Saturday, October 23, 2021

Assignment: P-205 (Cultural Studies)

 Hello Beautiful People,
This blog is 205 (Cultural Studies) assignment writing on  assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU).

Name Bhatt Riddhiben D.

             riddhi28bhatt@gmail.com

Sem 3

Roll No. 15

PG year 2020-2022

PG Enrollment No. 3069206420200004

Paper Name 205 (Cultural Studies)

Topic Name Four goals of Cultural Studies

Submitted to Smt. S.B.Gardi Department of English


Four Goals of Cultural Studies

CONTENTS :

  1. Introduction

  2. What is Cultural Studies ?

  3. Four Goals of Cultural Studies :

  4. Why is Cultural Studies important?

  5. Conclusion

  6. Work Sited



Introduction :

Cultural studies is a field of theoretically, politically, and empirically engaged cultural analysis that concentrates upon the political dynamics of contemporary culture, its historical foundations, defining traits, conflicts, and contingencies.So here we see that what is meaning of Cultural Studies and four goals of Cultural Studies.


What is Cultural Studies ?

Culture is a anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. The term culture in American anthropology had two meanings-


(I) the evolved to classify and represent experiences with symbols and to act imaginatively and creatively.

(ii) the distinct ways that people live, differently, classified and represent their experiences and acted creatively.


 Culture is central to the way we view, experience and engage with all aspects of our lives and the world around us. Even our definitions are shaped by the historical, political, social and cultural contexts in which we live. Culture is the mode of generating meanings and ideas. This mode of negotiation under which meanings are generated by power relations. Culture is a social phenomena which tends to regularate the mindset and behaviour of people which is set on ancient rules and regularities and experiences. Culture is the identity of particular society and it is the mirror of the society. Culture in a simple way can be said as a particular way of life. Tradition, customs, rules and regulations, norms, artifacts (signs), religions, communities, material things, journey of 'Man' from caves to present day civilization are also culture. opposite of nature is culture. Nature is outside and the moment Man enters, it becomes culture. Whatever which is not nature is culture. All the activities that are done between people on the piece of land and with the other people, culture is the entire range of activities that all the people of the society do. Culture deals with identity. For example, Mahatma Gandhi is the icon of India.

Culural “ Signifying Praises”   a chief concern is to specifying the franicing of the social, economic and political forces and power structure that are said to produce the diverse from Culural phenomena and to endow them with their social “ Meaning” their “ Truth”. The modes of the discourse in which there are discussed and their values and states.   

Nature is something which is outside the control of human beings and culture is the introduction of what humans do and think. Culture is the great help out of our present difficulties; Culture beings the pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which has been thought and said in the world: and through his knowledge, turning of stream of fresh and free thoughts upon our stock notions and habits, which we follow but mechanically. When the things are done by elite group, it is called Culture and when the same things are done by minority group, it s called sub-culture. Elite culture controls meanings because it controls the terms of the debate. Non-elite views on life and art are rejected as 'Tasteless', 'useless' or 'even stupid' by the elite. Culture is one of the two or three terms to define. It is an umbrella term. Literature is one of its discipline. It cannot be understood by one discipline. We are multi-disciplinary. Every discipline studies culture but in a different way.  


Culture   ---->       Cultural Criticism      ----->       Cultural Studies


What are examples of culture?

The following are illustrative examples of traditional culture.

  • Norms. Norms are informal, unwritten rules that govern social behaviors.

  • Languages.

  • Festivals.

  • Rituals & Ceremony.

  • Holidays.

  • Pastimes.

  • Food.

  • Architecture.


Four Goals of Cultural Studies :




1 ) Cultural studies transcended the confines of particular discipline such as literary criticism.

2) Cultural studies are politically engaged.

3) Cultural studies deny the separation of “high” and “low” or elite and popular culture.

4)  Cultural studies analyze not only the cultural work, but the means of production


1) Cultural studies transcends the confines of particular disciple such as literary criticism or history :

Cultural studies involves scrutinizing the cultural phenomenon of a text- for example, Italian Opera, a Latino telenovela, the architectural styles of prisons, body piercing- and drawing conclusions about the changes in textual phenomena over time.Cultural studies transcend the confine of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history. “practiced in such journal as critical inquiry , representations, and boundary 2 , cultural studies involves scrutinizing the cultural phenomenon of a text – for example Italian opera, a Latino telenovela, the architectural styles of prisons, body piercing and drawing conclusion about the change in textual phenomena over time.

 Cultural studies are not necessarily about literature in the traditional sense or even about “art”. In their introduction to cultural studies , editors Lawrence grossberg,cary nelson , and Paula trencher emphasize that the intellectual promise of cultural studies lies in the attempts to “ cut across diverse social and political interests and address many of the struggles within the current scene.”

Cultural studies is not necessarily about literature in the traditional sense or even about "art". Intellectual works are not limited by their own "borders" as single texts, historical problems or even disciplines, and the critic's own personal connections to what is being analysed may also be described. Henry Giroux and others write in their Dalhousie Review manifesto that cultural studies practitioner are "resisting intellectuals", who see what they do as "an emancipatory project" because it erodes the traditional disciplinary divisions in most institutions of higher education. But this kind of criticism, like feminism, is an engaged rather than a detached activity.


2) Cultural studies is politically engaged:

Cultural critics see themselves as "oppositional", not only within their own disciplines  but to many of the power structures of the society at large. They question inequalities within power structures and seek to discover models for restructuring relationships among dominant and "minority" or "subaltern" discourses. Because meaning and individual subjectivity are culturally constructed, thus they can be reconstructed. Such a notion, taken to a philosophical extreme, denies the autonomy of the individual, whether an actual person or a character in literature, a rebuttal of the traditional humanistic "Great Man" or "Great Book" theory, and a relocation of aesthetics and culture from the ideal realms of test and sensibility into the arena of a whole society's everyday life as it is constructed.


3) Cultural studies denies the separation of “High” and “ Low “or elite and popular culture:

                           “Cultural studies deny the separation of high and low or elite and popular culture.”    I might hear someone remark at the symphony or art museum: “I came here to get a little culture”.

       Being a “cultured” person used to mean being acquainted with “highbrow” art and intellectual pursuits. But isn’t culture also to be found with a pair of tickets to a rock concert?

       Cultural critic’s today work to transfer the term culture today work to transfer the term culture to include mass culture, whether popular, folk, or urban.  The Following theorists Jean Baudrillard and Andreas huyssen of the cultural critics argue that after world war ii the distinctions among high , low and mass culture collapsed , and they cite other theorists such as Pierre Boundiry and Dick Hedbige on how “good taste” only reflects prevailing social, economic and political power bases. For example , the images of india that were circulated during the colonical rule of the british raj by writes like by Rudyard kipling seem innocent , but reveal an entrenched imperialist argument for white superiority and worldwide domination of other races, especially Asians. But race along was not the issue for the British raj, money was also a deciding factor But drawing also upon the ideas of french historian michel de certeau, cultural critics examine.Rather than determining which are the "best" works produced, cultural critics describe what is produced and how various productions relate to one another. They aim to reveal the political, economic reasons why a certain cultural product is more valued at certain times than others. "The Birth of Captain Jack Sparrow: An Analysis" and " Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)"  are some famous works and movies.


4) Cultural studies analyses not only the cultural work, but also means of production : 

Marxist critics have long recognized the importance of such para literary questions as these: who supports a given artist? A well known analysis of literary production is Janice Radway's Study of the American romance novel and its readers, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature, which demonstrates the textual effects of the publishing industry's decisions about books that will minimize its financial risks. Reading in America, edited by Cathy N. Davidson, which includes essay on literacy and gender in Colonial New England; urban magazine audiences in Eighteenth Century New York city; the impact upon reading of technical innovations as cheaper eyeglasses, electric lights, and trains; the Book-of -the-Month Club; and how writers and texts go through fluctuations of popularity and canonicity. These studies help us recognise that literature does not occur in a space separate from other concerns of our lives.

Cultural studies thus joins subjectivity that is, culture in relation to individual lives- with engagement, a direct approach to attacking social ills. Though cultural studies practitioners deny "humanism" or "the humanities" as universal categories, they strive for what they might call "social reason" which often (closely) resembles the goals and values of humanistic and democratic ideals.Cultural studies analyzes not only the cultural work but also the means of production


Why is Cultural Studies important?

The Cultural Studies major helps you understand the complexity of everyday life and the way that habits, texts, objects and beliefs are socially patterned and laden with values and meaning. It will provide you with a range of tools to analyse how cultural practices and meanings are produced, circulated and exchanged.


Conclusion :

Cultural studies has evolved through the confluence of various disciplines—anthropology, media studies, communication studies, Literary Studies, education, geography, philosophy, sociology, politics, and others.Cultural Studies criticizes the traditional view of the passive consumer, particularly by underlining the different ways people read, receive and interpret cultural texts, or appropriate other kinds of cultural products, or otherwise participate in the production and circulation of meanings.A key concern for cultural studies practitioners is the examination of the forces within and through which socially organized people conduct and participate in the construction of their everyday lives.


Work Cited :

  • Edgar, Andrew, and Peter Sedgwick. 2005. Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

  • Kershner, R. Brandon. “CONTEXTS OF CULTURAL STUDIES.” European Joyce Studies, vol. 15, Brill, 2003, pp. 9–20, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871140.

  • Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. 2008.


Thank You 


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