Curriculum Inside and

Outside School:
Representations of Fine
Art in Popular Culture
KERRY FREEDMAN

Visual imagery is a powerful form of representation. Much of the power of imagery is found
in its interpretative character [Ewen, 1988;
Freedberg, 1989]. As well as having physical
beauty, an image objectifies meaning that is at
once transitory and tightly bound to any fine art
painting, clothes advertisement, computer
graphic sequence, or postmodern film. This
objectification of meaning emerges through
interpretations of the relationship between what
is represented, the object representing, and the
representation; between the signified, the signifier, and the sign.
As theorist Hans Robert Jauss [1970/1982]
explains for literary texts, the interpretation of
newly encountered images are based on signifieds that have been defined through the previous use of related signs. This intergraphical
process is didactic because it involves meanings
that are learned and taught by social groups
[Freedman, 1994]. An image becomes an object
through the work of an artist, the image is
reconstructed in the memory of viewers [some
of whom will be other artists], it is related to
previous knowledge, integrated with other
images that have been created by other people,
and recalled for various purposes, including the
purpose of interpreting and creating new
images.
Through mixes of popular visual culture and
fine art, new images are produced and new
meanings of art (as a category) emerge. In the
process, what it means to be cultured is transformed. For example, art is purchased by banks
NSEAD, 1997

and corporations, not only as an financial

investment, but also to legitimate their industry
and make their work a part of high culture and
achievement. Because the art is to influence
peoples thinking about the business, it is not
kept in a vault; it is displayed, often in a special
galley space in the workplace. Displaying the
collection in this context influences signification. The individual works of art are not the
only signs here. The gallery and collection
become signs signifying that the purposes of
banking and industry are the purposes of art;
that is, the enrichment of life. In the process,
corporate meanings become attached to art, not
only to a particular painting or sculpture, but to
art as a concept. In contemporary industrialised
society, art is also represented as, for example,
dishonest, truthful, freeing, dangerous, vital
and trivial.
These various representations of art raise several questions that relate to art education: How
is it possible that one concept can be represented in so many varied, even contradictory,
ways? Through what vehicles is art represented
in these ways? How do these representations
work to influence peoples conceptions of art?
How are they able to work in similar ways for
some people and do they work differently for
others? What can we say people know about
art? And what, then, can we teach about art?
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate some
of the ways in which information about fine art
is socially constructed. The paper has three sections. In the first section, theory concerning rep-

138

KERRY FREEDMAN

resentation, communication, and popular culture is discussed. The discussion draws on

poststructural analysis, cultural critique, and
response theory. The second section focuses on
mass media representations of fine art. This section illustrates a modernist trend toward a use
of fine art in film to signify and reify cultural
dichotomies and, in the process, produce and
reproduce contradicting conceptions of art. In
the final section of the paper, issues concerning
students experiences with fine art outside of
school and the use of popular culture in school
are analysed. There, I focus on the educational
implications of visual knowledge that has been
constructed for particular uses in the popular
media. I argue that this construction shapes students learning about art in school and, therefore, should be addressed in curriculum.

Art and representation

In order for an investigation of representations
of fine art to be carried out, the character of
representation must be considered. Representations are pastiches [Barthes, 1974] or cultural
collages [Clifford, 1988]. They are made up of
and refer to a combination of possible meanings, rather than a single, unified, intended
meaning. A realm of meanings is loosely
attached to signs which people construct and
teach each other in order to facilitate communication.
The role of audiences in communication
Recently, perspectives on the relationship
between representations and audiences have
changed [e.g. Best & Kellner, 1991; Morley,
1992; Thompson, 1994]. Early communication
theorists such as Adorno and Horkheimer, as
well as structuralists and semioticians, focused
to a great extent on the sending and receiving
of messages in their analyses of technological
communications, but little on the appropriation
of information by audiences. This appropriation
is given greater attention in current communications theory because the earlier views of communication only tell part of the story. Now,
theory tends to focus more on the sugges NSEAD, 1997

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

tiveness of signs and the ways in which meaning is constructed by audiences. Based on hermeneutics, this approach to audience
involvement emerged from considerations of
the reading of literary texts in relation to individual lived experience. In contrast to the earlier view, that an author controls the message
that will be taken from a text, recent theory has
attended to the importance of interpretation, for
example, in relation to history [Jauss, 1982],
authoritative communities [Fish, 1982], and use
[Eagleton, 1983]. As sociologist and communication theorist David Morley [1992] argues,
approaches to the way in which images are
received and understood that focus on either
artist or audience are implausible because they
do not take into account the complex, social
conditions of the process. The process is more
likely a highly interactive relationship between
imagery and audience which is both similar and
different for individuals and groups.
Advertisements particularly illustrate the process of establishing meaning in relation to signs.
Advertisements link together arbitrary sets of
written and pictorial signifiers [e.g. Williamson,
1978; Poster, 1994] that carry with them certain
cultural associations. In a commercial, images
that people associate with nature, youth, and
sex are combined with a soft drink, deodorant,
or detergent. Such an arbitrary link does not
refer back to some reality, but instead creates a
new reality, or what Baudrillard calls a hyperreality, that is didactic. Using such juxtapositions,
advertisers attempt to educate people to think
in relation to the reality they construct, so that
we will act as consumers.
With images, advertisers not only sell products; they sell politics [e.g. Giroux, 1994; Goldman, 1992; Williamson, 1978]. Through messages of identity, desire, and power, advertisers
seem to speak to individuals, while attempting
to shape mass consciousness. Advertising
images are largely conservative and attempt to
engage their intended audience in a relationship with characters that will be pleasurable and
give the viewer a sense of being in control.
Recently, advertisers have begun to shift from
using subtle message techniques to sending
messages in overt, even shocking, ways as fine

KERRY FREEDMAN

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

artists have done, in part, to grab audiences

attention.
The new world of technology and the blurred
boundaries of culture have made popular culture increasingly pedagogical as well as political
[Giroux & Simon, 1989]. Studies of student
responses to popular culture can help us understand how they learn from images. Beach and
Freedmans [1992] study of adolescents appropriation of advertising representations of gender demonstrated that students often conceptually locate themselves in advertisements and
even used the fictional world in the advertisement as a standard against which reality should
be judged. This study indicated that students do
not view images critically unless they are
specifically taught how to do so. As a result,
their appropriation from images can result in
knowledge (such as gender stereotypes) that is
inconsistent with goals of schooling (such as
equity).
Making meaning out of images of art
Multiple, contradictory meanings are inherently
suggested by representations [Derrida, 1976].
For example, artists are represented as having
chaotic studios and lives, as unconcerned about
their own physical appearance and the chaos
around them, and yet immersed in the appearance of their art. To produce order from chaos
makes the production seem all the more
important and difficult. The chaos is supposedly
in an artists mind, as well as the physical world.
Artists are represented as struggling heroically
with the unseen demons of madness, and yet,
are considered gifted by characters and audience. Artists are seen as having control over
nothing but their work, and even their art is just
beyond their reach at times. They create, but art
has a life of its own. To produce art takes hard
work and discipline. Yet, art appears through
an artists body, in uncontrollable spurts, sometimes when the artist least expects it, and at any
time of the day or night, certainly not only
within regular work hours.
These representations both enslave and glorify artists, are reproduced by artists, and serve
broad cultural purposes. The artist in popular
media is a mythological character created, in
NSEAD, 1997

139

part, to symbolise public and private ideals of

Western culture. Artists are a sign for private
desires of sexuality and freedom, and yet representations of artists suggest public achievement and enlightenment, even beyond knowledge and reason. Artists are represented as
extremely emotional beings that push the limits
of society, take chances, and do things others
would not dare. In the past, women have been
forbidden to study art beyond household decoration and entertainment (for the sake of men)
because of the dangers to purity attached to the
profession and the belief that women who were
considered artistic by nature should be kept
under tight control. Artists sexuality is considered so closely connected to their art that
they have been considered promiscuous by nature or by profession. They have no shame,
because they answer to some higher calling
which elevates them above common people
and common values. In contrast, artists are also
represented as existing on a high moral plane
and working in the service of a great force that
is inherently good. Many representations of premodern artists have focused on religious fervour tied to a gift of artistic talent from God.
Representations of modern artists have shifted
in focus to a secular type of higher calling, such
as arts sake (art defined as inherently good) or
individual self-expression (defined as good
through associations with psychological health
and a democratic political milieu).
American popular culture about fine art has
been largely produced from a modernist perspective that particularly promotes the idea of
extreme individualism. Artists are represented
as creating entirely unique ideas in a mind separated from society, while at the same time
doing what is best for society. We tend to be
shown the artist at work or surrounded by
work; that is, the artist in his or her medium.
In part, this physical environment highlights the
artists struggle with the isolation that is
assumed to come with artistic creation. Images
of an artist surrounded by his or her work may
suggest that the artist is shielded, in a sense, by
art. An artists work becomes his or her intermediary with the world; the only way an artist

140

KERRY FREEDMAN

can survive in the world is through this

mediated environment.
In the following section, the post-World War
II emergence of an American fascination with
the fine art community will be discussed as it
has been reflected in popular film and television. After World War II, American art educators shifted their attention to teaching children about what fine artists, and other members
of the fine art community, do in their professional capacities. Public attention also
focused on artists personalities and personal
lives, particularly those who had highly fictionalised biographies, such as Michelangelo,
Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh. The representations of these artists in film helped to
shape peoples conceptions of art.

Art in film: the image in the

pictures
Hamlet proposed that art holds a mirror up to
nature. When art is about art, a complex hall
of mirrors is created that seems to infinitely
reflect and distort the image. Because film is
itself a visual medium, it involves the use of
graphic devices to create meaning. Therefore,
films about fine art have multiple layers of
meaning that must be analysed if we are to
understand the ways in which art is represented.
Film-makers use graphic devices, such as
composition, colour scheme, and design. They
reference other forms of art by using similar
styles, such as neorealism, expressionism, or
surrealism. They recycle fine art and architecture through the design of scenery, lighting,
costumes, face and figure selection (casting),
and various photographic techniques.
Film-makers also combine these devices with
fragments of historical and fictional accounts of
fine art, such as a biographical sketch of an artist, the creation of a masterpiece, or action
located in a museum. They juxtapose these
fragments in a way different from reality, creating a new reality in the process. Art is used
as content in films for purposes of creating an
interesting story, stating a social message, drawing out an emotion, reinforcing a moral value,
NSEAD, 1997

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

making a political statement, etc. These functions of art in films result in intended and unintended interpretations which reify old ideas and
generate new ideas about art.
From 1950 to 1965, several serious and comic
Hollywood films focused on fine art as
important parts of their plots. Some of these
films were based on biographies of artists,
which were also popular reading at the time.
The plots were of two major types. One type
was a serious film about psychological struggles
for individualism and independence by famous
pre-twentieth century artists. The second type
of film was often comic and focused upon a
representation of fictional contemporary artists
who did not want to do real work and conned
the public with abstract and non-objective
images while living a Bohemian lifestyle. The
comic films also represented artists as alienated
from society, but for different reasons. The artist-heroes in the dramatic films tended to be
alienated by genius (and a slightly unbalanced
mind). Genius was their character flaw because
it prevented them from functioning normally in
mainstream society. The artists in the comedies
were usually flawed by laziness and dishonesty.
Interestingly, the art produced by these comedic characters often superficially resembled
Jackson Pollocks drip paintings.
Examples of the first type of film include
Moulin Rouge [1952] directed by John Houston
and starring Jose Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec
with Zsa Zsa Gabor as Jane Avril, Lust for Life
[1956] directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh with
Anthony Quinn playing Gauguin, and The
Agony and the Ecstasy [1965] directed by Carol
Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II.
These films portray artists as struggling individuals of great genius and madness. Their
madness is cast as a precipice over which the
artist may fall at any moment. The artists have
psychological and physical conditions that
result in their alienation from society. For
example, The Agony and the Ecstasy includes
cloaked references to Michelangelos homosexuality: a prostitute is asked if the artist is in
a brothel and she laughs saying that he would

KERRY FREEDMAN

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

never go to such a place. Later, the artist tells a

woman who tries to seduce him that he is
incapable of feeling love for a woman. These
portrayals are not simply presented as parts of
a biographical sketch. They are meant to signify
various types of social abstinence due to a
devotion to art. The artist is portrayed as wilful,
free thinking, and above all, an individual who
works feverishly, and in great psychological turmoil at the expense of health, companionship,
and all normal life activities. In the process,
idiosyncrasies of personality, such as short-temperedness, are generalised in these films to
reflect the artistic temperament.
The artist represented in these films is on one
level a free individual, working for and by himself, and on another level driven by a self and
a society he (these artists are males) cannot control. For example, Moulin Rouge makes reference to a world moving away from aristocratic
privilege in the artists comment to his father,
Count Toulouse, that the painters new world is
one of the streets. References to the limitations
society puts on artists are also common in these
films. The Agony and the Ecstasy represents the
artist as struggling against several social as well
as psychological conditions that signify a
dichotomy between society and artist. Pope
Julius, who desires to have the Sistine Chapel
ceiling painted, signifies the sociopolitical conditions of art; Michelangelo signifies the
emotional and personal. Each needs, and yet
attacks, the other. In one scene following the
Popes direction to do the ceiling, Michelangelo
responds angrily, Art is not politics...It is inspiration. When the artist admits that he has not
followed the Popes directions for the ceiling,
he explains: I could not give Your Holiness
something mediocre, even if it was what you
planned. A guard interjects to Julius, It was not
what you planned. The Pope returns, I
planned a ceiling, he plans a miracle.
The Agony and the Ecstasy illustrates a range
of modernist contradictions inherent in stereotypes of artistic production and talent. For
example, at one point, the young Raphael discusses the social controls of the artist with Michelangelo. Raphael says to the other artist, For,
what is an artist in this world but a servant?...We
NSEAD, 1997

141

must bow, fawn, kiss hands to be able to do

the things we must do. Or die. We are harlots,
always peddling beauty at the doorsteps of the
mighty. Michelangelo says, If it comes to that,
I wont be an artist. Raphael responds, Youll
always be an artist. You have no choice. Later,
speaking of why he chose to paint God as
benign, Michelangelo explains, I am grateful
for His gift to me. Pope Julius says, The most
perfect of gifts...What you have painted there,
my son, is not a portrait of God, its a proof of
faith. Michelangelo responds, I havent felt that
faith needed proof. Julius replies, Not if youre
a saint or an artist. I am merely a Pope.
These dramatic films of the 1950s and 1960s
represented art as a struggle for excellence, a
reflection of genius, and an ideal that maintained and yet progressively transformed culture. The artist-hero, fought against all odds to
express himself, benefit humanity, and find, or
create, truth. At the same time, the artist is represented as mentally unstable, anti-social and
egotistical. Art signifies what is culturally valuable, but also what is ignored, ridiculed, and
idiosyncratic.
The second type of post-war representation
of art in popular media can be found in several
television and film comedies. For example, the
spy spoof series, Get Smart, included several
programmes that focused on caricatures of the
fine art community involving artists as criminals
and criminals posing as artists. In a more recent
private investigator series, Remington Steele, an
evil art auctioneer steals Renaissance masterpieces, forges them, and sells the forgeries to
buyers who, thinking they are buying the stolen
masterpieces, attempt to take them out of the
country. The forged masterpieces are to be
taken out of the country by being disguised as
drip paintings (a reference to Jackson Pollocks
work). The drip paintings are valued by some
of the characters in the programme because the
auctioneer has the forgery buyers pay high
prices for them. They are produced by a female
artist the auctioneer has conned into believing
is making great art because buyers are paying
great sums. (As a jab at another art form, the
auctioneer also uses Tchaikovskys 1812 Over-

142

KERRY FREEDMAN

ture turned up loud on earphones to torture a

kidnap victim.)
The irreverence of the avant garde (and
particularly Abstract Expressionism) was played
on in several comedies in the 1950s and 1960s.
The fine art community was represented as
conning the public in films like Bikini Beach
[1964] with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon through images of art critics proclaiming
paint throwing an act of genius, artists selling
the work of monkeys and children, and masterpieces created through spills and other mishaps.
In films such as the Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis spoof Artists and Models [1955], male artists were represented as using their craft to gain
sexual favours and psychological control over
women. Recently, more serious films, such as
The Unbearable Lightness of Being [1989] and
Sex, Lies, and Videotape [1989], include female
artists in this role. These artists are represented
as eccentrics capable of violent emotional
extremes, that use the manipulation of media
and models to increase sexual excitement for
themselves and the viewer. These films portray
the artist as voyeur, in the tradition of Michelangelo Antonionis Blow-Up [1966], producing art
for ulterior motives, that is, not the pure and
noble motives of self-expression and personal
struggle portrayed in the serious feature films
of the 1950s and 1960s.
Another relatively recent film, The Moderns
[1988], is about the artists and ex-patriots that
gathered in Paris in the 1920s. Scenes include
gatherings in smoky bistros, glimpses of studios
and brothels, and Gertrude Steins salon. One
of the characters is a wealthy American
businessman named Stone, who attempts to
buy his way into Paris society by investing in
contemporary art. One of the rich women in the
story, Nathelie de Ville, asks a painter to copy
a Matisse, a Modigliani and a Cezanne. She then
mistakenly takes the copies from the artists studio and ships them to be displayed in a New
York museum. The originals are sold to the
businessman. When he opens his collection to
the public in the hopes of receiving critical
acclaim, she points to the originals as forgeries,
saying that the papers for her paintings had
NSEAD, 1997

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

been authenticated. A fracas ensues when Stone

states that he does not care about the paintings,
only the money he paid for them; he insists that
it is the price he has paid that makes them valuable. The professional critics in the room
declare, fakes is what we have called them and
fakes is what they are; fit only for the fire. Stone
then destroys the original paintings. The final
scene in the film is during the opening of the
New York Museum of Modern Art where the
fakes are prominently displayed. The artist who
copied the paintings, now on his way to Hollywood, is there with a friend from Paris viewing
his forgeries. They eavesdrop on an art expert
in front of the Cezanne speaking to a group of
eager young male students saying:
This is a work of rare emotional delicacy. This
revelation cannot be taught nor can it be duplicated. Only the greatest artists can achieve what
has happened here and only then in that rare
moment in time. So lets silently observe this.
(Pause) Well gentlemen, did it touch you? Did
you sense the mystery? Do you know now why
this is a masterpiece? Why we praise it? Why we
genuflect before it? Why it will live through the
ages for all humanity. My God, I hope you
understand that.
As the lesson draws to a close, the artists friend
interjects, Come on! Im bored with these pictures. I want to go where the pictures move.
These comments point to some conflicting
assumptions within representations of the cultural dichotomy of art/non-art. In this case,
fakes can be masterpieces, masterpieces are
boring, and popular culture is more exciting
and modern than modern art. Even the title of
The Moderns contains a certain irony because
this film says as much about the postmodern
period in which it was created as it says about
its subject, modern art.
Often, students have already formed the conflicting concepts of art and artists discussed
above before entering an art classroom. These
concepts are formed outside of school, as well
as inside. Whether or not students have actually
seen these films and television shows, they
reflect and reify ideas about art held by family

KERRY FREEDMAN

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

members, educators, and other members of

society.

Connections between curriculum

and visual culture
What does all this mean for art education? It
means that the representational character of and
relationships between various forms of visual
culture are important aspects of art knowledge.
References to art in curriculum come from a
variety of places outside of school (not only
from the professional community of the parent
discipline). These fragmented external references may have more to do with student understanding of the subject than does a sequential,
written curriculum based on an internal notion
of logic. As a result, the relationships between
images, and their interdisciplinary connections,
including the sociopolitical conditions under
which they are produced and seen, are vital to
understanding fine art and other forms of visual culture.
The recent perspectives of communication
discussed above can shed light on aspects of
teaching and learning visual culture. Theorist
John Thompson [1994] discusses three types of
interaction people have with information in
contemporary society: face-to-face, mediated,
and mediated quasi-interaction. Face-to-face
interaction is a dialogic relationship between
people in the same space and time. Mediated
interaction is also dialogic, but is dependent on
a form of mediation between people who are
not in the same location, such as a personal letter or telephone call. Mediated quasi-interaction
is monologic and involves a one-way transmission of information through space and time.
Image carriers, such as books, films, and television, as well as fine art, enable this third type
of interaction. Mediated quasi-interactions
involve vast audiences and do not demand a
response.
Curriculum can be analysed as an interaction
between students and a range of texts and
images. Consider the case of published curriculums (national textbook, etc.). A published curriculum is developed for a large audience. It
states the ground which a particular group has
NSEAD, 1997

143

decided should be covered [Apple, 1986]. It

acts as a form of interaction that is mediated by
the text and the teacher who, with the students,
performs the act of local appropriation. The
published curriculum is monological; but the
teaching and learning are dialogical. School is
one of the few dialogical environments that students have access to in which sense can be
made of their many monological experiences.
An important aspect of the appropriation of
visual culture in education concerns the intergraphical integration that occurs in peoples
minds when they encounter images [Freedman,
1994]. This integration may be said to take place
in the space between images in a way similar
to what literary theorists have called intertextuality, which involves the references a reader
makes to previous texts when encountering a
new text. People are capable of recalling and
integrating a vast array of images and their associated meanings. Student artistic production is a
visual illustration of this conceptual integration.
Despite the fact that teachers and parents in the
United States have tried for decades to prevent
children from copying images from each other
and popular culture sources in the hopes of
promoting creativity, individuality, and psychological health, childrens spontaneous drawings
continue to rely heavily on graphic sources
ranging from mass media images to other childrens drawings [e.g. Wilson & Wilson, 1977;
Wilson, Hurwitz, & Wilson, 1987; see Duncum,
1988, for a review].
When confronted with a new visual form, the
focus of cognition often involves an interrelationship between dispersed references to
representations of visual culture, rather than a
single object or meaning. In contrast to this process, curriculum usually represents each work
of art as an isolated unit that has intended
meanings that should be understood by students. The types of visual culture that have historically been designated to distinguish
between functions of artefacts, become evaluations [Duncum, 1990] and are taught as if the
boundaries between these types are not
crossed, in part because the categories are often
tied to the values and economic status of particular social groups which are considered fixed.

144

KERRY FREEDMAN

However, what is considered fine art has often

drawn on popular forms of imagery, and this
should be discussed in class.
Curriculum is often intended to filter out
ideas and experiences that are considered
illegitimate content. In part, the determination
of what is appropriate curriculum content is
based on the idea of promoting consensus.
Educators tend to be concerned that conflict in
curriculum will only confuse students and teachers are careful not to teach about professional
conflicts in school [Graff, 1987]. However, if we
want education to be intellectually challenging,
we must take the responsibility to teach about
meaning, including conflicts of meaning, and
how things come to mean. If schools in a
democracy are to educate enlightened citizens
who take part in political decision-making and
work together to improve cultural conditions,
then relationships and conflicts of meaning in
the realm of images must be considered in the
classroom. As media educators at the British
Film Institute argue, schooling can no longer
confine itself to dealing with selected aspects of
culture (worthwhile literature, for example), but
must address childrens cultural experience as a
totality. [Alvarado & Boyd-Barrett, 1992, p. 136]

Conclusion
Students are active learners and construct individual meaning from experience, but some
common meanings are constructed by children
through the pervasive common experience of
media. In this case, the cultural meaning may
not be the preferred meaning, but rather the
meaning constructed by a group that is part of

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

the larger audience. When representations of

fine art are attached to popular culture objects
and images that are interesting to children, children as a group learn associations. The associations are often made without the previous
knowledge that adults have, so the information
is attached to other knowledge. For example,
when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television show was popular in the US, many children knew the names Michelangelo, Leonardo,
Donatello, and Raphael, but few knew that
these were artists names or why these names
were chosen for the characters. In art education,
we rarely attend to this important aspect of
learning.
The neglect of student experience outside of
school is a response to the conflicting representations of art discussed here. However, at least
some of the conflicts should be conceptualised
as dualisms and complexities, rather than contradictions, and understood as part of the breadth of art knowledge. Students knowledge
gained outside of school through popular forms
of visual culture could be used to give students
an opportunity to address issues of representation and the conceptualisation, creation, and
interpretation of art. In other words, we must
begin to attend to the large body of fictional
media that children spend time viewing and
work to extend childrens knowledge and
imagination through various types of visual culture production and criticism.
Kerry Freedman
The author wishes to thank Paul Duncum for
his helpful comments on an earlier draft of
this paper.

References
Alvarado, M. & Boyd-Barrett, O. (Eds.) (1992) Media
education: An introduction. BFI & the Open University
Apple, M. W. (1986) Teachers and texts: A political
economy of class and gender relations in education. Routledge
Barthes, R. (1957, 1972) Mythologies. Hill & Wang.
Trans. by A. Lavers
NSEAD, 1997

Beach, R. & Freedman, K. (1992) Responding as a

cultural act: Adolescents responses to magazine
ads and short stories. In Many, J. and Cox, C.
(Eds.), Reader stance and literary understanding:
Exploring the theories, research, and practice.
Norwood, NJ: Ablex
Best, S. & Kellner, D. (1991) Postmodern theory:
Critical interrogations. Guilford

KERRY FREEDMAN

Curriculum Inside and Outside School

Clifford, J. (1988) The predicament of culture: Twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art.
Harvard University Press
Derrida, J. (1976) Of grammatology. John Hopkins
University Press. Trans. by Spivak, G. C
Duncum, P. (1988) To copy or not to copy: A review.
Studies in Art Education, 29 (4), 203-210
Duncum, P. (1990) Clearing the decks for dominant
culture: Some first principles for a contemporary
art education. Studies in Art Education, 31 (4),
207215
Eagleton, T. (1983) Literary theory: An introduction.
University of Minnesota Press
Ewen, S. (1988) All consuming images: The politics
of style in contemporary culture. Basic Books
Fish, S. (1982) Is there a text in this class: The authority of interpretive communities. Harvard University Press
Freedberg, D. (1989) The power of images: Studies in
the history and theory of response. University of
Chicago Press
Freedman, K. (1994) Interpreting gender and visual
culture in art classrooms. Studies in Art Education, 35 (3), 157170
Giroux, H. A. (1994) Disturbing pleasures: Learning
popular culture. Routledge
Giroux, H. A. & Simon, R. I. (1989) Popular culture:
Schooling and everyday life. Bergin and Garvey

NSEAD, 1997

145

Goldman, R. (1992) Reading ads socially. Routledge

Graff, G. (1987) Professing literature: An institutional history. University of Chicago Press
Jauss, H. R. (1970/1982) Literary history as a challenge to literary theory. In Toward an aesthetic of
reception (pp. 345), University of Minnesota
Press. Trans. by Bahti, T
Jauss, H. R. (1982) Toward an aesthetic of reception.
University of Minnesota Press. Trans. by Bahti, T
Morley, D. (1992) Television, audiences, and cultural studies. Routledge
Poster, M. (1994) The mode of information and postmodernity. In Crowley, D. & Mitchell, D. (Eds.),
Communication theory today pp. 173192, Stanford University Press
Thompson, J. B. (1994) Social theory and the media.
In Crowley, D. & Mitchell, D. (Eds.), Communication theory today pp. 2749, Stanford University Press
Williamson, J. (1978) Decoding advertisements:
Ideology and meaning in advertising. Marion
Boyars
Wilson, B., Hurwitz, A. & Wilson, M. (1987) Teaching
drawing from art. Worcester, MA: Davis
Wilson, B. & Wilson, M. (1977) An iconoclastic view
of the imagery sources of the drawing of young
people. Art Education, 30 (1), 511