Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Sociological approach of strangeness by Georg Simmel

2. The paradox of distance/familiarity

3. Activity: trade

1. The stranger as a unique sociological category

Distance -near/remote-

Society -inside/outside-

Modern Stranger

“Distance means that he, who is close by, is far, and strangeness means that he, who also is far, is actually near” (Simmel, 126).

The stranger . . . intrudes . . . into a group in which the economic positions are actually occupied-the classical example is the history of European Jews.” (Simmel, 1950, p. 403)

No outsider, no wanderer : comes today and stays tomorrow.

Close to someone from a distance and of being far away from someone who is in our immediate environment.

societal benefit of strangers in the context of trade.

“The state of being a stranger is of course a completely positive relation; it is a specific form of interaction” (Simmel 126).

WELCOMING THE STRANGER: SHAUN TAN’S THE ARRIVAL AND THE MIGRANT EXPERIENCE

  • -Origin
  • -Not belonging
  • -Space paradox : mixture of opposites. Complete liberation and absolute fixation.
  • -Independence on [moving-staying] & [behavior].
  • -Social distance.

"Positive" Relation

objectivity

Strangerhood in the Metropolis

Positive for the stranger? For the society?

As Robert E. Park, the American sociologist who introduced Simmel’s theories to U.S. scholars, stated: “The emancipated Jew was, and is, historically and typically the marginal man, the first cosmopolite and citizen of the world. He is, par excellence, the ‘stranger,’ which Simmel, himself a Jew, has described with such profound insight and understanding” (1928. p. 882).

Graphic novel

Migrants, Shuan Tan (2007).

Previous concepts

Everyone is a stranger there.

Nothing is what he is used to.

They don't even speak his language.

1. Other

2. "Extraneus"

3. Modern Society

4. Objectiveness

Arrival of a stranger in a system

Georg Simmel, “The Stranger”.

The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp. 402 - 408.

Lost in Translation, Dir. Sophia Coppola, 2003

17·12·2013

Julia Sinusía

The Mission, 1986. Roland Joffé

5.GENERAL SIMILARITY

6.GENERAL STRANGENESS

K-PAX, 2001. Iain Softley

objective attitude

POSITIVE participation

“He is not radically committed to the unique ingredients and peculiar tendencies of the group, and therefore approaches them with the specific attitude of ‘objectivity.’ . . (Simmel, 1950, p. 404).

Freedom

Sen to Chihiro, 2001. Hayao Miyazaki

(....) examine conditions with less prejudice” (Simmel 127).

Distance: generic humanity / intimacy.

Element of nearness is general.

Die Weisse Massai, 2005. Hermine Huntgeburth

Dominating position of stranger - judges.

Canino, 2009. Giorgos Lanthimos

Is also dangerous -blame.

“The objective individual is bound by no commitments which could prejudice his perception, understanding, and evaluation of the given” (Simmel, 1950, p. 405)."Superordination and Subordination" Pp. 216-221

Revolutionary Road (2008). Sam Mendes.

Receives

confidences

Dogville, 2003.

Lars von Trier

Stranger is:

far = unknown

close = possible to get to know him.

not connected to anyone significant = no threat

Dances with Wolves, 1990. Kevin Costner

General stresses what is NOT common.

Strangers not individuals, but part of a social type.

The element of distance is also general.

Conclusion: composition of these two aspects (distance, nearness) defines the stranger.

Amélie (2001). Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Analysis "Lost in Translation"

Desorientation.

physically close but all alone in a faceless crowd of strangers.

Social type between stranger and flaneuse?

Gazing at Tokyo

-Comic acceptance of strangeness

-Company

Desoriented:

-TV

-Language barriers

-Curtains, shower...

-Fascinated by city lights.

-Karaoke

-Stripper

communication and interaction to create something new.

company

"flaneuse"

TV

  • Panoramic view of the city

  • No Tower as the Eiffel defined by Roland Barthes in “the Eiffel Tower” (1979).

Lost in Translation, Dir. Sophia Coppola, 2003

Blasé

One cannot look down upon Tokyo as upon a living map as one can in Kobe and Hakodate. Nor can one assume an order one cannot see, as in Kyoto. It is difficult to comprehend cities you cannot see all of from somewhere.

(Donald Richie, 32. Tokyo: A view of the city )

languaje

Charlotte

Graduated in Philosophy

Married to a photographer -work in Tokyo.

spends time alone in the hotel room, or wandering in the city

Crisis of identity? Looking for herself.

Bob Harris

Hollywood actor

Wife and two children in L.A.

Crisis of the 50. Marriage crisis.

Jet Lag, disorientation.

Blasé attitude

An individual can be a member of a system in a spatial sense, but not be a member in a social sense (McLemore, 1970)

“Does it get easier?”

Final scene : no longer a stranger?

Stereotpyped?

While wandering she moves from outside the society towards the inside.

Objective attitude (Simmel)

System described through stranger. Through their prejudices.

“Does it get easier?”

Strangers meet and project their own individual alienation onto the city

DRIFTING

Nearness and strangeness at the same time?

“dehumanizes the Japanese people by portraying them as a collection of shallow stereotypes who are treated with disregard and disdain.

lost-in-racism.org

Whisper

Questions regarding Simmel's ideas

First look: elevator. Recognition of common features (strangers, foreginers, americans). Connects them both automatically? (General similarity, Simmel).

Strangeness in Intimacy (Simmel). They feel unique?

-From beginning they understand the features that make them close and the ones that make them far. No romantic because they know what unites them.

Are they strangers for each other?

-Their relation may be based precisely in that strangeness.

The seek of meaning of their life as stranger and Tokyo drifting overlap?

-Related, it's a way of inscribing, a way of establish a position.

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi