I want to argue if it is true that television and film could affects our perception of reality and changes the politics of our identities. The reason why I am investigating this issue is because sometimes, I find myself was being influenced by certain ideas from the film and believes that what was being portrayed in the film is the representation of reality.
I use one of the P.Ramlee film, ‘Madu Tiga’ which is in Malay Language. Only Malays and Malay literate community can understand the story and all the jokes embedded in the film. Because as stated by Hirsch (2001), “Knowledge of words is an adjust to knowledge of cultural realities signified by words, and to whole domains of experience to which words refer. Specific words go with specific knowledge.”- Hirsch, 2002, page 2.
As stated by the writers of the book ‘The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy’, “When people hear the term cultural literacy, they sometimes associate it with artistic CULTURE- with opera, BALLET, painting, poetry, sculpture, architecture, and classic music. These fine arts are, of course, only part of cultural literacy, but they do make up an important domain of experience that people must aware of to communicate with the other literate people in our society. For many people, the appreciation of the fine arts helps brings satisfaction, joy, and meaning to life; and every person deserves to be exposed to good arts, whether popular or classical.” - Hirsch, 2002, page 163. Thus, the classic song by P.Ramlee in this film also considered as cultural literacy which brings upon the meaning of the story as well as representation of reality.
This film is a story about a married man, Jamil (starring by P.Ramlee) who has three wives. He manage to deals with the situation by playing tricks and lies but in the end, everything reveal as his wives finds out that there were married to the same man (Jamil). As a punishment, Jamil is require to be fair by alternately staying with each of his wife in the rotation of ranking (the first wife comes first, then the second and later the third). In the end, they are all happy with it and agree to be husband and wives again.
The story influences my perception of reality that having three wives is not that bad. However, I do not like the idea because I’m a woman. I do not like being two or three- timing by guys, so I go against it. But, for guys, they might influence by the concept of having two or three wives is good as long as you know how to handle the situation by playing tricks and so on. This perception of reality will indirectly change the politics of their identities and their desire of having two or more wives.
According to the writers of the book “Presence: human purpose and the field of future”, “When I say “We see the world not as it is but as we are,” I’m offering it as a timeless leadership lesson consistent with Humberto’s groundbreaking work in the biology of cognition. We all tend to think of ourselves as objective observers, but none of us are. If I want to see things change ‘out there,’ first I need to see change ‘in here,’” – Senge, 2004, page 9. In conclusion, everything we observe will affect our perception of the world or reality. Since its effects our perception, thus, politics of individual identities is also shaped by the representation of the world. Though it is not much, but some will do.
References:
Hirsch, E.D. 2001. Cultural Literacy. Retrieved from: http://projec12.fatcow.com/Background/culliter.pdf
Hirsch, E.D. & Kett, J.F. & Trefil, J.S. 2002. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GAzOg4eQl2YC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=cultural+literacy&ots=Gt-c_PXq_-&sig=cFOD5eksSf1v6VzMKbP91iVg9sE#v=onepage&q=cultural%20literacy&f=false
Senge, P. & Scharmer, C.O. & Jaworski. J. & Flowers, B.S. 2004. Presence: human purpose and the field of the future. Retrieved from: http://www.janetmccallen.com/PDFs/Presence.pdf
