Part Ia: Writing about Hong Kong
1. Narrating
or narration as a kind of representation
1.1.
What is “Hong Kong”? What is “Hong Kong Culture”?
1.2.
Hong Kong as a symbolic representation
1.3.
Narrating as a sort of representation
2. Narration
and narrative movement
2.1.
Narrative: any text that functions through the
processes and effects of representing time in texts.
2.2.
Plots and Story
-Plot is the narrative as it is read, seen or
heard from the first to the last word or image. That is, like a signifier, it is what the reader perceives.
-Story is the narrative in chronological order,
the abstract order of events as they follow each other. That is, like a signified, story
is what the reader conceives or understands.
2.3.
Time frame / characters / enjoyment
3. Characters
and characterization
3.1.
Characters are not “real people”!
3.2. Syntagm and paradigm
-A syntagm
is an ordered array of signs combined according to certain rules.
-A paradigm is a set of signs, any of which are
conceivably interchangeable within a given context.
3.3.
Example: 韓君婷廋身廣告
3.4. Convention/ stereotype
4. Narration, social realities and
power
4.1.
Time and characters and the basic elements of our
understanding of the social world around us.
4.2.
Narrative and personal experience
4.3.
Narrative situating ourselves in the world
5. Case Study: 《香港滄桑》上集序
5.1.
Plots: Chak Lap Kok, local festivals, local language, the
New Territories native people… …沈殿霞
5.2.
personal story: 沈殿霞
and her daughter
5.3.
“Hong Kong’s” historical connection to “China”
5.4.
Myth: please see the diagram below
State
Sovereignty (political, institutional)
|
Nation
(cultural, imaginative)
|
Everyday life, archaeological findings, personal stories,
festivals, … …
5.5. 沈殿霞：syntagm and paradigm
Thwaites,
Tony, Lloyd Davis and Warwick Mules. 1994. Tools for Cultural Studies: An
Introduction. Melbourne: Macmillan.