University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Tao of South Park: Dissonant Visual Culture and the Future of Politics

Gournelos, Theodore Peter

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Description

Title
The Tao of South Park: Dissonant Visual Culture and the Future of Politics
Author(s)
Gournelos, Theodore Peter
Issue Date
2008
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Kent Ono
Department of Study
Communications
Discipline
Communications
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Mass Communications
Language
eng
Abstract
A self-consciously oppositional institution that appropriates (and protects itself with) a lucrative brand identity and history of comedic or animated commentary, South Park is an example of how popular culture can interact not only with and react against dominant ideology, but also how such cultural productions are sanctioned and desired by a media system that requires audience loyalty. In South Park silences and traumas become apparent as silences and as traumas, internalizing their own repression and displacing it into poignant social commentary. This does not prove agency or effect, and indeed can be self-destructive, but it does demonstrate that because culture is made of shifting and evolving texts it is both possible to demonstrate the potential for and locations of emancipatory politics. The Tao of South Park seeks to chart such shifts and evolution, bridging gaps between community, media and the political.
Graduation Semester
2008
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/86591

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