ABOUT THIS PROJECT IMAGINED COMMUNITY SIMULACRA

THE FAULT IN OUR FANFICTION.NET: JOHN THE DINNER WITH ANDRE DINNER WITH GREEN'S THE FAULT IN OUR STARS ABED: EXPLORING THE REAL IN COMMUNITY’S “CRITICAL FILM STUDIES" THE PRODUCER AND THE PRODUCT: KANYE WEST’S YEEZUS

POSTMODERNISM AND THE HIGH/LOW CULTURE DIVIDE Zoe Lance, English Mentor: Dr. Aaron DeRosa KelloggDISCOURSE Honors College Capstone AND Project PRODUCTION The elimination of a distinction between high and low art arose in the 20th-century I have found that the public creates and consumes popular culture to ask the ontological questions that postmodern movement. In postmodern thought, there is no privileging of the cultural plague us and derive explanations. Popular culture is our way of trying to understand our own existences significance of fine art over mass culture. in a postmodern world and what we are able to do in it.

“I GOT THE ANSWERS. I Preset filters make choicesUNDERSTAND for readers CULTURE. I AM Beta-reading system helps to police content THE NUCLEUS.”

Lets users sift through stories using pre-set filters No movie category

Favorites and reviews: not for everyone

Established genres In this essay, I use Jean Baudrillard’s definition of the simulacra to argue that Community’s “Critical Film Studies” challenges the idea of the “real” in three ways: a chain of copied layers of identities for both Abed and Writers can update stories Jeff, Abed’s self-awareness of an unreality, and the audience’s understanding the sitcom genre without knowing the references to the Tarantino classic and the Readers limit themselves through too many filters arthouse film. Benedict Anderson’s imagined community As Abed and Jeff try to have a “real conversation,” multiple simulacra layers are interacting. In looking at the The Fault in Our Stars fanfiction “In fact, all communities larger than primordial community on FanFiction.net and how it operates villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even under the website’s system of categorization and these) are imagined. Communities are to be mechanisms of moderation, I argue in this essay distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but that the structure of FanFiction.net tacitly prohibits creativity and imposes social boundaries, despite its by the style in which they are imagined.” claims to democratic imaginings. Imagined Communities

Simulacra of influences, social roles, behaviors, etc. ↕ the simulacra layer of Danny Pudi ↕ the simulacra layer of ≠ the simulacra Abed Nadir layer of Pulp ↕ Fiction the simulacra layer of Andre Gregory ↕ Artist Kanye West Husband the simulacra layer of — Extension beyond music Kanye West Chad into fashion — not part of the traditional — specific lyrical style hip hop image Featuring — references to cultural — married to Kim Kardashian Kardashian phenomena “And hey, ayo, we made it: in the “I throw these Maybach keys/ I Thanksgivin’/ So hey, maybe “Bound 2” In this essay, I argue that in Yeezus and beyond the wear my heart on the sleeve” we can make it to Christmas” video conflation between West’s persona and his lyrical content “New Slaves” “Bound 2” has serious consequences for how we comprehend his music and perceive his personality. One of the related mechanisms underneath West's music is the ontological Simulacra of relationship between being a producer and making a influences, social roles, behaviors, etc. Zane ↕ Media and Lowe product, while also becoming that product. the simulacra layer of paparazzi BBC Joel McHale coverage of the Radio 1 Terry Eagleton’s definition of production ↕ wedding interview ≠ the simulacra layer of — Producer the simulacra layer of Front row seat Kanye West Wally Shawn “Keeping Up With Jeff Winger at Fashion Week — Product ↕ ≠ the simulacra layer of The Kardashians” Cougar Town Yeezus (and Kanye West) the simulacra layer of — A means of Production Vince Vega Paparazzi Magnet Kanye West Writing and Recording Yeezus — Lawsuits for assault Criticism and Ideology Jean Baudrillard’s — Known by public for crazy simulacra soundbites “F—k whatever y’all been Michel Foucault’s discourse theory “[The simulacra] is no longer a question of hearin’” imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a “On Sight” “The fundamental codes of a culture…establish for question of substituting the signs of the real for every man, from the very first, the empirical orders the real… Never again will the real have the with which he will be dealing and within which he will chance to produce itself.” be at home.” Simulacra and Simulation The Order of Things