「미디어 문화연구」를 통한 미국연구: 미국 영화와 텔레비전 드라마를 중심으로

Abstract

For the past few decades, media culture has been the dominant form of culture which shapes us and provides materials for social reproduction and change. Media culture has also developed its unique methods and analyses of contemporary media texts such as film, television, pop music, advertisement, M-TV, and others to effectively explore their nature and effects. It even employs the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Afghan War as cultural text reflecting contemporary American culture. Through studies of American film and television, this thesis argues that media and cultural studies can provide a series of new possibilities of illuminating the essence of contemporary American culture and society.

Drawing on American media and cultural studies, this study attempts to examine the tensions that exist within the multifaceted and multicultural aspects of American life. Exploring the changing debates among the theories of media and cultural studies, special consideration is given to such controversial issues as race, ethnicity, gender, class and identity. For that purpose, this paper examines and reads a number of major American film texts, employing techniques and arguments both from British and American cultural studies, in order to establish what has been unique about the American experience.

It is the primary aim of this paper to highlight American distinctiveness through examining various forms of cultural expression in relation to their social and political contexts in this age of media and cultural studies. By exploring and analyzing contemporary media culture, and by interpreting media-based America, this study finally attempts to answer the question, What is America and what is American?