books and quotes for essay.

1. Cultural - Studies  (chapter 13- bodies and things)

- "we project mental images into others minds through our bodily actions"

- "bodies change meaning depending on the context in which they are found"

2. Culture Theory and Popular Culture (chapter 7 - Gender and Sexuality)

- "it's here that women (and men) are offered the cultures definitions of themselves" (page 137 'women at the cinema')

- "whilst commodity consumption for female spectators in mid to late 1950's Britain concerns producing oneself as a desirable object"

How typical is your chosen text of its genre? Fish tank - clip 5

How typical is your chosen text of its genre?

The text I have studied is 'Fish Tank'. 'Fish Tank' falls into the genre of Social Realism. The concept of social realism is to enable the audience to gain empathy for the under represented characters within the text. The text mostly conforms to this genre by using different social realism conventions throughout.
An example of a technical convention present in the film is the use of shallow depth of field. Shallow depth of field is present throughout the whole film however a specific example would be when she's waking up in her bed, Mia is in focus and everything else such as the sheets and background are blurred and hazy. The shallow depth of field is a convention of social realism as it sees as the human eye would see, this enables the audience to see as if they were there. However when Mia's mum comes into the room she then becomes the main focus, giving us a point of view shot of what Mia is also seeing, which conforms to the the concept of empathy within the genre.

'Most texts today mix genres.' How true is this of your three main text? [30]

The text I have studied is District 9, this film adheres to the statement "most texts today mix genres." District 9 is a hybrid as it consists conventions from both the sci-fi and documentary style genre's. Being a hybrid District 9 conforms to the theory of postmodernism, the theory states that no text is no longer original. Today's texts are seen as hybrids, parodies or paying homage to texts from the past.

One particular science fiction convention that District 9 clearly conforms too is 'Body Horror', wikus' transformation from human to alien. This can be seen in the narrative when Wikus' hand is first revealed. Wikus' transformation occurs from his accidental exposure to a alien liquid substance. When the transformation is first revealed, Wikus is immediately taken in for experiments by the corporation, and treated like an alien himself. This also conforms to the sci-fi convention of social and political issues. The aliens of the film have a polysenic meaning and could be seen as a metaphor for the black people if south africa. When wikus' hand changes the MNU corporation begin to see him as a 'trater', In this scene you can see the power differences between the corporation and wikus.