Week 2: Cultural Flows: From Margins to Center

Are We Simply Recycling or Creating New Meaning with Existing Texts?

“Our culture may not be actually evolving, but rather merely recycling”

Wasko 1994 qtd in. Vaughan 2011.

Many argue that the film industry has lost its creativity and its ability to produce original content, these thoughts are coming from a generation that has seen the proliferation of several marvel reboots and countless American remakes of Japanese horror films, and Swedish thrillers. Alongside this discussion is that of a cultural homogenization through the proliferation of western cultural symbols. It is true we are currently immersed in a sea of recycled themes and franchises as Vaughan points out in his text “Maximizing Value: Economic and Cultural Synergies (176).” However, this is not because the industry has lost its creativity. On the contrary, the decentralization of the creative industries has been creative enough to turn the intensive production of cultural products into an extensive production as proposed by Wasko (qtd in. Vaughan). The exploitation of an extensive production in order to cater a changing market and audience is what creates this feeling of homogenization.

            A proper case study that can start to refute this notion about recycling cultural products as hindering to cultural evolution is Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2. Departing from Michael Latzer’s essay on “Media Convergence,” which sees convergence as a form of breaking uniformity by changing structures and systems of communication, we can argue that this film illustrates the different levels and implications of convergence within popular culture. Tarantino’s rhetorical convergence of sampling and mixing traits of different genres to create a new one illustrates how recycling is not hindering cultural evolution. On the contrary, Kill Bill is a text that brings e.g. Japanese manga and anime from the cultural margins to the center, see figure 2 & 3. Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2 can be considered a pastiche of recycled material, from traits of different genres to the misé en scene of specific film shots, see figure 1. It breaks genre and style structures so unabashedly by alluding to film icons, with intertextuality so specific that only connoisseurs of the genres involved would be able to fully understand and appreciate. In other words, it brings what Jenkins calls the ‘fragrance’ of foreign cultures to a mainstream audience.

Figure 1 Yellow suit worn by
Bruce Lee in Game of Death
Uma Thurman in Kill Bill

The globalization and convergence of media in contemporary society enable a transnational cultural flow that gives rise to niche markets and a new type of consumer-producer relationship. One could examine how the popularity and cult status of Kill Bill signals the pop cosmopolitanism Jenkins addresses in his text. “Pop Cosmopolitanism: mapping cultural flows in an Age of Media Convergence. Latzer’s rhetorical convergence and Jenkins’ global convergence, which allows us to “embrace cultural differences...[and] enter a broader cultural experience,”(155) are the driving forces behind the success of a cultural product that has been produced in a global context. As Jenkins explains “corporate hybridity depends on consumers with the kinds of cultural competencies that could only originate in the context of global convergence” (169). In this case, the consumer of Tarantino’s Kill Bill is one that is familiarized with the different genres involved such as Japanese and Chinese martial arts films and the American/spaghetti western. Therefore they comprehend and appreciate what the film is alluding to. These cosmopolitans have dived into other cultures and genres and can now act as connoisseurs that drive the popularity of such a film by opening a dialogue with those who are coming from the mainstream into this new conceptual world and Tarantino genre.

Figure 3 Showdown in the snow. O-ren Ishii and The Bride

Figure 2 Lady Snowblood manga/film

Today Kill Bill is acknowledged as a cult film of the early twenty-first century. Even those who have not had the opportunity to watch it, are well aware of the storyline, which involves a female victim/assassin, martial arts, an iconic yellow suit, a pussy wagon and like every single Tarantino film: a lot of bloody action. Our understanding of these traits derives from the socio-cultural convergence Latzer mentions in his text, in which traits of this new genre and story are adapted and appropriated within different media platforms. Therefore, our awareness of this cultural product is increased by the numerous times these elements have been referenced, reproduced and or adapted in other cultural products. An example of its latest employment has to be Iggy Azelea’s music video for the single Black Widow, which alludes to Tarantino’s kick ass victim & vengeful female assassin as seen in figure 4. This is an example of how culture is traveling from margins to center.

Figure 4 Iggy Azelea in Black Widow music video

Wasko could be on to something when she addresses her concerns on how this extensive production of cultural products might “limit the expression of society’s ideas, values, and general original creativity.”(177) However, this way of thinking perceives audiences as being passive recipients of culture and does not take into account how globalization, digital technology, and media convergence have turned what used to be passive audiences into active ones. Contemporary media has a networked nature, which enables a two-way complex communication proffered by globalization. This has greatly affected not only the transnational cultural transfer, but also the cultural production and consumption in contemporary societies. We are no longer surrounded by our own culture; instead we are constantly exposed to various other cultures through cultural products, which we actively decontextualize and recontextualize to fit our local culture.

The decentralization at the hands of the changing structures in society has changed the role of the consumer. This entails that we are not only active recipients of culture, we are also active producers. Jenkins perceives this as grassroots convergence, in which “consumers are central to the production, distribution and reception of media content (155).” This results in a heightened transnational cultural flow that allows different audiences to share experiences and knowledge with each other; instead of limiting the cultural flow of a society it opens it and acknowledges the multiculturalism that is present. The critique posed at the beginning demonstrates how globalization and the perpetual flux of information has increased our awareness in regards to other cultural products, and how these are often carefully selected, adapted, and appropriated by what some call ‘dominant’ cultures. However, adaptations and reboots are not something specific of this generation. On the contrary, they have been going on for a long time. The only difference is that today we have an array of platforms that allow us to experiment with these texts. Therefore, recycling of cultural products should not be seen as hindering to creativity. It should be perceived as the materialization of the interconnectedness that comes with globalization and media convergence.

AH – SH – MS – GV – MW

Thesis: The Americanization of entertainment is leading the western media to a homogenized based convergence.

Works Cited

Jenkins, Henry. ‘Pop Cosmopolitanism: Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence’, in: Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York & London: New York University Press, pp. 152-172.

Latzer, Michael. ‘Media convergence’, in: Ruth Towse & Christian Handke (eds.), Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy. Cheltenham & Northampton: Edward Elgar, pp.123-133.

Vaughan, Nathan. ‘Maximizing Value: Economic and Cultural Synergies’, in: Janet Wasko, Gragham Murdock & Helena Sousa (eds.) The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell, pp. 169-184.