gaze+&+characterization+notes

Cultural Criticism – looking at our world through different lenses

Male gaze – White gaze – looking at the world through a white person’s eyes.
 * Through a feminist lens this means showing the world and women, in arts and literature, from a masculine and heterosexual point of view. This presents women as objects of male pleasure and usefulness.
 * In America it is everywhere: history books, billboards, television, film, fashion magazines
 * It is the world as told by white people for white people. Most white Americans do not see it.

Characterization –
 * Direct characterization – when the author tells the reader something specific about what the character looks like or is thinking.
 * Ex.: The bad guy wanted to be cool, but he felt very nervous waiting to rob the bank


 * Indirect characterization – when the author gives information about the character that the reader must use to infer something about that person.
 * Ex.: The bad guy stood outside the back door of the bank in a fighter’s stance, but his hands were shaking and his forehead was sweaty.