Welcome to American Lit I, everyone! Let's work together to analyze the illo above... and write this semester's first post for G@A.
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Eng 394 — Links
- Course Syllabus
- The Age of Reason
- Guide to Grammar and Writing
- Guide to MLA Style
- Guidelines for Conference Presentations
- Guidelines for Final Exam
- Guidelines for Formal Essay
- How to Quote Sources
- Intro to the Study of American Lit
- I've Got the Secret
- Law, Responsibility, and the Brain
- Not All Yearn to Be Free
- Notes on the Mormon Scriptures
- Templates for Academic Writing
- True Blue Americans
- Unabomber Manifesto
- World Prison Population
Eng 358 — Links
ASC Links
With Brooks Haynie, 1967-2006
Totally Bangin’ Blogs
Pledging Allegiance, Before Hitler
Magazines and Newspapers
Getting Married, 1980
American Lit Sites
Lofting in Opelousas, La., 1992
Other Language and Lit Sites
Mariposa Grove, 2008
Miscellaneous Sites
Spanish Town Mardi Gras, 1994
Testing My New Merrells, 2006
John Muir Trail, 1982
With Old Mose, 2008
10 comments:
I see a small island at the bottom right but I've no clue what it could be. Also the fading lines at the bottom might mean the fading of traditional America into this new America that as previously discussed is defined by it's pop culture.
@Nathan I'm pretty sure the island at bottom right is supposed to be Puerto Rico.
Also, I'm noticing a pattern of some sort underneath the American flag, but I can't tell if it's just a weird pattern or an actual image. Someone help me out?
I'm not quite sure what an illo is, but if I had to guess, this illo, simply put, is an illustration of the American territories cast in front of the American flag.
I think the image represents an idea of the United States. The flag is represented, along with a map of the United States and its territories. Washington D.C., our nation's capital, is the only identified part on the map, signifying its importance to the United States.
I agree that the image is supposed to represent the United States. It shows the typical symbols of America: the American Flag and the capital Washington D.C. It seems to suggest that those images are the most important and prevalent images that represent America opposed to, as was mentioned in class, fast food, music etc.
I agree that this is supposed to be representative of the United States, in general. However, the fading of the stripes at the bottom of the flag seems to indicate an erosion of our traditions and foundations.
The flag was intended to represent each of the states individually and their agreement to work together through limited central government. Hence, the thirteen stripes representing the original colonies and the stars representing the current number of states. The picture shows only 11 of the stripes. The remaining 2 seems to be disapating.
Again, I agree that the map overlaying the flag is showing the US, however, the fact that only DC is labeled seems to indicate the fact that our central government is growing in strength, while the lack of state borders and labels indicates a weakening of state and, therefore, individual power within our country. This is exactly the opposite of the intent of the Constitution and our founding documents.
It also indicates a lack of individual identity within the world. It isn't even labeled as the United States of America. This could easily symbolize the change from being a leader to just being. That would also indicate a lack of power, as there is power in naming yourself and providing an identity to the those around you.
Overall, it seems to indicate that the United States is fading into being more like the rest of the world and less like an example of Democracy and freedom.
What I notice from the image is that the sections are the most notable images of the United States. Puerto Rico as a territory is also included even though none of the other territories are. Guam, the American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands are excluded. With this image being the pristine image of America having acquired the beautiful (now heavily Americanized) tropical islands such as Hawaii and Puerto Rico, I feel that the image appeals to the knowledge of the average American citizen. This illustration, especially because of the flag in the background, can be seen as propaganda in the sense that it says "Look at the great United States with Washington D.C. as it's capital." Any notions of "foreign" countries are excluded even though territories such as Guam and the American Samoa are essentially part of the United States as well.
-Jonathan Andujar
Why did the authors of this illustration choose to put Alaska in the star section and not Hawaii or Puerto Rico? Does Alaska hold more precedence than other territories we've accquired since the founding of our country? Or is it because the authors of this illustration deal in firepower and military might, and Alaska, with all it's military outposts and missle launch sites is very pivotal to our nations "firepower"?
So far, so good, everyone. As I said in class, one point of this exercise is simply to remind ourselves of the basic fact that we live in an "empire of images" and to get a little practice analyzing images instead of passively consuming them.
If you've clicked over to GlobalFirepower.com, you'll see a visual confirmation of another basic fact, namely, that "global firepower" is organized by nation. It is the nation, rather than religion, tribe, or what have you that is the premier organizational unit of the modern world.
The term "nationalism" in common parlance refers to pride in one's nation, but in a more general sense can refer to the idea that it is the nation, as opposed to any other unit, that should be the premier unit of political organization (and, as a sort of corollary, that the nation should have a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, etc.).
Just trying to lay a little conceptual groundwork here as we embark on the study of literature as it is conceived in nationalist terms (e.g., American literature). For more info, check out the Wikipedia entry on nation-state.
I think that the lives disapearing is in direct correlation to the lack of borders and the bullet emphasizes a nations capital is the face of the nation itself. Then i noticed the ostrasized alaska that has been cut off by the blue square on the flag. I think that more clearly emphasizes the seperation.
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