Week 3 Lecture 2

Sigmund Freud

Freud was a man who regarded him self as a scientist and in indeed the inventor of new science. Freud was born in 1856 in Moravia into an Austrian family non-observant Jews. He trained as doctor in the university there and later on joined the staff of General hospital where specializing in brain anatomy. Sigmund Freud tries to explain everything, the world we live in, us humans, how and what we think. According to him He was the first person that has seen our true us. Freud believed that we are naturally aggressive and our aggression would never be eliminated. So in a way we are limited and would not allow us to progress further on. Freud also believed everything around us is pain. Our life is a pain, getting older as time passes is a pain for example playing a football game at would take longer for your muscles to recover, you wake up the next day and your aching. Its in our nature to be workaholics, we are meant to go study constantly and just live with the pain. He also talked about that Dreams is where we find out true self's, what we actually are. Freuds theory were that dreams no less than neurotic symptoms were a coded expression of repressed sexual desire. According to him deep down we always thought about sex, that's all that is in our minds, everything has a sexual meaning. But in a way we put it on the side as we have " a police officer in our heads " that controls us and keeps us on track.

Week 2 Seminar 1

Tabloid Nation

Tabloid Nation is a book written by Chris Horrie which discusses the development of The Daily Mirror Newspaper over the years since it was first published. The Daily Mirror was introduced first in 1903. Horrie talks about in his book how the newspaper developed over the years by doing anything possible to increase their sells. The Daily Mirror began by sending reporters to the front line in World War 1 & 2 to produce live coverage news that would keep Britain updated. Their also introduced pictures in the Newspaper which benefited them by increasing their sells. Back in those day they were the first newspaper to allow women to voice their opinions, so that attracted a lot of female readers. Chris Horrie also mentions how correct news control the media in the UK. A lot of politics power being involved and talked about in the paper. In a way Tabloid Nation can relate to Citizen Kane as they would do anything to get some news and the fact that Charles Kane was involved in policitcs. Their strive to power took their sells to 2millions copiers per day in the UK which made them very successful just by doing anything possible to get their hands on some news.

Week & Lecture 1

Modernism

Modernism is a study which seeks to spread its efforts across literature, theatre, music and art in the first half of the 20th Century. Indeed it is ought really to go back into the nineteenth century, to the the music theatre of Wagner. Modernism was against the values of realism. The rejection of traditions and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms. It could be explained in a way that we are in control of our thoughts, we know what's good or bad. We have the intellect to make choices of our own. Modernism rejected the existence of compassionate and all-powerful Creator God. In a way they believed that God does not exist because everything is made out of nothing. Modernist thinking and views were simply out with the old and in with the new. They thought the modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the traditional form of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organizational and daily life were becoming old fashioned and outdated in today new economy,political and social world. As the world was emerging new approach had to be looked at and developed.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a 1941 drama film directed by and starring Orson Welles. The story of the film is based on examining the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane played by Welles. The character is based on the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and Welles's Own Life. Charles Foster Kane played by Orson Welles, anonymously wealthy media proprietor , living in Florida, Xanadu for the last years of his life with a 'No Trespassing' sign on his gate, dies in a bed while holding a snow globe which smashes while slipping from his dying hand and utters "Rosebud". Kane's death then becomes sensational news around the world. The newsreel reporter Jerry Thompson played by (William Alland) tries to find out about Kane's private life and in particular discovering the meaning behind his last word. Thompson gets in touch with Kane's second wife Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore) who runs her own club and now alcoholic but she refuses to tell him anything. He then approaches Kane's private banker wanting to find out more information about him. Flash backs reveal that Charles Foster Kane spent his childhood poverty. He lived in Colorado where his parents ran a boarding house. Kane was later sent by his mother to live with Walter Parks Thatcher and get educated. At the age of 25 Charles Foster Kane gains full control of his possession and he instantly enters the newspaper business by taking control of New York Inquire and also hires the best journalists around to work for him.