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<TITLE>Re: [csaa-forum] Rebecca and the beach</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="American Typewriter"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>G’day Jason<BR>
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Thanks for this. I have some similar concerns to yours. I am not sure what pro-Enlightenment means, but I certainly teach courses that see the Enlightenment (at least in its ‘science’ mode) as being valuable and significant in the human story. And certainly, I regard myself as working in cultural studies. <BR>
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Anyway, I would like a copy of your screen aesthetics course outline. <BR>
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On the question of time, I would have to disagree. In this university, 35% of the staff are academics, 65% are non-academics. I have little time for research, which I really enjoy. <BR>
<BR>
best<BR>
<BR>
Errol Vieth<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">-- <BR>
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</FONT></SPAN><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'><B>dr errol vieth<BR>
</B>senior lecturer, film & communication <BR>
school of contemporary communication<BR>
building 19, room 3.06<BR>
central queensland university<BR>
rockhampton qld 4702<BR>
australia <BR>
<BR>
t +61 7 4930 9501<BR>
f +61 7 4930 9729<BR>
e e.vieth@cqu.edu.au<BR>
url <a href="http://www.infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Errol_Vieth/">http://www.infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Errol_Vieth/</a><BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="American Typewriter"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><BR>
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<HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"><B>From: </B>Jason Jacobs <j.jacobs@griffith.edu.au><BR>
<B>Reply-To: </B>CSAA discussion list <csaa-forum@lists.cdu.edu.au><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Thu, 12 Aug 2004 10:36:54 +1000<BR>
<B>To: </B>CSAA discussion list <csaa-forum@lists.cdu.edu.au><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>Re: [csaa-forum] Rebecca and the beach<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Thanks to Catherine for her robust response. Of course social and historical conditions are important, as my own work makes clear; I was objecting sarcastically to what I see as a banal tendency to praise and celebrate cultural works for being what they cannot help but be - products of their time. We shouldn't limit ourselves, our teaching and criticism to simply delineating social and historical conditions: knowing the time and place of something is a blunt little tool when confronted with, say, the brilliance of Agnes Moorhead in The Magnificent Ambersons, or why one episode of the Sopranos is more successful than another, or in accounting for the power and impact of the first movement of the Eroica. <BR>
<BR>
I understand why, in the present environment my claims seem strange. I think there is a knee-jerk response to evaluative criticism that seems to think it is about claiming that art works have *this much* importance and *this much* achievement and therefore belong at *this* position in the critical hierarchy. But evaluative criticism is not a court of law. It is a contribution to a debate that anyone may question - indeed cultural studies has shown that questioning hierarchies and canons is pretty much its bread and butter - without intervention from the cultural police! <BR>
<BR>
I have no investment in absolute aesthetic value, whatever that is, and Adorno was probably one of the greatest mystics of the last century (remember this populist claimed that the only way to 'listen' to music is to read it in silence!); if anyone has any illusions about the theoretical power of Adorno I recommend reading the first chapter of Istvan Meszaroz's The Power of Ideology. <BR>
<BR>
If anyone can find a scholar working in cultural studies who is pro-human, pro-Enlightenment, and anti-relativist, I'll eat my words. <BR>
<BR>
Finally, to return to the original topic, it is truly astonishing that anyone working in academia should complain about their time. I cannot think of another profession where we have so much flexibility in organising our time. About from fixed venues, like teaching and meetings, the time - 24hrs - is ours to organise, plus we get a significant amount of time during the long vacations (even longer I think in the UK). There are many things wrong with contemporary higher education - the degradation of standards, the assault on the integrity of academic judgement etc - but time is hardly one of them. <BR>
<BR>
Jason <BR>
<BR>
PS: if anyone wants a copy of my Screen Aesthetics course outline I'll happily send it. <BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Dr Jason Jacobs<BR>
Senior Lecturer<BR>
School of Arts, Media and Culture<BR>
Griffith University<BR>
Nathan Campus<BR>
Queensland 4111<BR>
Australia<BR>
Phone: (07) 3875 5164<BR>
Fax: (07) 3875 7730<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'><B>Catherine Driscoll <catherine.driscoll@arts.usyd.edu.au></B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'>Sent by: csaa-forum-bounces@lists.cdu.edu.au</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> </SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'>11/08/2004 04:40 PM</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'>Please respond to CSAA discussion list</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'><FONT FACE="American Typewriter"> To: CSAA discussion list <csaa-forum@darlin.cdu.edu.au></FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="American Typewriter"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.0px'> cc: <BR>
Subject: Re: [csaa-forum] Rebecca and the beach</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> <BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Courier New">What a strange set of claims.<BR>
<BR>
Relativism arrogantly claims to have all the answers, while claims that <BR>
particular works are just without question excellent does not, apparently, <BR>
make any claim to have the answers. By association at the very least, all <BR>
theorists not used by you are theoretically bankrupt mystics even when they <BR>
would clearly share your concerns about relativism and your investment in <BR>
absolute aesthetic value (as Adorno would). All these bankrupt mystics are <BR>
also clearly, by your blanket assertion, "anti-human, anti-Enlightenment, <BR>
anti-reason, anti-judgement and pro-relativist", as are all of us with the <BR>
temerity to notice that our students are often much more comfortable with <BR>
generalisations and transcendent human "truths" than they are with <BR>
acknowledging that what we see and hear is constructed by social and <BR>
historical conditions.<BR>
<BR>
I, for one, would be most interested in seeing this curriculum.<BR>
<BR>
Best wishes,<BR>
Catherine<BR>
<BR>
At 03:01 PM 11/08/2004 +1000, you wrote:<BR>
<BR>
>I don't buy the story that before the meteor of cultural studies clarified <BR>
>everything humanities teaching and research was a theoretical Jurassic <BR>
>forest, full of nasty creatures. In fact cultural studies today is every <BR>
>bit as ideologically naive as what came before. Today the ideology is <BR>
>this: anti-human, anti-Enlightenment, anti-reason, anti-judgement and <BR>
>pro-relativist. You see it dripping from every set of scare quotes <BR>
>('truth' 'real' etc) and every lame assertion that what we see and hear is <BR>
>constructed by social and historical conditions. (What insight!) I'm <BR>
>currently teaching a new course which is about cultivating judgement, <BR>
>eschewing relativism and actually engaging with artworks (film and <BR>
>television); the students find it hard because it does not arrogantly <BR>
>claim to have all the answers. It grants that there may be aspects of the <BR>
>world that cultural studies has neither the imagination nor the theory to <BR>
>grasp, that there are works of excellence whose achievements might take a <BR>
>lifetime to account for. I'd rather be teaching that than supplying the <BR>
>false idea that everything can be explained (or 'approached' - since I'm <BR>
>sure there can be no 'final' 'truthful' explanation...) by a bit of <BR>
>Foucault, Adorno, Deleuze or any other theoretically bankrupt mystic.<BR>
><BR>
><BR>
>Dr Jason Jacobs<BR>
>Senior Lecturer<BR>
>School of Arts, Media and Culture<BR>
>Griffith University<BR>
>Nathan Campus<BR>
>Queensland 4111<BR>
>Australia<BR>
>Phone: (07) 3875 5164<BR>
>Fax: (07) 3875 7730<BR>
>_______________________________________<BR>
><BR>
>csaa-forum<BR>
>discussion list of the cultural studies association of australasia<BR>
><BR>
>www.csaa.asn.au<BR>
<BR>
---------<BR>
Dr Catherine Driscoll<BR>
Lecturer<BR>
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry<BR>
University of Sydney<BR>
Phone: (61-2) 9036 9503<BR>
Fax: (61-2) 9351 5336<BR>
--------- <BR>
<BR>
_______________________________________<BR>
<BR>
csaa-forum<BR>
discussion list of the cultural studies association of australasia<BR>
<BR>
www.csaa.asn.au<BR>
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