Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sleep Dealers is a SciFi thriller that addresses themes of artificial intelligence technology, racial inequality through exploitation of labor, and ecological impacts on farming. This bilingual hour-and-a-half long film was released in 2008 by Alex Rivera. It begins with a young hacker, Memo, living on his father’s milpa in Oaxaca, Mexico. The futuristic setting isContinue reading “Final Post: A CRT and Ecocritical analysis of Sleep Dealers”

Ecocriticism and Critical Race Theory (CRT), while different in their immediate area of interest, are very similar in the way they look at subjects with a critical perception of noticing the gaps and inequalities that are present within our modern culture. Both theories of criticism focus on intersectionalities between subjects, and they both attempt toContinue reading “Post 9: Intersections of CRT and Ecocriticism”

For those who have seen James Cameron’s Avatar, it becomes hard to deny that the film offers an ecological perspective with an environmental message. The Na’vi, the native people of the planet Pandora, are portrayed as enlightened individuals, interconnected with the synchronicities of nature. In contrast, the humans from Earth are portrayed as profit-hungry conquistadors,Continue reading “Post 8: Avatar and Ecocriticism”

Hayao Miyazaki’s, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, is an anime film from 1982 that features commentary on human interaction with the environment that is still relevant today. The film begins by introducing the audience to Lord Trupa, a traveller who visits neighboring cities only to discover that many of them have been consumedContinue reading “Post 7: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”

In today’s meat industry, consumption is happening at a much faster rate than production. To meet this need, people are turning to science, in the hope the genetically modified meats can serve as a “solution” to meet the needs of meat consumption. In the controversy surrounding genetically modified meats, those in favor of the practiceContinue reading “Post 6: Okja and Ecocriticism”

The Purdue Owl website provides a brief description of “Ecocriticism,” which is described by Glotfelty as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment.” The Purdue webpage shows the history of the development of Ecocriticism and separates the ways of thinking about it into two waves (the old and the new). Still,Continue reading “Post 5: Ecocriticism”

Up until being assigned to watch Babel for the purpose of this course, I had neither seen nor even heard of this film. This was surprising to me since the two American stars of the film, Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, are so consistently prevalent in the face of modern Hollywood. It’s rare when aContinue reading “Post 4: Babel”

When Black Panther came out in 2018, I remember reading an article (which of course I can’t seem to find now) about how the year itself was such a incredible time for black cultural identity in America. 2018 was the year Beyoncé headlined Coachella as the first black female artist to do so (aka “Beychella”). 2018 wasContinue reading “Post 3: Black Panther”

From the readings for this week, I have come to the understanding that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is essentially a theoretical framework that seeks to understand and dissect the construction of racial identities and racial structures within society that effectively either uplift or (most often) marginalize certain racial groups within a socio-cultural context. The Purdue pageContinue reading “Post 2: Critical Race Theory”

As I was gathering together images to represent “my media influences” (shown above), I realized about half-way through– Whoops! These are all men. I had Johnny, Michael, Chuck, and was about to go for Stevie, when I thought, I need some more women up here. Sure, Potter has a female author, but I wasn’t sure I wanted her toContinue reading “Post 1: Cultural Criticism and Media Influences”