that come to mind are movie genres or music genres. This is because they are a typical representation of what genre truly is. It unifies specific elements which are recognizable throughout each genre. For example, rock music usually consists of guitar riffs and drums which are followed by a bass guitar. On the other hand electronic dance music is created through programs and features artificial sound loops and beats.

Doxa:

          The term doxa is an Ancient-Greek term that comes from the verb dokein which means “to appear”, “to seem” or “to accept”. Simply put, doxa is defined as a common belief or popular opinion. Examples for this could be: “Lightning never strikes the same place twice” or “Bats are blind”. Each culture has different types of popular beliefs. For example in Japan, the number 4 is considered to be unlucky because the word for four is “shi” which closely resembles the word used for death: “shi”, though they are spelled a bit differently.

Interpellation:

          This is a process in which we encounter our culture's values and internalize them. Interpellation suggests that an idea is not simply yours alone but rather that an idea has been presented to you in order for you to accept it.

Othering:

          Othering is a process of alienation by categorizing a group of people according to perceived differences. These differences include ethnicity, skin colour, religion, gender or sexual orientation. From this arises the term majority in an “us versus them” fashion.

American Dream:

This ideology is based on a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success which is achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. It’s based on the premises “If I can succeed then anyone can” which sounds too idealistic in my opinion. Of course, a child of a wealthy background is going to be wealthy himself.