Cultural Studies - Thinking Activity

Hello Readers!

Cultural Studies as branch of study is the popular and most chosen course among the students. The course enables learners to explore any premise or culture with a larger viewpoint. Removing the old ideas, beliefs and establishing the broader sense of looking at things is done by cultural studies. Cultural studies sharpens the historical senses and gives the new path to walk on. The big benefit of cultural studies is it involves many genres of literature, such a films, TV shows, soap opera, paintings and then the written literature of course. Ranging from history and poetry to novels and non-fictions also come under the umbrella of cultural studies. Here in this blog we will try to look at cultural studies, it's goals. We shall also learn that how power is the central operational force to drive culture. As a part of unit ending thinking activity Dr. Dilip Barad sir has assigned this blog to elaborate the topic at length. Click here to visit blog.

The following link of cultural studies workshop will also make certain points clear.
https://rohitvyas98.blogspot.com/2019/12/workshop-on-cultural-studies-2019.html

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* What is culture ?

According to critics, culture can't be specifically defined. It can be seen as our everyday life and living practices. Still one may say that the best which is thought and said is culture - Matthew Arnold. On the contrary, the best which is thought and said can not be the whole truth for understanding the culture but the question should be raised whether the best which is thought and said is lived in our everyday lives or not.

* What is Cultural Studies ?

A systematic academic study of various cultures. Cultural Studies as a branch of study started in the early 1990s at Birmingham Center of Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. 

* Four goals of cultural studies

There are always some goals and motifs to study something. According to A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, there are four goals of cultural studies. All the four goals make that clear that cultural studies has to deal with not only literature but also politics. It refuses the differences of higher strata and lower strata of culture.

1. Cultural studies transcends the confines of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history.

2. Cultural studies is politically engaged.

3. Cultural studies denies the separation of "high' and "low" or elite and popular culture.

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

* Five Types of Cultural Studies

1. British Cultural Materialism

2. New Historicism

3. American Multiculturalism

4. Postmodernism and Popular Culture

5. Postcolonial Studies

* Power at the center of cultural studies

Power is the driving force of any system. It is ongoing process and never stops. Power is transformation based element that cannot be seen but it can be felt. It's existential presence is always felt in every culture and society. As far as cultural studies are concerned, power works as the central spot of culture. People in any society have their class structures. Here, the elite class can be seen as power and can be seen at the center also. Because the lifestyle the elitist follow and the way they live become a normalcy and it is unknowingly followed by people in general.

For better understanding of power, this video will be helpful.

We can see many TV advertisements for example. In the commercial of food and health supplements, sportsperson hold a glass of a particular drink which is healthy as per the product company. Similarly in majority of the advertisements the company will claim that our product is accepted by bourgeois class or elite class of people. By highlighting this, companies mark their power construction on people's minds. Mouth publicity plays its pivotal role and then product sales increases.

References:

(1) Abrams, M. H., and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2015.

(2) Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. Viva Books, 2011.

Thank You !