Assignment on Four goals in Cultural studies


Name :- Rajdip.P.Gohel
Roll. No:- 27
Paper No:- 8 – Cultural studies
Class:- M.A Sem-2
Topic:- Four goals in Cultural studies
Enrolment No:- 2069108420190017
College:- Smt.S.B.Gardi Department Of English
Email Id:- Grajdip5@gmail.com
Submitted:- Department Of English M.K.University, Bhavnagar





Introduction:-
The word “culture” itself it so difficult to pin down, “cultural studies” is hard to define. As far as cultural study is concerned, it has broader meaning because we see from various perspective then an individual can know what actually it lays in the meaning. Therefore firstly it becomes my job to deconstruct the meaning of culture as the meaning is elaborated according to different critics so at first we will have glance on the meaning of culture.

What is culture?
 ‘Culture’, derives from ‘Cultura’ and ‘colere’ meaning ‘to cultivate’. It also meant ‘to honor’ and ‘project’ by the 19th century in Europe it tastes of the upper class (elite).

          ‘Culture’ is the mode of producing meaning and ideas. This ‘mode’ is a negotiation over which meanings are valid. Elite culture controls meanings because it controls the terms of the debate.

What is Cultural Study?
Cultural studies is the science of understanding modern society, with an emphasis on politics and power cultural studies is an umbrella term used to look at a number of different subject. Categories studied include media studies including film and Journalism, sociology, industrial culture, globalization and social theory.

“Cultural Studies is not a tightly coherent unified movement with a fixed agenda, but a loosely coherent group of tendencies, issues, and questions.”

Cultural studies is composed of elements of Marxism, Post structuralism and Postmodernism, Feminism, Gender studies, anthropology, sociology, race and ethnic studies, film theory, urban studies, public policy, popular culture studies and Postcolonial studies: those field that concentrate on social and cultural forces that either create community or cause division and alienation.

Four Goals of Cultural Studies

1) Cultural studies transcends the confines of a particular discipline 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 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. If we exemplify the government is the main problem as the political power, and other people are driven by political power and they can not go against them, because people gave power. Also upper class people have power have but what about middle and lower class people. They think about equality in society but in reality it is not happen. And this class difference we find in many country like India. Here we have rich class and lower class difference we find in India. Political power that control people and they rules we follow. It’s a problem of inequality in society. Cultural critics see themselves as oppositional, not only within their own disciplines but to many of the power structures of society at large. They question iequalities within power structures and seek to discover models for restructuring relationships among dominant and minority.
              Whether an actual person or a character in literature, a rebuttal of the traditional humanistic Great Man or Great Book theory. A relocation of aesthetics and culture from the ideal realms of taste 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 or popular culture:-
 Being a "cultured" person means acquainted with "highbrow" art and intellectual pursuits. Cultural critics work to transfer the term to include mass structure, whether popular, folk, or urban. Following theorists Jean Baudrillard and Andreas Huygens, cultural critics argue that after World War 2 the distinctions among, high, low and mass culture collapsed, and they cite other theorists such as Pierre Bordeaux or Dick Hebdige on how "good taste" often only reflects prevailing social, economic, and political power bases. Drawing upon the ideas of French historian Michel de Certeau, cultural critics examine "the practice of everyday life", studying literature as an anthropologist would, as a phenomenon of culture, including a culture's economy. 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. And other things like power and knowledge in people have more impact in society rather than lower class people. Two things exists in Cultural studies, power and knowledge binary, first is politician and second is elite group. The conflict between lower class and elite class, because it not exists separation in both the class, it’s remain aloof in equality.
                Cultural critic today work to transfer the term culture to include mass culture, whether popular, folk or Urban. Jean Baudrillard and Andreas Huyssen, cultural critics argues that after world war 2 the distinctions among high, low and mass culture collapsed. Often only reflects prevailing social, economic and political power bases. The images of India that were circulated during the colonial rule of the British raj by writers like Rudyard Kipling seem innocent, but reveal an entrenched imperialist argument for other races especially Asians. Transgressing of boundaries among disciplines high and low can make cultural studies just plain fun. The British of Captain Jack sparrow an analysis for sources of Johnny Depp’s funky performance in Disney’s pirates of the Caribbean.
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.
           Year 2050, the United States will be what demographers call a "majority-minority" population; that is, the present numerical majority of "white", "Caucasian", and "Anglo"- Americans will be the minority, particularly with the dramatically increasing numbers of Latina /o residents, mostly Mexican Americans. As Gerald Graff and James Phelan observe, "It is a common prediction that the culture of the next century will put a premium on people's ability to deal productively with conflict and cultural difference. Learning by controversy is sound training for citizenship in that future".


Conclusion:-

So here I write my own thoughts and understanding about four goals of cultural studies .in culture this main four goals are most important part for understanding the cultural studies. This theory came with many questions and here we can solve this issue with these goals.  



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