Write it down and tell your neighbor February 7 2018 Due Today Alphabet Soup chart pink sheet Take out NotesPen cil Agenda Escapism Skills Primary source Analysis Learning Target ID: 707668
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Slide1
Warm Up 2/7
What is
escapism as discussed in LA yesterday?
Write it down and tell your neighbor.Slide2
February 7, 2018
Due Today
:
Alphabet Soup chart (pink sheet)Take out: Notes/Pen(cil)Agenda:EscapismSkills: Primary source Analysis
Learning Target
:
I can describe Escapism and the reasons behind it.
I can explain the rise of different escapist mediums.
Upcoming Dates
2/9
:
Great Depression
Tiz
2/9:
Unit 7 HWP/Warm Ups-8
2/16:
Escapism Creative ProjectSlide3
Escapism
The Great Depression was bleak and seemed never ending.
The psychological toll was severe
Self-blame and shamingConstant stress and worry over how to care for familiesFear that it will never get betterMany spiraled into depressionThis psychological toll would continue after the economy recoveredSlide4
Escapism
As a result, distraction became a lucrative business.
People needed something to take their minds off their troubles, even if only briefly
EscapismMental defense mechanismAs the brain reaches a high stress breaking point it will seek to shield itself by seeking distraction in things that remove one’s thoughts from situation and focusing on something farther removed from realityEnter….Slide5
Why do we need the arts?
Job creation & economic stimulus
But also…
Boosted moraleRestored confidenceCultural equivalent of the New DealPsychological stimulus packageSlide6
The Golden Age of RadioSlide7
Everyone needed a radio
Radio news
Variety shows (
Amos ‘n’ Andy)Daytime serials (think soap operas)Serious dramasOrson Welles’s adaptation of War of the Worlds convinced many listeners that we were being invaded by Martians.Slide8
The Golden Age of Hollywood
Film in the 1930sSlide9
1930s Hollywood
Sound and color revolutions
First color film debuted in 1932
, an animated Disney short1934 saw the first live-action full-color film, La CucarachaThe advance of the “talkies”Expanse of genresFirst drive-in theatre opened in 1933Despite the serious effects the Depression had on the film industry theatre attendance remained between 60-75 million a week, even in the worst days of the DepressionProvided a balancing act between cynicism & realism of the Depression and escapism of the artsSlide10
Themes
Vicarious exposure to pleasures of wealth, power, lawbreaking
Comic treatment of social disorder
Subverting gender expectationsExtravaganceSlide11
Rise of Disney
Focused on moral tales that stressed keeping order and following th
e rules
Ultimately that good always triumphsSlide12
Charlie Chaplin
Born in London, April 1889
Forced to support his family due to his father’s death and mother’s illness at age 10
Naturally talented actor, starred in first professional stage show at 12Travelled to America to continue his career as a comedian in vaudevilleSlide13
Charlie Chaplin
Independent
producer:
Writer, producer, director, editor, star, composer for most filmsSlapstick silent films, focused around social and political commentaryIronic portrayal to make humor out of sufferingSlide14
Modern Times
Modern Times
is Chaplin’s comment on the
desperate employment and financial conditions faced by many during the Depression. Chaplin believed these conditions were created by the efficiencies of modern industrialization.https://youtu.be/DfGs2Y5WJ14 https://youtu.be/7vRe56EwFf4 Slide15Slide16
Cultural Significance
Based off of the children’s novel written by Frank L. Baum in 1900
Film made in 1939
Lost Best Picture to Gone with the WindDorothy Gale, swept away from Kansas in a cycloneTechnicolorUshering us out of the Depression and into the renewed prosperity of war time!Slide17
Cultural Significance
Twister:
Stock Market Crash, Dust Bowl
Wizard: Roosevelt & his New DealSlide18
Reflection Questions
How are the themes addressed in the Wizard of Oz similar or different to what you saw in Charlie Chaplin?
How are these ideas communicated differently? Is this more or less effective than Chaplin?Slide19
Superman: The Power of Comics
Escapism: 1930s-1940sSlide20
The Origin of Comics
The creation of the comic book reflected the Depression Era in which it was born, when
America was in need of cheap distractions
While illustrated weeklies existed in Europe, comics themselves are a uniquely American cultural creationThe first really popular comic book series was known as “Famous Funnies” and promised to entertain readers with “games, comics, puzzles, and magic!”Slide21
Comics of the Golden Era
Lasted roughly from the late
1930s-1959
In the Golden Era comics were not limited to children, but had mass appeal amongst adults as wellComic creators used their comics to advance very specific visionsThey served as entertainment, but also attempted to modify and shift cultural conventionsThe birth of the superhero reflected the desire to fix the wrongs of the Depression, captured the spirit of the New DealIf Americans were to be saved from the hell of Depression, they needed a heroSlide22
Superman!
Created by Jerry Siegel and John Shuster
Jewish Americans from Cleveland
Introduced in the first issue of Action ComicsFirst comic book character to be give his own title, 1939His story reflected the new American culture of the 30sHis adventures were based in the city, rather than the frontier (like previous American folk heroes)A hero for the common manSlide23
Superman: 1930s
Less idealistic
than the version of Superman we have today
A little rougher around the edges and a little less powerfulSeemed to thoroughly enjoy beating up bad guysThe early stories reflect his desire to right the wrongs of societyEarly Superman does not fight supervillains we have grown used to, but rather real villains of the New Deal era: bosses who do not provide safe working conditions, stock brokers who sell faulty stocks, even a U.S. senator who conspires with a munitions manufacturerSuperman represents Americans desire not just for escape, but for TRIUMPHSlide24
Why Create Superman?
“Listening to President Roosevelt’s ‘
fireside chats
’… being unemployed and worried during the Depression and knowing hopelessness and fear. Hearing and reading of the oppression and slaughter of helpless, oppressed Jews in Nazi German… seeing movies depicting the horrors of privation suffered from the downtrodden… I had the great urge to help… help the downtrodden masses, somehow. How could I help them when I could barely help myself? Superman was the answer.” – Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman)Slide25
Responding to Shifting Social Context (Comics in the 1940s)
As we move towards war time, comics served as a kind of
voluntary propaganda
A recovering economy contributed to rising popularity in comics (by December 1943 monthly comic book sales had climbed to 25 million copies!)If Superman was symbolic of the strength of the everyman during the Depression, he became symbolic of the American role in WWII and the need to extend that heroism to the oppressed in Europe and AsiaCaptain AmericaIf Superman represents the ideals of American culture, Captain America represented the nationalistic aims of a country about to enter a world warSlide26
Your Turn
As we move towards war time, comics served as a kind of
voluntary propaganda
A recovering economy contributed to rising popularity in comics (by December 1943 monthly comic book sales had climbed to 25 million copies!)If Superman was symbolic of the strength of the everyman during the Depression, he became symbolic of the American role in WWII and the need to extend that heroism to the oppressed in Europe and AsiaCaptain AmericaIf Superman represents the ideals of American culture, Captain America represented the nationalistic aims of a country about to enter a world war