Don Draper,Teacher-as-Artist: A Diffractive Reading of Mad Men

Abstract

Popular culture can be used as an apparatus of diffraction, in order to understand the complicated entanglements within both the object and in connection to other elements of society. This article posits that the television drama Mad Men is an ideal apparatus of diffraction of the role of teacher, making that assertion collaboratively between the co-authors, demonstrating how popular culture continues to diffract, even when it is “held” from different angles. This article initially reads disjointed as the authors’ work is intercut strategically but not necessarily coherently. By using popular culture as an apparatus of diffraction, the authors become implicitly implicated in a larger entanglement; in this case, between the authors, Mad Men, and education. With your reading, the entangled web is extended, and the authors hope further understanding can be gleamed.