Cultural studies : five types of cultural studies

Hello readers !

♣️ British cultural materialism :-

                         This is first type of cultural  studies. Cultural study is referred to as "cultural materialism " in Britain, and it has a long tradition . In modern Britain two trajectories for " culture " developed.

1. one led back to the past and the feudal hierarchies that ordered community in the past; here, culture acted in its sacred function as preserver of the past .
2. The other trajectory led toward a future, socialist utopia that would annul the distinction between labour and leisure classes and make transformation of status, not fixity , the norm .

             This cultural materialism furnished  a leftist orientation " critical of the aestheticism, formalism, antihistoricism,  and apoliticism common among the dominant postwar methods of academic literary criticism" ; such was the description in the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism . Cultural materialism began in earnest in the 1950s with the work of F. R. Leavis heavily influenced by Matthew Arnold's analysis of bourgeois culture.  Althusser saw popular literature as merely " carrying the baggage of a culture's ideology", whereas " high" literature retained more autonomy and hence had more power. Walter Benjamin attacked fascism by questioning the value of what he called the " aura" of culture . Feminism was also important for cultural materialists in recognizing how seemingly "disinterested" thought is shaped by power Structures such as patriarchy .

♣️ New Historicism :-

💠What is contribution of Michel foucault in new historicism ? :-

                           Michael Warner phrases new historicism's motto as, " the text is  historical and history is a textual". New historicism concerns itself with extraliterary matters - letters, diaries , films, paintings, medical treatises--looking to reveal opposing historical tension in a text. Michel foucault, new historicists developed the idea of a broad " totalizing" function of culture observable in its literary texts, with foucault called the episteme . For foucault history was not the working out of "universal" ideas: because we cannot know the governing ideas of the past or the present, we should not imagine that"we" even have a "center" for mapping the "real". Furthermore, history itself is a form of social oppression, told in a series of ruptures with previous ages; it is a more accurately described as discontinuous, riven by " fault lines" that must be integrated into succeeding cultures by the epistemes of power and knowledge . A new episteme  will render obsolete our way of organizing knowledge and telling history .

💠How can new historicism help in answering the question raised against Laputa episode in a Gulliver's Travels .

                         " The Flying Island and Female Anatomy : Gynaecology and Power in gulliver's Travels"  Susan Bruce offers a reading  of book III that makes some new historicists sense out of Swift's use of laputa . Laputa is gigantic trope of the female body : the circular island with a round chasm at the centre, through which the astronomers of island descend to a domelike structure of the " Flandona Gagnole " or " astronomer's cave ". As Bruce remarks , " it is this which engenders the name of the island : in a paradigmatic instance of misogyny, the achievement of male control over female body itself readers that body the whore : Laputa ".  Bruce connects the man's "doomed attempt of various types of science to control the women's body " to debate about language in book III . " A voyage to Laputa ", control of women has to mean control of their discourse as well as their sexuality reflecting the contemporary debate of Swift's day .

💠 Exemplify four types of analysis of popular culture ?

                    Here we find four main types of Popular  culture analysis,

1. Production analysis
2. Textual analysis
3. Audience analysis
4. Historical analysis

                       Postmodernist tend to speak more of subject positions rather than the humanist notion of independent individuals . 

👉 Production analysis asked the following kind of questions : who owns the media ? Who creates text and why ? Under what constraints ? How democratic or elitist is the production of popular culture ? What about works written only for money?

👉 Textual analysis examines how specific works of popular culture create meanings .

👉 Audience analysis ask how different groups of popular culture consumers, or users, make similar or different sense of the same texts .

👉 Historical analysis investigates how the other three dimensions change over time .

💠 Difference between modernism and postmodernism :-

     

                 Postmodernism questions everything rationalist European philosophy held to be true arguing that it is all contigent and the most cultural constructions have served the function of empowering member of a dominant social group at the expense of " others ".  modernist literature rejected the Victorian aesthetic of prescriptive morality and using new techniques drawn from psychology, experimented with point of view, time, space, and stream of consciousness writing. Major figure of " high modernism"  radical redefined poetry and fiction included Virginia Woolf, James Joyce , TS Eliot , William Faulkner etc. Modernist novels sought to be metafictive , or self referencial about their status as text, their production as art, and their reception . Postmodernism borrows from modernism disillusionment with givens of society;  a penchant for irony ; the self conscious " play" within the work of art; fragmentation and ambiguity ; and a destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject . but while modernism presented a fragmented view of human history, this fragmentation was seen as tragic . Postmodernism refers " mini- narratives " of local events . Similarly, Jean Baudrillard describes the " simulacra" of postmodern life which have taken the place of "real" objects .

Thank you.........

                   

Cultural studies

Hello readers !

             We all know that cultural studies deal with culture as a part of everyday life. Cultural studies , interdisciplinary field concerned with the role of social institutions in the shipping of culture .

# So, here I will put one link,  the following link of cultural studies workshop will also make certain points clear .

👉 https://ritadabhi.blogspot.com/2019/12/workshop-on-cultural-study.html?m=1

                     

♣️ What is Culture :-

"culture does not make people. People make culture.
 If it is true that the full humanity of women  is not our culture,
 then we can and must  make it our culture ."

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

                        Culture is the complex and broad set of relationships, values, attitudes and behaviors that bind a specific community consciously and unconsciously.
             
              " A culture is a way of life of a group of people - the behaviour, belief, value and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them and that are passed along by communication and imitation from the generation to the next ."

♣️ What is cultural study :-

                    Cultural study is a composed of element of Marxism, poststructuralism and postmodernism, feminism, gender studies , anthropology, sociology, race and ethics studies, film theory, urban studies, public policy, popular culture studies, and postcolonial studies: those fields that concentrate of social and cultural forces that either create community or cause cause division and alienation .

                  Patrick Brantlinger  has  pointed out, cultural study is not "a tightly coherent, unified movement with a fixed agenda", but "a loosely coherent group of tendencies, issues, and questions".  Ronald Barthes on the nature of literary language and Claude Levi Strauss on anthropology, cultural study was influenced by structuralism and poststructuralism . Jacques Derrida's "Deconstruction" of the world/text distinction, like all his deconstruction of hierarchical oppositions, has urged or enabled cultural critics " to erase the boundaries between high and low culture, classic and popular literary text and literature and other cultural discourses that following Derrida may be seen as a manifestations of the same textuality".

♣️ Four goals of cultural studies :-

                        Cultural studies approaches generally share four goals . And these four goals are ,

👉 Cultural studies transcends the confines of a particular discipline such as Literary Criticism or history .

👉 Cultural studies is politically engaged.

👉 Cultural studies denise the separation of " high" and  " low" or elite and popular culture .

👉 Cultural studies analyzes not only the cultural work , but also the means of  production .

♣️ Power at the centre of cultural studies

"Nearly all men can stand adversity,

but if you want to test a man's character,

give him power".

~Abraham Lincoln 

                   We all know  that in every culture there are some people in society who has different power in there hand and there try to control over marginalised people who haven't  power and even haven't  voice for raises their questions. High cultured people always make their high place in society and rules in society . We can include politicians and governments and other higher class people. So, we can say that power is the centre in cultural studies . Power is the driving force of any system .

Ecocriticism and ecofeminism

Ecocriticism

&

Ecofeminism

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♣️ Ecocriticism :-

Ecocriticism is the study of literature and the environment from interdisciplinary point of view. Where literature scholars analyse text that literature environmental concern and examine the various way literature trades the subject of nature .

                 Ecocriticism is a term used for the observation and study of the relationship between the literature and Earth's environment . Cheryll Glotfelty's working definition in the Ecocriticism readers is that," Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment ", and one of the implicit goal of the approach is to recoup professional dignity for what Glotfelty call the " undervalued genre of nature writing ".
Lawrence Buell define " ecocriticism'...... as a study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis".

♣️ Ecofeminism :-

                 

                            Ecofeminism depicts moment and philosophies that link feminism with ecology.  It is believed that the term was coined by the the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book, "Le Feminisme ou la Mort" (1974). Ecofeminism connects the exploitation and domination of women to the environment, and argues that there is a connection between human and nature . Ecofeminist believed that his connection is illustrated through the traditionally 'female' values of reciprocity, nurturing and cooperations which are are present both among women and in nature . Additionally, ecofeminist draw connections between menstruation and moon cycles, childbirth and creation etc. Ecofeminism is an interdisciplinary movement that call for a new way of thinking about nature, politics and spirituality. Ecofeminist theory questions for projects previously held patriarchal paradigms and hold that the domination of women by men is intimately linked to the destruction of the environment .

           

Alfred Tennyson & Robert Browning

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 ♣️ Difference between Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning :-   
     

                Alfred Tennyson (1809 - 1893) and Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) both are belong to the Victorian age .  And they occupy a prominent place as a pre-eminent poet of their age. Both the poet apply  new techniques and style in poetry writing. But both these poets adopt their own style in their writing . 

• Browning focus on the phyche on his fantastic character and tries to look into deep inside of such characters in his writing . Browning tries to understand human nature, religion and society properly . He Studies the innermost psychology of character .

• Tennyson draws material from external specific realities, ideas, and subject and iries to express it through or nate language.

• Browning's writing are always energetic .

• Tennyson's stone of expression is generally  melancholic where he tend to give  touch of nostalgia .

• Browning's work bus seldom artistic in form thought art was the suitable subject for man's study. He takes comely and ugly subjects with equal pleasure and aims to show that truth lies hidden in both the evil and the good.

• Basically in Tennyson 's work is always artistic, never studied art, but was devoted to the sciences. He was under the influence of the romantic revival and choose his subjects daintily.

💠 Defference between Romantic And Victorian age :-

♣️The Age of Romanticism :-

👉 Known as the second creative period of English literature and age of poetry.

👉The romantic period was an artistic and literary movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century.

👉 The age Romanticism was a very turbulent period, during which England experienced the ordeal of change from a primarily agricultural society to a modern industrial nation. French Revolution storming of the Bastille had a great influence on English society and literature. It influenced almost every sphere of life.

👉 Romantic literature : Romantic poets revered and adored nature.Romantic poetry was a reaction against conventions, rules, and traditional laws of poetry. Romantic poetry is the poetry of emotion, passion, and sentiments. According to Wordsworth, one of the important Romantic poets, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

👉 Nature is one of the most used themes in romantic poetry; nature was something to be revered and admired. It was a source of inspiration, happiness, and satisfaction. Pastoral life, medievalism, Hellenism, supernaturalism are also important features of romantic poetry.

👉 Romantic literature is emotionally expressive, it often uses phrases such as "Oh!" to give the impression of a sudden onrush of feeling. Examples of these dramatic expressions in the poems include ‘Ah!’ and ‘O!’ among others. In the poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by John Keats, some of the verses with these expressions include

‘Ah, happy, happy boughs! That cannot shed,’ ‘O mysterious priest,’ or ‘mountain-built with peaceful citadel’

among many others. It brought a more brave, individual, and imaginative approach to both literature and life. During this time the individual became more important than society.

♣️ AGE OF VICTORIAN :-

👉 Known as the modern period of progress and unrest and age of prose.

👉 Victorian period is the period during the reign of Queen Victoria( 1837).  This particular age is contrast with the romantic age with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age.

👉 The Victorian age was a period of great progress and prosperity for the nation. This was a period in which industry, technology, and science were celebrated with renewed vigor. Because of the rapid extension of colonialism England became a very powerful empire and also the center of world power.

👉 Victorian literature: Victorian poets regarded nature as in a more realistic and less idealistic angel. In this period the Victorian novel that played an important role in Victorian literature. The novelist like  charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot,Thomus Hardy, Stevenson etc. Victorian poets displayed an interest in the medieval literature of England. The heroic and chivalry knights were a particular favorite of Victorian poets.

👉The use of sensory elements was another important characteristic of Victorian poetry. Many Victorian Poets used imagery and the sensory elements to express the struggles between Religion and Science and ideas about Nature and Romance.

👉  They used Dramatic monologue as a theme of writing. If look at for example then a good example of the poem that adopted these styles was Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess”. Some of the verses which show these are:

“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call, That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hand, Worked busily a day, and there she stands, Will’t please you sit and look at her?”

Furthermore, as passed to Romantic era, most of the Victorian poems show skepticism of religion.

Thinking Activity : Derrida and Deconstruction

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" Deconstruction never had meaning or interest, at least in my eyes, then as a radicalization, that is to say, also within the tradition of certain Marxism, in a certain spirit of Marxism ".

~ Jacques Derrida

                          The term "poststructuralism" is often identified with "deconstruction", a pervasive phenomenon in modern literary and cultural theory originated by the French thinker Jacques Derrida ( 1930 - 2004 ).  The term Deconstruction is very difficult to define it . Because Derrida says that it is not destructive activity, it is not something breaking down or something for sake of destruction. But Derrida is doing inquiring into the condition or what causes of philosophical system to stand on its feet and fall down.  And Derrida says that "deconstruction" is not a destructive activity but an enquiry of the foundation . Derrida deconstruct metaphysics of presence . The relationship between word and its meaning is not natural but conventional one .

♣️ Advertisement : Pond's

                           In this advertisement we find the Unilever owned beauty brand pond's is the latest to embrace the theme of female empowerment . The latest campaign created by Ogilvy . The advertisement show the story of young girl pursuing a passion   in boxing. She deals with dilemma of revealing this decision to her mother . The protagonist of this advertisement used cream to hide below dealt by an opponent from her mother . Everyday she tells her mother that she was in the college library instead of telling her about her boxing obsession . One day she decided to wash of the cream that hide her bruise and reveal that she is a training to be a boxer . And at the end we find that her mom is more supportive than she ever imagined . When we apply deconstruction theory that time we find  that the meaning of the word is nothing but the other word . According to my perspective this advertisement raised many questions against society that why woman are  never  says easily their passion and hobbies . And in this advertisement we can apply the term  feminism . And another question is in the present time why woman still feel held back by their inner voice .