Michelle Peterson On Spectacle

Usually when reading the previous chapters, I side with both modernists and post modernists, and can’t label myself as being one or the other. However, this chapter, and what the modernists think about “spectacle” has bothered me the most, and when it comes to spectacle I can safely say that I am a postmodernist.

The modernists think that “spectacles encourage passivity in spectators-who watch for easily consumed pleasure” (108). I couldn’t disagree more!! Spectacle is a form of political communication. Spectacle is used by all sorts of minorities not because it encourages passivity but because it encourages nonconformity. When reading this chapter, I immediately thought of Luis Valdez and his use of performance to educate migrant farm workers about the need for a union. With the help of Luis Valdez, farm workers went on strike and were able to raise their wages. Obviously, Valdez’s use of spectacle was useful and his plays are still performed today and are used to attack politics and inform the public. His plays are performed in a way that all walks of life can understand, and many people, just not Latinos, can relate to his plays.

Also, modernist thinkers have labeled Black cultures as “traditionally oral and embodied rather than literate” (109). First of all, the reason why this culture is an oral one is because people like the modernists didn’t allow blacks to read. Blacks were forced to sneak and teach each other to read, and if they got caught they would suffer serious consequences. What other choice did African Americans have other than to become an oral culture? Then, for the modernists to say that they are traditionally illiterate, I remind them Sojourner Truth was illiterate, yet she was able to act with power and authority.