Star Wars x Mass Culture
Material Girls
Rehak Hannah
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2023
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why is Star Wars so popular? What were the material conditions that set the first film, A New Hope, up for success in 1977? What can a Marxist critique help us understand about the film?
In this episode, Marcelle leads Hannah through a conversation about one of her favorite franchises by first taking a close look at George Lucas's politics and the state of Hollywood in the 1970s. Marcelle and Hannah then think through the movie's seemingly progressive narrative — and the way it's been co-opted by people of all political views. Pulling on the work of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Marcelle offers a Marxist reading of the film's lasting legacy and asks: what is conservative about the film? How does the film work to undermine and/or reinforce the ideology of repressive state apparatuses?
If you like our show, please share it with family and friends! Word-of-mouth is the primary way we reach new listeners who are interested in feminist materialist critique, pop culture and laughing at and from within *the discourse.* Share the show today!
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Material Girls is a new show that aims to make sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.
We'll be back in two weeks for another episode, but until then, be sure to check out all the bonus content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease. You can learn more about the show at ohwitchplease.ca and on our instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Want more from us? Check out our website ohwitchplease.ca.
*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is really interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment.
Music Credits:
“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020
Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ohhhhhhh |
| 0:15.3 | I need a beer fine, I need a beer break |
| 0:18.7 | I wanna take a ride on a mini train |
| 0:22.1 | You can have it all |
| 0:24.6 | At the shopping |
| 0:30.0 | Hello and welcome to Material Girls, a scholarly podcast about popular culture. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm Marcel Cosmon, and I'm Hannah McGregor, and today we are talking about the origin of one of the most well-known and successful movie franchises of all time. |
| 0:48.0 | It's true! We're talking about Star Wars! |
| 0:52.0 | Coach! A stinger! A stinger! |
| 0:55.0 | Drop that theme! |
| 1:00.0 | This script is full of fun facts. Did you know that when the movie was first released in 1977, it was only called Star Wars, and that the subtitle, Episode 4, A New Hope, wasn't added to the opening screen crawl until four years later in 1981? |
| 1:21.0 | I did know that it was retconned to be called A New Hope once they decided to call the whole trilogy Star Wars. |
| 1:29.0 | Yeah, yeah. So cool! Did you know? |
| 1:35.0 | Hey, listeners, if that was a fun fact that you didn't know, you gotta leave us an Apple review now, please. |
| 1:42.0 | Oh, it has to be five stars. |
| 1:44.0 | Oh, sorry, yeah, just to be clear. |
| 1:46.0 | Four stars. I don't care about Star Wars. How dare you? |
| 1:50.0 | That's the real Star Wars. Are the stars we demanded you leave us in our reviews? |
| 1:59.0 | Marcel, here's a fun fact about Star Wars and me, which is that I didn't watch Star Wars growing up. |
| 2:07.0 | It was not part of my childhood lexicon. It was not part of my family context. I watched it for the first time. |
| 2:16.0 | I want to say seven or eight years ago, so I got to experience it for the first time as an adult, |
| 2:23.0 | which is actually a pretty fun way to get to experience something this hugely popular, |
... |
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