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Myth in American Advertising after 1945
Linhart, Marek ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (referee)
This thesis is designed as a comprehensive analysis of the advertising discourse within some pre-set constrains. Specifically, the main area of interest is the realm of American print advertising after 1945. Within these limits, advertising is understood as a mode of language, the chief semantic unit of which is a form of Barthesian myth, a superstructure divorced from reality that supersedes de Saussure's semiotics of the sign. The bulk of this thesis is then a diachronic analysis of the development of these myths and their role as both mirrors and catalysts of a whole range of stereotypes, value hierarchies or fixed ideas firmly embedded within American collective consciousness. The primary materials for this analysis are then various specimen of the advertisements themselves, carefully selected because of their representativeness, influence or significance within the advertising realm. The main theoretical framework rests on Marx's understanding of the commodity as a certain type of fetish, Barthes's description of the structure and social function of the myth, Baudrillard's and Debord's theories on such notions as the society of spectacle, the reign of simulacra and hyperreality, Benjamin's understanding of the uniqueness of representation and its aura and finally McLuhan's detailed accounts of...
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Myth in American Advertising after 1945
Linhart, Marek ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (referee)
This thesis is designed as a comprehensive analysis of the advertising discourse within some pre-set constrains. Specifically, the main area of interest is the realm of American print advertising after 1945. Within these limits, advertising is understood as a mode of language, the chief semantic unit of which is a form of Barthesian myth, a superstructure divorced from reality that supersedes de Saussure's semiotics of the sign. The bulk of this thesis is then a diachronic analysis of the development of these myths and their role as both mirrors and catalysts of a whole range of stereotypes, value hierarchies or fixed ideas firmly embedded within American collective consciousness. The primary materials for this analysis are then various specimen of the advertisements themselves, carefully selected because of their representativeness, influence or significance within the advertising realm. The main theoretical framework rests on Marx's understanding of the commodity as a certain type of fetish, Barthes's description of the structure and social function of the myth, Baudrillard's and Debord's theories on such notions as the society of spectacle, the reign of simulacra and hyperreality, Benjamin's understanding of the uniqueness of representation and its aura and finally McLuhan's detailed accounts of...
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