IIPC Debate 13 December

IIPC Debate #50

Professor J. Jack Halberstam (University of Southern California):  “Going Gaga”

Fri 13 December, 10-12 am Janus Hall (Kaivokatu 12, Turku)

“In this short provocation I want to propose that we have much to learn from pondering the world of Gaga, the fame monster who is positively Warholesque in her love of attention and absolutely masterful in her use of celebrity, fashion and gender ambiguity, to craft and transmit multiple messages about new matrices of race, class, gender and sexuality and even about the meaning of the human. Some of these forms of being arise out of creative uses of the platform offered by celebrity, others arise out of wild relations to a series of lively objects and a new understanding of feminist politics in the wake of post-structuralism. Now, what I am calling Gaga here certainly derives from Lady Gaga and has everything to do with Lady Gaga but is not limited to Lady Gaga. Just as Andy Warhol was a channel for a set of new relations between culture, visibility, marketability and queerness, so the genius of Gaga allows Lady Gaga to become the vehicle for performing the very particular arrangement of bodies, genders, desires, communication, race, affect and flow that we might now want to call Gaga Feminism.”

J. Jack Halberstam is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Halberstam is the author of five books including: Skin Shows: othic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (Duke UP, 1995), Female Masculinity (Duke UP, 1998), In A Queer Time and Place (NYU Press, 2005), The Queer Art of Failure (Duke UP, 2011) and Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Beacon Press, 2012) and has written articles that have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and collections. Halberstam is currently working on several projects including a book on Fascism and (homo)sexuality.

Halberstam has co-edited a number of anthologies including Posthuman Bodies with Ira Livingston (Indiana University Press, 1995) and a special issue of Social Text with Jose Munoz and David Eng titled “What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now?” Jack is a popular speaker and gives lectures around the USA and internationally every year. Lecture topics include: queer failure, sex and media, subcultures, visual culture, gender variance, popular film, animation.

IIPC Debate 14 November

IIPC Debate #49

Musicologist, Composer Miguel Mera (City University, London): “Inglo(u)rious Basterdisation: Tarantino and the War Movie Mashup”

Thu 14 November

4 – 6 pm Arne Scheinin hall, Dentalia building, University of Turku. Address: Lemminkäisenkatu 2, Turku

This presentation will explore ways in which the music in Inglourious Basterds represents a continuation of Quentin Tarantino’s working methods, and a shift in aesthetic approach through the application of layers of appropriative meaning that are synonymous with the popular music practice known as mashup. In Inglourious Basterds multiple references do not exist solely through ironic parallelism, emphasizing counterpoint or defamiliarization, but rather seek the true goal of mashup culture which is pluralism. One of the most commonly critiqued aspects of the film is that it rewrites the ending of World War II creating an alternate version of the Holocaust in which Hitler and his high command officers are burned alive. Tarantino’s film is not only a mashup of war movie clichés and characters but also explores how film shapes audiences understanding of fact. Tarantino stated: ‘I like the idea that it’s the power of cinema that fights the Nazis. But not even as a metaphor – as a literal reality.’ Within this context, the references to music from the spaghetti western sub-genre allow historical liberties to become a reflection on the metamorphosis of fact into myth. I will argue that there is a moral consequence to the audience’s cathartic response that forces it to confront its own spectatorial position. In this sense, Inglourious Basterds ultimately problematizes the nature of historical (mis)representation in war movies.

Upcoming IIPC events, fall 2013:

22.11. Fri: Seminar “Urheilu ja globalisaatio”: Benita Heiskanen, Markku Jokisipilä, John Richardson, Max Ryynänen, Riikka Turtiainen at 12 – 16 Educarium 3, Assistentinkatu 5, Turku. In Finnish.

13.12. Fri: IIPC Debate #50 J. Jack Halberstam (University of Southern California): 10-12 am Janus hall, Kaivokatu 12, Turku: “Going Gaga”

Urheilu ja globalisaatio

Puolipäiväseminaari: Urheilu ja globalisaatio

aika: pe 22.11.2013, klo 12-16.

paikka: luentosali Educarium 3, Educarium, Assistentinkatu 5, Turku.

Turun yliopistossa järjestetään perjantaina 22.11. monitieteinen seminaari “Urheilu ja globalisaatio”. Seminaarin alustajina toimii urheilukulttuuriin perehtyneitä tutkijoita ja asiantuntijoita Turun yliopistosta ja Aalto-yliopistosta. Nyrkkeilyä, jalkapalloa, olympialaisia, televisiota ja sosiaalista mediaa käsittelevät esitelmät lähestyvät modernia, globaalia kilpaurheilua ideologian, politiikan, performatiivisuuden ja estetiikan näkökulmista.

12:15 Avajaissanat: Markku Jokisipilä (yliopistonlehtori, FT, Baltic Sea Region Studies, Turun yliopisto)

12:20 Markku Jokisipilä (yliopistonlehtori, FT, Baltic Sea Region Studies, Turun yliopisto): “KOK ja kisojen televisiointioikeudet – idealismista kapitalismiin”

12:50 John Richardson (professori, musiikkitiede, Turun yliopisto): ”Local and Global Meanings of London Olympics Opening Ceremony”

13:20 Max Ryynänen (visuaalisen kulttuurin lehtori, FT, Aalto-yliopisto): “Taidejalkapallo”

13:50 Kahvitauko

14:15 Benita Heiskanen (kollegiumtutkija, PhD, Turun yliopisto): “Urheiludiplomatiaa ja sotapropagandaa – nyrkkeily ideologian välikappaleena”

14:45 Riikka Turtiainen (yliopisto-opettaja, FT, Kulttuurituotannon ja maisemantutkimuksen koulutusohjelma, Turun yliopisto): “Mustien panttereiden tervehdyksestä sateenkaarikynsiin – Urheilijat vaikuttajina sosiaalisen median aikakaudella”

15:15 Loppukeskustelu

15:45 Seminaari päättyy

Seminaarin järjestää monitieteinen populaarikulttuurin tutkimuskeskus IIPC (International Institute for Popular Culture).

Tervetuloa!

https://iipcblog.wordpress.com/

Tulevia IIPC:n järjestämiä vierailuluentoja loppuvuonna 2013:

to 14.11. IIPC Debate #49: Miguel Mera (City University, London) 4 – 6 pm Seminar room Hovi: “Inglo(u)rious Basterdisation: Tarantino and the War Movie Mashup”

pe 13.12. IIPC Debate #50: J. Jack Halberstam (University of Southern California) 10 – 12 am Janus Hall: “Going Gaga”