Perfect related text - COMMUNITY (TV Series) (2 Viewers)

[patrick7421]

Which episode goes well with Skrzynecki's poems?

 

[CommunityFan]

the poems are very broad and mostly related to WW2 trauma, It's not exactly easy for me to actually tell u a specific episode since skrzynecki's poems can easily refer to characters within the study group's brackgrounds and not episode specific

plus i haven't actually study at all about his poems, only scheme through the ideas

but i do recommend looking at Shirley, Annie, Pierce, Abed, Britta, or Jeff for character example (Not Troy)... season u might want to look at is season 3 in general, I'm not too sure what kind of questions will be on the exam but I'm pretty sure its very much related to belonging to some contemporary situations

but episodes do worthy to look at depending on the poems

- Pilot S01E01
- Introduction to Film S01E03
- Biology 101 - S03E01
- Documentry Filming Redux - S03E08
- Cooperative Caligraphy - S02E08 (i think the motif of the poem "postcard" goes quite parallel with "Pen" in this episode)
- Digital Estate Planning - S03E20
- Curriculum Unavailable - S03E19 (memories can manipulate sense of belonging)
- Home Economics - S01E08
- For a Few Paintballs More - S02E24 (Star wars episode, for some reason especially with school pride and the whole wars stuff fits to WW2 experience)

there's actually many more, but if you follow the show it will be more clear by you with what can be connected, the show might not be specifically exploring past traumatic issues that inhibits the sense of belonging, although the idea that the development of recovery and how greendale community college has similar role to Australia for new migrants, it will help you come to a good conclusion see with me, I connect 'Romulus My Father' biography/novel book. To analyze the stuff effective with community, we must know the context of the show especially for future episodes, you need to watch them first, its not a chore since the show is just so funny

 

[CommunityFan]

Thanks for those links Without Wings. The study guides I have yet to peruse look promising, but I will let the 2009ers judge instead (Never been a fan, but have to give them a chance right?)

I would like to contribute a piece written by a colleague (of a colleague) of mine: Kate Eliza O'Connor from St Scholastica's College (Schols).

Every word in the English language supposedly has an average of five different meanings, and the concept of “belonging” can be ambiguous. Belonging may relate to the notion of being an appendage: a sign of possession or a word denoting ownership. It could be a sense of place inspace – a feeling of belonging to the land, being enmeshed in an environment, a social class, a cultural context or a particular era. Belonging can mean the assignation of an identity, an act involving being pigeonholed, stereotyped, placed within a certain group as the result of societal assumptions. Belonging may also relate to the construction of a self through socialisation and the desire to belong. It can result in a sense of identification, a means of locating oneself within discourses and ideologies. Or it could lead to the downfall and deconstruction of individuality.

Essentially, as has been noted in external forums and discussions, belonging can be simplified (or 'reduced') to the basic premises of:

1) Ownership.
2) Cultural / Geographical connection (rooted in our personal histories).
3) 'Stereotypes' or categorisation of normative and deviant groups.
4) Subjectivity and self (at this point i would consider Freudian and Kristevan theories, particularly for the stronger students).
5) The tension between construction of identity and destabilisation of individuality.

I believe the ideas raised in the above example can be suitably expanded upon by interested students, particularly as a syllabus outcome is for them to develop "ways in which exploring the concept and significance of belonging may broaden and deepen their understanding of themselves and their world" (Prescriptions of the new HSC syllabus, page 10).

Thanks again for organising this new sub-forum Without Wings

http://community.boredofstudies.org/showthread.php?t=228945

whatever was in bold, fits perfectly to the study group's context

 

[CommunityFan]

Shirley Bennett's role of the "sassy" woman in the study group combined with her sainthood of Christianity proven to be much more than just an identity of belonging

 

[CommunityFan]

bump even if your not considering this as your text, its still a pretty awesome show

#SIXSEASONSANDAMOVIE

 

[CommunityFan]

Pierce's age may just be a number but his wisdom and experience might actually isolate him from the rest of the group's consciousness he belongs to the elite and hip society, yet he keeps missing out on part of human connection in his life until he met jeff, Britta, Abed and the rest in Spanish 101 study group

 

[CommunityFan]

considerations about belonging to a multi-dimensional parallel universes existed as one example with study group's "Darkest Timeline" (S03E04)

http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/The_Darkest_Timeline

Analysis
Each separate timeline represents the study group's interactions based on the absence of one of its members. When Troy leaves to get the pizza, the worst possible scenario occurs, suggesting that without him in the group, chaos erupts. Jeff's timeline is the complete opposite of this. His controlling nature, in addition to his inability to completely open himself up to the group, means that the best possible scenario occurs in his absence. It can be inferred that Troy is a more passive and calming influence on the group than Jeff whose presence unknowingly stirs up conflict.

image to consider

the symbolism of Darkest timeline through references of the universal black goatee symbol as an alternative evil side of characters from star trek with hint of comedy effect from the instruction guide

 

[CommunityFan]

bump, for anyone who's interested

 

[Sanjeet]

Holy shit. Nice.

 

[CommunityFan]

I will show you guys with concepts of belonging and will provide you examples as shown in community in my next posts once i get the time

 

[CommunityFan]

I thought these are nice belonging images

 

[CommunityFan]

BELONGING TO A PLACE:

By choice
Troy, Shirley, Pierce, Abed, Britta, and Jeff made a choice to go to Greendale community college for various reasons as explained in early season respectively: because its proximity to Troy's place, To get a degree in Business for her business knowledge, to make friends, unknown, To get back on track to her life and become something, to obtain his former law degree and to cruise in a low expectation school

By force or coercion
Annie was forced to choose Greendale community college due to her drug abuse breakdown that cost her SAT's (HSC Equivalent of NSW), her score forced her to choose Greendale as a starting point

By birth
Ben Bennet was Shirley's third son and was born inside an anthropology class during final exam in Greendale Community College

Temporarily or Permanently
All the study group members, Ben Chang, Dean Pelton may belong to Greendale community college temporarily, some relationships may be permanent including Shirley's relationship with her children as well as Troy and Abed bond seems to be unbreakable

Physically
Greendale Community College vicinity are divided into many blocks and classes with Cafeteria and administration in the centre of the map

Emotionally or Spiritually
Study Group bonds over Greendale has become a place that have helped them evolved. The Study groups experiences and adversity during their time in Greendale have created emotional and spiritual bond particularly seen in end of season 1 and until the end of season 3 as of this post

Provides safety
Greendale provide safety net for students as they accept all types of students from all walks of life. Degree in community college also ensured prospects of each students and the relationship bond created during each member in greendale creates sense of security with one another

 

[CommunityFan]

BELONGING TO A CULTURE:

By Birth
For obvious reasons, All characters were born in America, the college is shown to be very multicultural and various ages and gender from all walks of life, however each has a different backgrounds. Britta and Jeff were both born into a broken family one being from a possibly hippie non conventional family and the other being from a single mother respectively, Pierce were born into a wealthy family and live a comfortable environment, Annie was born into a normal family (except they were Jewish ) and grew up to be an independent person, Abed was born into a broken family leaving him to grow up in a world of pop culture

Initiation
Sense of community college experiences if it wasn't for Troy and Abed experiences during their initiation in the college as a more direct example. Otherwise experiences at the school itself with its low credibility meant that sense of initiation come from the development of the experiences students and staff alike in accepting their fate in their college, reflecting an unusual timeless sense of cultural belonging. Sense of familial initiation within study group come from the pilot episode during Jeff speech (see video in my first post, I don't want to spoil it here)

Restrictive
The rigidness of Shirley's belief and Pierce's sense of attitude from his "spoiled child upbringing" can sometimes put them out of place within the contemporary young culture. Abed pop cultural belonging (predominant in season 1 - 3 but somewhat reduced in the end of season 3) put a sense of restrictive sense to Abed's capability to connect with others socially. Annie's personal upbringing which are seemingly conservative can put uneasiness on her sense of personal development, however her maturity in season 3 has shown her with a beautiful transformation.

Rituals & Traditions
Greendale community college traditions in helding festivities such as school dances, parties, parade, festivals are a common activity throughout the series. Other ritual and traditions probably the obvious birthday parties and coming of age celebrations (see mixology certification for that reference, satiring the depressing alcohol culture in contemporary society)

Enlarges (not narrowing in this case) world view
Sense of connection with others presented in the school multicultural and age demographics. Jeff's development learning the meaning of family and friendship, accommodated by Abed's personal observations and retrospective of the state of the study group and other things like the school, contemporary culture as well as other people's understanding help communicate an open non judgmental sense of world view. Other people's characteristics and experiences from all walks of life including Pierce's knowledge about life, Britta's activist spirits, Annie'd driven intelligence and bookworm-ness, Shirley's sense of morality, Troy's innocence yet equally wise to Abed persona all contribute to enlarge sense of worldview and I haven't mention other staff members be in mind (See professor Duncan )

 

[CommunityFan]

Oh and since this is a TV series, obviously imagery techniques are profound and relevant in explaining you points about community

- Single format camera (help focus on characters)
- Medium shots (effectively portray's character's persona)
- Contrast of shades and lighting
- experiments on multi-camera focus (see, documentry episodes of community)
- Narrated story line (see pillows and blankets and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons episode)
- soft colours background
- mostly eye level and upper angle shots
- Nice tuneful music background (enhancing atmospheric sense of scenes, occur throughout series)

 

[CommunityFan]

http://rhetoricandpopculture.com/2011/04/08/analysis-2-community/

Ideology/Hegemony/Power

Community

Many of the most popular television series are comedies. Using comedy to make fun of conventional hegemonies can actually result in undermining stereotypical views and ultimately disproving existing hegemony. However comedy can also as an easy excuse for saying or doing something that can be offence or isn’t widely accepted as appropriate. It is often difficult to differentiate between when comedy has gone too far. It is also hard to distinguish when comedy can be used as a justification of why hegemony is being reinforced in certain situations. With the use of my artefact I will try to figure out if it is suitable to reinforce hegemony with the use of comedy in order to make a point of how exaggerated or ridiculous this hegemony is in comparison to real life.

The artefact that I will be using in order to support this idea is the television show Community. The premise of the show is about a group of very diverse individuals at different stages of their lives that happen to be attending a local community college called Greendale together. The main components that I will use to probe deeper into the issue are the characters and the setting.

In order to properly analyse if hegemony is actually being reinforced it is important to have a basic understanding of the main group of seven friends. They are Jeff Winger, Britta Perry, Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes, Shirley Bennett, Annie Edison and Pierce Hawthorne. Another reoccurring significant character is the group’s Spanish teacher Ben Chang (Senor Change). All the main characters have very specific almost one-note stereotypes of personalities according to their skin colour, occupation, or age (Barker). For the purposes of this paper we will take a closer look at three of the seven characters.

First, Shirley Bennett who is a divorced black Christian woman coming back to community college in order to take business classes to start her own baked goods business. The main appeal that the show uses as comedic relief is her religious beliefs and how that influences the way she lives her life. All the members in the group have mixed religious beliefs. Some of the hegemonies that are reinforced throughout the series are that Christian people are ignorant to other religions and Christian people always try to impose their beliefs on others. In this particular case I think that humour is used in a way to enhance these hegemonies.

Second, Pierce Hawthorne who is the elder Caucasian man that comes to Greendale to “keep his mind active”. The main hegemony that is reinforced is that old people are ignorant to changes in our world. The ongoing joke is the fact that Pierce is so ignorant to the changing world, yet he seems to want to do what that other younger people in the group want to do. We see Pierce make racially discriminating comments towards the black people in the group and we see him try sexually harass the women in the group. Many times we see pierce try out new gadgets and take about new idea in an attempt to understand what the younger crowd is talking about, but his attempts mostly result in offending someone. In this case I feel like that the comedy is just so exaggerated that it actually makes the audience realize that the things Pierce says and does is just ridiculously unrealistic that it actually ends up undermining the hegemony.

The show cleverly uses comedy in order to not reinforce hegemony was by stating the stereotypical behaviour blatantly and obviously. An example of this is Senor Chang who is an Asian man teaching Spanish at the Community College. In Senor Chang’s character often the ideology of racism to try to reinforce hegemony is used. One instance of this is when Senor Chang is introduced as the Spanish Teacher. Senor Chang himself says that it will be assumed that he would be teaching martial arts or some other “ancient” or “mystical” subject. The audience is able to see how their “normal” assumption of a Chinese teacher isn’t always true. Here we can see hegemony is almost oppositional in terms of the race of a person not determining what their interests are (Sellnow). That there was something in fact that was strange about a Chinese man teaching Spanish.

However by stating to the audience to put aside these assumptions hegemony is not reinforced.

One of the main strengths of this show is the fact that it’s comedy is witty and smart, and this results from the fact that the audience plays a crucial part in understand how obviously ridiculous the characteristics of the main people in the show are. Therefore by amplifying these characteristics (even though they reinforce hegemony) the show actually manages to portray through their smart comedy that the hegemony they are reinforcing is actually factual.

Another thing that is crucial in the success of the series is the setting. The events of the show take place in a community college and throughout the sitcom the dean is constantly trying to make his community college seem like it’s a prestigious place. The show ideology about community college is a place for odd misfits who don’t care much for their academics. This is mostly portrayed by the Dean of the college who is trying to make his college seems like a great place to study. However his attempts to make the school seem like a respectable place to get an education almost always ends in comedic failure. In this area of the series I feel that hegemony is actually reinforced because by the end of the episode always ends up with the community college being portrayed in a negative way. From this

When we take a step back look at this show and see exactly what it is ultimately trying to persuade our culture to think or do I think is to say that people do get along, and that even the people who are least likely to seek out to friends with each other can actually build really great relationships. This proposition may seem a little far*fetched when you see all the hegemonies I have presented to you. However, I think that that that whole point of a show like this; to take a realistic setting and characters (whose personalities have been amplified and exaggerated for the purposes of the show being a comedy), and actually make them a part of popular culture with all the hegemonies that surround them and still ultimately be able to say that they are friends at the end of the day. This is relevant to our culture because

So, does comedy in fact reinforce hegemony by undermining the seriousness of the issue or does it portray situations that are so ridiculously unreal that it cannot possibly be true for all people in society. It’s still difficult to tell where the line should be drawn in terms of what is appealing in a comedic way and what’s offensive. Just in this show we can clearly that comedy works in both ways. The question however is not to see how effective the show is in being comedic but if the comedy in the show influences people perception of people and places according to one set standard that the show upholds. In this case the main idea of the show is to portray “misfits” who are attending community college because they were unable to get earlier choices in life. The real task here is not for the producers, writers, and directors to figure out if comedy actually reinforced hegemony because their main goal to get as many people as they can watch the show. However we as viewers must be aware that the point of the show is not to give us a show is which we tune out our minds and just enjoy cheap jokes, but to in fact relish in the creativity and smarts that is takes to play with hegemonies that are in our society but still make viewers by the end of it know that this show is most definitely not based on real life standards and that they aren’t trying to make you believe or buy into hegemonies that may be prevalent in pop culture.

In conclusion we can see that there are indeed hegemonies represented in the show Community with the use of characters and setting. However, it is difficult even after analysing to decide whether comedy is actually reinforced hegemony or not. I feel like ultimately it’s up to the audience to decide for themselves whether they can look past the exaggerated hegemonies which are only for comedic purposes.

References

Barker, Cory. “2009-10 season wrap: Community.” Tv Surveillance. Word Press, 24/06/2010. Web. 3 Mar 2011. http://tvsurveillance.com/2010/06/04/2009-10-season-wrap-community/.

Sellnow, Deanna D. The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture Consiering Mediated Texts. United States of America: Sage, 2010. 74.

“Community Trailer.” Youtube. Web. 3 Mar 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBCE9oIuN24>.

 

[hayleym1]

I love this sshow but have never thought about doing it for belonging...until now! Best idea ever!

 

[CommunityFan]

its slowly catching on to people but I think this show will only be applicable until they change the syllabus in 2014 no idea what the english people will do but if the 2013 preliminary people do belonging, please please let them know!!! I'm dedicated to incorporate this favourite show into people's studies

 

[CommunityFan]

BELONGING TO A FAITH In the study group

By Choice
Pierce chose to be in a "Reborn again Buddhism" who believes that Buddha arrived on a meteor, Shirley turn to Jesus for salvation for her bad attitudes in the past, Britta chose to be an atheist because its morally secular and think that religion tears everyone apart

By Birth
Annie was born Jewish, Troy was born as Jehovah's witness, Abed was born as a Muslim (though seems to not practicing them)

Restrictive
Jehovah Witness is quite restrictive about alcohol drinking, Blood transfusions, celebration of birthdays (according to Troy) and celebration of Christmas. Christianity demonstrated by Shirley have issues with homosexuality or atheism. Shirley also portrayed initially as a narrower minded christian who recruits people into her religion before accepting and become a "modern christian".

By force
Shirley, enforced her christian beliefs especially during the "comparative religion" episode. Christmas episode of season one

Externally Symbolized
Claims that atheist believes in nothing is symbolised my Shirley's pun. "Ohh look what Britta bought, nothing.. just like her belief". Mockery of Pierce's belief on "Science of illusion" episode in season one and "Psychology of letting go" in season 2

Rituals and Traditions
Apart from the obvious Christmas episodes, the rituals of faith revolve around "Psychology of letting go" episode with Pierce's sacred beliefs. Most of these religious rituals are traditions are not thoroughly discussed, but it often appear enough throughout the series

Enlarges or Narrows worldview
Religion or a belief both enhances and narrows worldview. Enlarges via the compassion and empathy and the differing perspective developed overtime. However it narrows the perspective of the other beliefs evident throughout people's mockery or satiring scenarios

 

[Mdzabakly]

Hmmm do you think that greendale can be connected with the forest of arden in as you like ?.
Both are places where the socially rejected/ banished are stuck in, however it becomes a place which allows them all to create bonds with themselves and each other?

 

[CommunityFan]

Yes!! Greendale is basically where all the "misfits" go, due to its floor reputation and it can be seen as a place of opportunity since it is a "Community College" some sort of institution where people set the directions of their lives, much more prominent than high school as we know it

Remember the role of Dean, he quoted that Greendale is like his home and his students and staff are his family. The school literally forces sense of bond and personal development. Look at the descriptions about the study group in page 1 and 2, especially how by season 3 they become more of an organism rather than just "friends" which might be related to the love complication stuff. Focus on the role of Dean and how he is similar to the duke senior thingy

Remember also how the perceptions developed overtime due to the everchanging and various environments socially and physically that Greendale has to offer. Similarly maybe in the forest and throughout the play, I'm aware that the forest role is sort of the refuge (though not in detail). A place of recovery and stuff. I tried to read the summary but I ended up scheming it cos its too much xD)

Focus more on the relationships, I suggest you focus more on the relationship of Jeff, Annie and Britta. But my universal advice tips for any related text of belonging with Greendale is to look at the themes . Watch the show if you can , or watch the youtube videos or at least read the summaries on my recommended episodes in page 1.

also pay attention on the "nature heals" theme. Much like the Greendale role, through the development of friendship and low expectations as well as meaningful care with one another in Greendale, not only it shifted perceptions of the study groups confusion, it also elevates the status of the school also on that extended metaphor of "nature at works" and Jeff's changed perception of being a shallow self centred lawyer into someone "who cares" through loving and support