Zombies as consumerist metaphore.

I have chosen Stephen Harper's Zombies, Malls, and the Consumerism Debate:
George Romero's Dawn of the Dead from Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900-present), Fall 2002, Volume 1, Issue 2

http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2002/harper.htm.

I have chosen this piece as it not only affirms the academic argument that zombies can be interperated as a metaphor for consumerism. It also challenges this concept and makes suggestions for alternative readings of the zombie.
Due to the dual representations of this journal article is provides my FYP with valuable support by providing academic referencing for both the existing idea which I aim to question, and the idea's which I aim to propose.

I will support my academic source by referencing George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead which Harpers text references.

I will include three question in my presention which will be;

What, if anything, identifies the trailer for Dawn of the Dead with consumerism?

If it is the Zombies who represent consumerism, why is it the living who spend the majority of the time partaking in consumerist acts?

If the setting of the Mall is removed, would this text appear as strongly as a consumerist text?

'How Photography Lies, Even When it's Telling the Truth' by John Edwin Mason, and 'Sentiment' by June Howard

I've chosen the article 'How Photography Lies, Even When It's Telling the Truth: FSA Photography and The Great Depression' from John Edwin Mason's blog, and the keyword article 'Sentiment' by June Howard as the focus of my presentation. Sentiment can be defined as the perception of, or feeling of emotion, thought or sense toward an object, person, story or thought. Howard uses the term 'sentiment' in direct relation to the perception of emotions as being "social and historical", and discusses how feeling and emotion can be structured, even as they appear to be instinctive and personal. One of the main focuses in my FYP is the manipulation of images (mainly photography, and the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photography programmes) in order to elicit an emotional response from their intended audience, which is the subject of Mason's argument in his article. My presentation will compare the two articles' views on the use of imagery to elicit emotion and feeling, and discuss the notion of manipulation in photography, with a focus on Depression era photography.

Barack Obama and Pamela Perry's article 'White'

I have chosen Barack Obama’s inaugural speech ‘A More Perfect Union’ because of the way is was meant to help bring the country together. In the view of the fact that the speech was made, it was the fact that he really had no option to do it. The speech expresses the ideological outlook on how America will be, it can be said that not all citizens are in agreement.

I will be using White from Keywords for American Culture Studies, as it has an interesting contrast to what Barack Obama’s speech was really mean for. I have chosen this particular article for the reason that the article talks about the views of white people, in how they see themselves as a race compared to African Americans.

The following link is Barack Obama’s ‘A More Perfect Union’