Lady Gaga, Literary Criticism, and the

Future of Knowledge

Lady Gaga, Literary Criticism, and the

Future of KnowledgeBrandy L. E. BuckinghamNorthwestern UniversityBrandy L. E. BuckinghamNorthwestern University

Considering transformative

changes in how and where learning

occurs.

The Internet is changing education.

The Internet is changing learning.

The Internet is changing knowledge.

Steinkuehler & Chmiel, 2006

Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008

Hayes, 2006

Bryant, Forte, & Bruckmann, 2005

Alvermann, 2009, 2011

What about everyone else?

March 11, 2010March 11, 2010

March 12, 2010

* Prison and Identity (Foucault's Discipline and Punish, Technological Entrapment, etc.)* Real + Fake Product Placement* Aestheticizing Murder* Homage to Michael Jackson

March 13, 2010

This is a thing that is possible, and that people

do.

Artists include things like symbolism, metaphor, and allusions in their work.

Someone other than the artist can analyze a work of art and identify these elements.

This applies to popular works like pop music and music videos, not just to “classics.”

People can debate about these elements. You can join this debate - agreeing, disagreeing, positing your own interpretations.

OH MY GOSH you were amazing! There's just so

many things I haven't realized but, reading this post was AWESOME. By the way, I'm a 17 year old brazilian and I got interested on it

when @ladygaga retweeted this link! Fantastic!

If we're having a Foucaultian discussion about the symbolic imagery of the prison,

what about the nature of panoptic observation? It's interesting to think

about in the context of Gaga's preoccupation with fame, and how much of her fame has been achieved through very bottom-up, decentralized methods

(e.g. YouTube), rather than the top-down, highly controlled mechanisms of the

panopticon.

in the beginning of the video,

u see the prisoners looking in pocket mirrors

i think that has some symbolism to it

vanity is a crime?

I think the writers of this article are maybe

looking for symbolism where there might not be any. ... Quit thinking so much. People need to

stop trying to find meaning in things where

there may not be any.

I don't place a great deal of stock in authorial intent. Just because meanings

the author didn't intend are present doesn't mean they're not there...

Significance isn't injected into a text from something outside it; it's discovered by everyone who

experiences the text. It's there because I found it, nevermind whether or not GaGa

meant to put it there.

did you also mention the plenty of fish site , i think its a celebration of

love ,in the darkest , sickest , place people still are

searching 4 love...

School game vs. Real-world game

TRANSFER“Links and retweets provide good examples of the

affiliative use of cultural markers and symbols. Generally, highly followed users RT or link to items that interest them and presumably their followers.”

(Marwick & boyd, 2011)

EpistemologicEpistemological Impact?al Impact?

Cultural Cultural MarkersMarkers

Discourse Discourse PracticesPractices

“Artist defines meaning” vs “artist has intentions, but audience constructs meaning”

The criteria this domain uses to construct and evaluate knowledge: e.g., an argument is more convincing if it’s supported with examples from the text or related works.

How prevalent are these potentially epistemologically significant events? What is the impact on an individual?

What is the overall impact of these events, taken as a whole, on the epistemology of modern teenagers?

How might this impact the design of learning environments for these learners?

Implications

Thank You

Dr. Meghan Vicks http://gagajournal.blogspot.com

Prof. Edd Taylor