Essay Proposal 1

I've lost the spare sheet I had to fill in, so I've recreated it on here.

Course Title: BA Fashion

Name of Critical Studies Tutor: Toby Juliff



Name: Natalie Dodd



Provisional Essay Title: Fashion and Identity in an online environment; how the internet has shaped fashion identities.



Main issues addressed by your essay and the thrust of your argument:

How internet has created new peer groups which affect peoples fashion. modern identity. we are influenced by people we havent met.



What visual material will you look at?
Websites such as lookbook.nu, fashion blogs,


What theoretical perspective/methodology will you use?
Identity

Which specific theorists/ writers will you refer to?
Bauman, Gauntlett


Books/articles/resources already located (using Harvard):

Bauman, Z (2001) Identity, (Cambridge: Polity)
Bauman, Z (2000) Liquid Modernity, (Cambridge: Polity)
Bell, D and Kennedy B (2000) The Cybercultures Reader, (London: Routledge)
Gauntlett, D and Horsley R (2000) Web.Studies, (London: Arnold)
Merchant, G Identity, Social Networks and Online Communication (2006) http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/validate.asp?j=elea&vol=3&issue=2&year=2006&article=9_Merchant_ELEA_3_2_web
http://www.Lookbook.nu

essay tutorial notes

internet identities
peer approval/influence
can we be influenced by people we dont even meet in person? influenced by people through online communities? Bauman.
post modern identity

lookbook.nu, fashion blogs etc. pictures posted online. people are influenced by others fashion without even having met them.

community

http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/validate.asp?j=elea&vol=3&issue=2&year=2006&article=9_Merchant_ELEA_3_2_web

www.prevos.net/ola/goffman_marcuse.pdf

Essay

Dreaded essay deadline in a week. Struggling to get to grips with it, as im not sure how interested i am in the subject, now ive chosen it. Currently researching the work of Gillian Wearing, as i remember it being in the identity lecture and i really like her work. hoping for some inspiration. Tried googling 'Bauman and Fashion', as Toby suggested, however nothing useful came up.

The last time i wrote an essay was literally a year ago, and before that, about 2 years ago, so im quite out of practice with writing.

Georg Simmel 'The Stranger' (1908)

• 
  
  The stranger is near and far at the same time - far enough away to be unknown, but close enough to get to know.
• 
  
  He is not connected to anyone so people let down their inhibitions.
• 
  
  The stranger has an objectivity to society - unbiased - so his opinion is important, however it could also be that it isnt important as he is not properly within the society so why should his opinion count?
• 
  
  Simmel says that there should be a stranger in every society to bring something new.

Having moved from home to Leeds, I myself would be considered a stranger. As I have 'wandered' before, this makes me a potential wanderer. My 'position' in Leeds is determined by the fact that I havent been here from the start and I 'import' qualities which can't stem from anyone who has not wandered.