Identity in City of Glass

One of the definining characteristics of City of Glass is the way it engages "identity games": it questions our basic assumptions about the singular, static "self" who goes around in the world with a secure, consistent "personality." These "identity games" in the novel often have to do with authorship, language, word-play and temporal and spatial mobility. Please find a short passage (a sentence or two, at most a paragraph) in your reading so far where such "identity games" are exemplified and record the passage as a COMMENT to this post. Don't forget to include the page number. We can then use our collection of passages to examine "identity" in class tomorrow...

History of Origins: Race Studies

1. In both texts, it is apparent that race is central to cultural studies and according to Sardar and Van Loon, "is a socially constructed concept" and Munns and Rajan state "race pervades every aspect of culture" (Munns & Rajan 385). They state how the term "Race" developed primarily after the Renaissance and "after the industrialization of Europe and the process of colonization" (Sardar and Van Loon 122). Both texts state that the discourse on race has to do with politics and power: "post-colonial critics to challenge power relationships between the colonized and the colonizer" (383), many times including the works of the oppressed like Frederick Douglass.

In Introducing Cultural Studies, they introduce terms like multiculuralism, describing different races living in peace as one. The problem that both texts face in analyzing race and racism is that it views other cultures from a western tradition. According to the texts, the most important humanistic strategy is to view the "'other's' voice on co-equal terms" (385). It emphasizes the "civilized" as western culture. Sardar and van loon talk about Diaspora and how minority communities live in exile because of economic and politic reasons, in particular the jews or the native americans in America.

2. Keywords: "Other"
The "Other" in New keywords is "integrally related to that of identity" (249) and is the "non-self and non-us". It is associated with racist and xenophobic reactions. It has been a main issue in postcolonial studies in which "The West" is in composition with an imaginary "the East".

3. In the wikipedia article Race (classification of human beings) it talks about the history of the idea of race, the debate on whether or not it is a scientific or socially constructed ideal, how it is used in politics and census, and how it varies from country to country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28classification_of_human_beings%29

Another article I wanted to look into was the Thomas Carlyle "Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question" in which the author opposes the idea of aboloshing slavery and is one of the well-known works showing early racism and discrimination.
http://mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Manuscripts/carlyle.html

History of Origins: Gender Studies

· Gender Studies often tends to be associated with the field of Women’s Studies and the Feminist movement. However, while an important aspect of Gender Studies, this field is not the singular focus. According to Munns and Rajan, “Gender Studies looks at [the] processes of categorization and the ways in which societies construct, articulate and police sexuality.” (Munns and Rajan 485) Therefore, the horizon of inclusive facets is broadened to include gay and lesbian studies and the study of women of multiple races.
The many different factions of Feminism and Women’s Studies are commonly in conflict. Some stress female equality while others celebrate the differences. Post-modernist feminists stress that “social construction of gender involves power relations.” (Sardar and Loon 144) The so called “Third World” feminists criticize their western counterparts for focusing attention only on how the western woman is oppressed in a multi-cultural world. They claim that “white feminist theories fail ‘to take into account the complexity of life—that women are of many races and ethnic backgrounds with different histories and cultures.’” (Munns and Rajan 486)
Gay and Lesbian Studies have become increasingly prominent areas of study over the last few decades and focuses attention on the “Queer Theory” and the “constructed formation of gender and sexual orientation…” (Munns and Rajan 487)
New Keywords- Gender
I think the first paragraph sums it up nicely saying “Gender operates as an analytic concept in a wider field of study denoted by related concepts such as women and men, male and female, masculinity and femininity, sex and sexuality. It usually denotes the social, cultural, and historical distinctions between men and women, and is sometimes described as the study of masculinity and femininity.” (Bennett 140)
Wikipedia-Feminism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
Feminism is usually associated with the western movement during the 1960’s and 1970’s that spoke out against male power. However there is more to this critical movement in history and multiple opinions on which issues to address. “Throughout much of its history, most of the leaders of feminist social and political movements, as well as many feminist theorists, have been predominantly middle-class white women from western Europe and North America. However, at least since Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech to US Feminists, women of other races have proposed alternative feminisms.”
Other Source- Queer Theory
http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/queer.htm
Branching from gender identity issues initiated by feminist and early gay and lesbian studies, the “Queer Theory assumes that sexual identities are a function of representations. It assumes that representations preexist and define, as well as complicate and disrupt, sexual identities.”

History of Origins: Gender Studies

In all cultures people are placed into categories based on their gender and are expected to have certain values and social roles according to which category they are put in. Gender studies "looks at these processes of categorization and at the ways in which societies construct, articulate, and police sexuality" (485, Munns and Rajan). The examination of culture studies became a major feature of cultural studies via the women's liberation movements. They believe that women's gender roles are culturally rather than biologically formed. "The body was viewed as a common rack upon which different societies could inflict different norms of behaviour or personality" (140, Sardar and Van Loon). People were viewed as being created by their societies and their gender being created as well. Gender studies is often considered feminist, however, it is concerned with the cultural significance of all formations in gender and sexuality. The gay liberation movement, however, did shift the discourse of sexuality and reopened the issue of gender definition. The "Queer Theory," tries to analyze texts and social practices to expose and replace them with a new sexual and social condition that goes beyond the "hetero/homo duality" (147).
Lastly, discussions over nature vs. nurture are central to most gender studies. Psychology and Anthropology have been significant in generating materials relevant to the nature/nurture debate. It is constantly debated whether , it is nature or nurture that affects gender and identity. According to Munns and Rajan, "Nature and culture, as socially and politically loaded concepts placed in a bi-polar opposition and constantly capable of appropriating to themselves whatever are, the current 'moral panics' over gender, remain important topics of theoretical and empirical investigation" (488). Saying that the debate will only continue and will constantly be used to discuss the current issues in that particular society.

New Key Words: "Nature"
Nature is very complex and had alot of history. In C13, "nature" was referred to as "an inherent or essential quality or character of something" (235). Natural is also considered to be "appropriate" or "fitting." Suggesting that something that is not natural is inappropriate. Also, in C14 in Europe, nature was considered "the inherent force which directs..the world."

Link to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_movement

I thought it was important to know more about the Women's liberation Movement, in order to understand more about how gender studies has changed. "The feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement or Women's Liberation) is a series of campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights (including abortion), domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The goals of the movement vary from country to country, e.g. opposition to female genital cutting in Sudan, or to the glass ceiling in Western countries."

Other Link:

Explains how the term "Queer Theory," came to be. It also talks about what "Queer Theorists" do and how they are different than the people in the Gay Liberation Movement.

http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/words/queertheory.htm

"Queer theorists are more ambitious than their "Gay Lib" forebears. The Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s fought to create a place for sexual minorities in Europe and the U. S., but Queer theorists want more than liberation. Their aim is to destabilize cultural ideas of normality and sexuality and terms like hetero- and homosexual which have been used to oppress people who don't conform to the Western ideal of monogamous heterosexual marriage. Many theorists hope that this strategy will undermine the status quo and foster the freedom people need to create their own sexualities."

History of Origins: America

A comparison between the two texts Introducing Cultural Studies and A Cultural Studies Reader on the development of cultural studies in America provides some discrepancies. The first disagreement comes from the time frame of when cultural studies first appeared in the United States. Sardar and Van Loon in Introducing Cultural Studies aver that cultural studies began to appear in the mid 1980s (Sardar and Van Loon 57). Much of their history surrounding this date is given in reference to the university and academic disciplines as they were “moving toward a more active engagement with the politics of social identity and an examination of the representations of cultural forms” (Sardar and Van Loon 57). They further claim that American studies singularly focused on the critique of media and “did not consider the link between cultural studies and political action as important of even desirable” (58).

This tendentious account of cultural studies becomes less representative when compared to the treatment of Munns and Rajan in A Cultural Studies Reader. Initially they agree with Sardar and Van Loon that there is a lack of concreteness and certainty in the origin of cultural studies, however, their historical narrative traces its evolution back to the early 1900s. Their account provides numerous examples of likely beginnings such as books, academic programs and political movements (Munns and Rajan 209). Another major event that was pivotal in cultural studies conception was the ending of World War Two in 1945. Following the war an increase of college attendance provided a more ethnically diverse and socially varied student body. This body of students, as a whole, became a politically involved group comparable to the British New Left (Wikipedia-New Left). Their aim was to create a counter culture that was in defiance of established authority as a hope to inspire social reform. A reform that was very similar in its ideals to the earlier Progressives (Wikipedia - Progressive), wanting social equality and justice. It was in the ideals of the new left that civil rights and the women’s movement flourished proving that American cultural studies held an “active engagement” in politics and was not wholly centered on the media.

Links to Wikipedia

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_left)

This entry posits the similarities in leftist movements between the Britain and the United States.

"The New Left is a term used in different countries to describe left wing movements that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. They differed from earlier leftist movements that had been more oriented towards labour activism, and instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. The U.S. "New Left" is associated with college campus mass protest movements and radical leftist movements. The British "New Left" was an intellectually driven movement which attempted to correct the perceived errors of "Old Left" parties in the post-WWII period."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_era)

Explains the political movement in the United States beginning around 1890 and extending into the 1920s. New Left ideals and social aims were very much similar to those of this era. Also, it was a major political movement that encompassed the entire country, exhibiting that social critique was a part of American history far before the 1980s.

New Key Word - Liberalism
"By the 1840s, "liberalism" had become popular, along with "socialism" and "communism," and came to refer to a more or less coherent vision of man and society characterized by the wish to free all individuals arbitrarily and unnecessary constraint."

History of Origins: Race Studies

According to Sardar and Van Loon, race is, “...central to cultural studies.” (Sardar and Van Loon 122). The articles imply that if there were no diverse cultures there would be no need for cultural studies. The only problem with having diverse cultures are that, “Non-Western cultures are often seen as obstacles to development, and this leads to racism against the seen as ‘outside mondernity’ or anti-modern.” (Sardar and Van Loon 122) The articles explain about how the Western world was racist against all other cultures. The Western world viewed, “different cultures in terms of how ‘different’ they are from English culture, not on their own terms.” (Sardar and Van Loon 123). This led to racism, which in turn helped to create Diaspora. These articles explain how even today there are many countries in exile from their homelands due to racism or war, which in return create, “tensions of power, of old (local) and new (often global) identities.” (Sardar and Van Loon 134).

Keywords: Race

Keywords defines race as, “a politically charged and ambivalent word that has evaded precise definition.” (290). Race can be associated with many things. It can be associated with crime (racial profiling), nationality, stereotypes, and riots to name a few. Throughout history many people have been worried about racial mixing, so in order to stop it, people would only let same race adoptions and degenerate nicknames for those who are of a mixed heritage. In the use of the word, race has been mixed up with ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, religion, history, language, culture, and identity.

Wikipedia: Diaspora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora

Diaspora refers to anyone or group of people forced to leave their native homeland. The most famous group is the Jews during WWII when Hitler persecuted them. Diaspora has happened all throughout history and even now; the struggles in Africa going on now, all of the civil wars that happened in South America which forced many to flee to Europe, when Japan had major influences over China and Korea, or even Hurricane Katrina, which displaces the entire city of New Orleans.

Another Source: Diaspora Space

http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113607-ch5.pdf

History of Origins: Gender Studies

Although feminism is a major development of Gender Studies, there is a fine difference between Women's Studies and Gender Studies. Gender studies "looks at the ways in which societies construct, articulate, and police sexuality" (Munns and Rajan 485). There is more of an emphasis on gender identity and its role in culture as opposed to the biological meaning of gender. And in our culture, women were concerned with shifting the dominance away from men. According to Intro to Cultural Studies, there are five different categories of feminism relating to political powers. "Post-modern feminists are not interested in creating or rediscovering "authentic" female expression, but in showing that social construction of gender involves power relations" (Sardar and Van Loon 144).

The rise of gay and lesbian studies were also prominent in the 19th century, being instituted in education. The Queer Theory is a field of work that "articulates the complex, shifting contemporary alignments of class, race, gender, age, and sexuality in the lives of individuals who frequently face multiple oppression" (Munns and Rajan 467), in which social differences should also be celebrated between social and sexual conditions (Sardar and Van Loon 147).

As time progresses, cultural studies are constantly being integrated in educational systems as well as including difference in gender and how they identify with society.

New Keywords: "Gender"
Because there are still many subcategories of Gender, like gender relations, gender identity, and gender studies, an overall concept is that "it usually denotes the social, cultural, and historical distinctions between men and women..." (p. 140)

Wikipedia: "Gender Studies"
Although this is a rather large yet brief article, it covers a lot of basic and important points about pyschoanalyic theory, theorists, and criticism.
"...Is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of gender. It examines both cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience."

Other- "Gender roles"
This website gives an overview of gender roles in society, about the history, some important people involved in gender roles, etc.
http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/8/Gender-roles.html

History of Origins: Race Studies

When comparing the “Introduction to Racial Studies” of Munns and Rjan to the reading of Sardar and Van Loon, they both have a similar view on how racism was created. Both talked about how during the renaissance and the colonization period the Europeans created their own identity. In doing this, the identity of the people that weren’t European came into view, and were then seen as inferior. A good passage that helps develop this is from Introduction to Cultural Studies “Non-European peoples were despised as inferior and seen as material ripe for exploitation.” (122) This was spawned in Europe and then spread across the world and turned into what is now considered to be racism. Although the two readings had similar theories on the origin of race studies, they both approached it from different angles. Sardar and Van Loon, for example, focused on African American Racism mainly, while citing a lot of African-American cultural theorists, such as Cornel West, bell hooks, and Gates. These theorists talked of such subjects as identity and its relation to political struggles and the “longing to belong.” The Introduction of Race Studies by Munns and Rajan took on a larger variety of races, including Native Americans.

The term that I saw kept coming up and viewed as essential in understanding these readings were identy. The New Keywords described identity as:
“Identity is to do with the imagined sameness of a person or of a social group at all times in all circumstances; about a person or a group being, and being able to continue to be, itself and not someone or something else. Identity may be regarded as a fiction, intend to put an orderly pattern and narrative on the actual complexity and multitudinous nature of both psychological and social worlds.”

The following is an intriguing article I found on black identity. http://www.blackcommentator.com/116/116_black_identity.html

This wikipedia article I also found relevant, that helped clear up some questions about identity regarding the social aspects that the “New Keywords” may have left out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_%28social_science%29

History of Origins: Race Studies

Gita and Rajan’s “Introduction to Race Studies” and Sardar and Van Loon’s section on Race and Identity in Introducing Cultural Studies both provide details on what cultural studies theorists focus on when studying the concept of race. Both of these texts state that raced is a socially constructed concept, created by Western culture.  In “Introduction to Race Studies”, Gita and Rajan state that the derogatory idea of the “other” which is created by racial bias is “founded on a European tradition of classical beauty which systematically relegates all other forms of beauty and pleasure in the world to the margins” (383).  This idea developed with the Enlightenment and the industrialization of Europe and its subsequent colonization of other countries.  Western cultures see non-Western cultures as “outside modernity” (Sardar and Van Loon 122) and therefore place different cultures below themselves.  It is here that the concept of power enters race studies, in that Western cultures are once again utilizing their political power to dominate.  One thing that Sardar and Van Loon’s text mentions that “Introduction to Race Studies” does not is the concept of multiculturalism and its negative aspects.  They state that multiculturalism makes cultures only so “different” from Western culture and does not see them for what they truly are; this creates the notion of the “other”.  They then go on to discuss the idea of diaspora and the idea of “home” for cultures that aren’t as accepted as Western cultures.  This creates a sense of belongingness to a certain area and an “us” versus “them” mentality, which is an idea that parallels this concept of the “other”.  The basis of studying the notion of race through a cultural studies lens is to create a challenge to Euro-American domination.

The New Keywords term that I found helpful to develop the topic of race studies is “identity”.  It is mentioned on page 127 of Introducing Cultural Studies.  The notion of collective identity as “particular ways of imagining and instituting social groups and group belonging” (173) is applicable to the notion of belongingness mentioned in Sardar and Van Loon’s text.  Also, ascribed identity as mentioned on page 175 of New Keywords relates to the societal “other” created by race.  

This interview entitled “Race- The Power of an Illusion” further explains how race is a socially constructed idea and explains specifically about race relations having to do with American Indians.

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-02-07.htm

This Wikipedia article, “Cultural Identity” is a short but informative article explaining questions of identity.  It links cultural identity to identity politics, which is another interesting article on Wikipedia relating to this topic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_identity

History of Origins: Media and Science

Celebrity is a term that is commonly associated with the media today. Therefore, I thought it would be helpful to look up the word. 

1) Term from New Keywords, "celebrity" (pages 27-28, paraphrased):

A particular kind of cultural figure - usually emerging from the sports or entertainment industries.

Celebrities:
• Their private lives are more interesting than their professional lives
• May be "famous for being famous", (Boorstin, 1973) i.e., no talent
• May receive more attention than appropriate
• Epitome of of "inauthenticity" of mass-media culture
• The product of the mass media
• May erupt into mass culture and disappear as quickly
• May be objects of scorn as easily as good fortune or abilities
Timeline
• 17C - "celebrity" referred to observance of rites and ceremonies
• 19C - newspapers cultivated conditions for celebrity
• 20C - "celebrity" refers to someone "much talked about" - where fame is of questionable legitimacy, spawned by the advent of movies and television
• 20C - mostly referred to as "stars" -- famous for achievements that were deserved and appropriate

The shift from "star" to "celebrity" sheds the appropriate significance; they are created/produced.

Celebrity is now so pervasive that it raises questions about its cultural function, and is a highly ambiguous concept.

2) Link to Wikipedia, Laura Mulvey:

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey

3) Link to The UNC Press, Janice Radway:

http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-782.html

History of Origins: Media and Science

Because this section is entitled "media studies" I thought I'd start with a definition of "MEDIA" from new keywords
1."The contemporary idea of a medium "or, in the plural, of media) is closely linked to that of the process of dissemination, or circulation, of information by means of some particular channel of communication. Central here is the process of sending signals or signs of some kind... Nowadays the term 'media' is most commonly used to refer to the institutions of electronic broadcasting, printed magazines, and newspapers which address mass audiences"(Bennet, 214).
2.I thought an interesting part of the essay was about how semiotics has entered media studies, and the essay breifly mentioned Roland Barthe, as an author/thinker on this subject(page 299), so I thought I'd look him up...(LONG ONE,sorry)

"Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 – March 25, 1980) (pronounced [ʀɔlɑ̃ baʀt]) was a French literary critic, literary and social theorist, philosopher, and semiotician. Barthes' work extended over many fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, Marxism and post-structuralism... He would often interrogate pieces of cultural material to expose how bourgeois society used them to assert its values upon others. For instance, portrayal of wine in French society as a robust and healthy habit would be a bourgeois ideal perception contradicted by certain realities (i.e. that wine can be unhealthy and inebriating). He found semiotics, the study of signs, useful in these interrogations. Barthes explained that these bourgeois cultural myths were second-order signs, or significations. A picture of a full, dark bottle is a signifier relating to a signified: a fermented, alcoholic beverage - wine. However, the bourgeois take this signified and apply their own emphasis to it, making ‘wine’ a new signifier, this time relating to a new signified: the idea of healthy, robust, relaxing wine. Motivations for such manipulations vary from a desire to sell products to a simple desire to maintain the status quo." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes#Semiotics_and_myth

I didn't know what "lacanian theories" was (on page 300) so this last one is a definition
lancanian is from...
"Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French ) (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. His yearly seminars, conducted in Paris from 1953 until his death in 1981, were a major influence in the French intellectual milieu of the 1960s and '70s, particularly among post-structuralist thinkers.
Lacan's ideas centered on Freudian concepts such as the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego, focusing on identifications, and the centrality of language to subjectivity. His work was interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, amongst others. Although a controversial and divisive figure, Lacan is widely read in critical theory, literary studies, and Twentieth-Century French Philosophy, as well as in the living practice of clinical psychoanalysis."http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Lacanian

History of Origins: Gender Studies

Gender Studies is often thought to be interchangeable with Feminist Studies. This assumption is wrong. While Feminist Studies falls into the category of Gender Studies, the latter study is based on how "gender identity and sexual object choice are acquired and given normative status" (Muns and Rajan 485). Introducing Cultural Studies dually defines gender. "'Gender' has two meanings. The first is a contrast word to 'sex' which depicts social construction as opposed to biological determination. The other meaning is any social construction involving the male/female distinction" (Sadar and Van Loon 138). During the women's liberation movement, closely related with the civil rights movement, scholars looked into the culture of women's gender roles, and more specifically that those roles are not biologically formed. Heidi Hartman examined the word "patriarchy" to explain the male domination over women (1979), which led to further discussion of women within/out a gender hierarchy. But these discourses where mostly restricted to white-heterosexual women. Race, ethnicity, and sexual preference where later included. Looking closer at sexual preference, Queer Theory came into the cannon of Gender Studies explicitly directed at defining anything "related to any expression that can be marked as contra-, non-, or anti-straight" (Sadar and Van Loon 146).

Sexuality theories started to focus on the dominance of nature or culture. Especially in the nature/culture feud, Freud had much to say. "His studies...assume a connection between genital identity and the acquisition of gender identity, and privilege the psychosexual experience of the male-child, seen as endowing men with stronger ego boundaries than women" (Munns and Rajan 488). This perspective is very fixed and Alice Jardine goes on to argue the fluid essence of sexuality through a study of language. This example of Gender studies should be seen as an example of how eclectic and varied and pan-discipline the study actually is.

New Keywords: "Gender"
An older meaning was used in reference to grammar dealing with classifications. Now, it is used to differentiate concepts "such as women and men, male and female, masculinity and femininity, sex and sexuality" (140) This can be further divided into gender roles, gender identity, gender inequality, gendering, etc. Gender is a fickle term, but discussion on gender stay within topics dealing with the social/biological construction, societies value/organization with gender, and of course power.

Wikipedia-"Queer Theory"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_theory
Begun in the 1990's by Foucault and Derrida, Queer Theory builds on earlier feminist studies of the separation of biological gender and one's personal gender identity. Also using previous works of gay/and lesbian studies, "queer theory expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and deviant categories".

Other- "Alice Jardine"
http://fas.harvard.edu/~rll/people/faculty/jardine.html
Professor Jardine teaches Romance Languages and Literatures and the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard. She has written many books on gender interactions, and feminist literature and is interested in "20th and 21st century French and Francophone Literature; Feminist Theory; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Culture, Arts, and Politics; Postmodern and Transmodern Theories of Culture and Society; The American 1950's".

History of Origins: Media and Science

Our two sources were almost opposite. While our reader packet only covered American Cultural Studies and Media studies in depth the book covered American, Canadian, French, and technology C.S. a little, and south Asian C.S. and Orientalism a ton. Our packet talked about numerous people of influence on American C.S. including, but not limited to, Fredierick Jackson Turner, Gene Wise, Henry Nash Smith, Leo Marx, Hannah Arendt, Marshal McLuhan, and Roland Barthes. The book didn’t focus as much on individuals, but overcastting movements for example Post modernist in America, Canada’s identity struggle (between English, French, and native languages), Australia’s effort to be more British, the French’s identity struggle, and the South Asian CSDS. In America several events, the GI bill and American’s growth in power, jump started the American Cultural Studies. Once the US became the Worlds sole super power American’s view of themselves changed again.

1) Keywords: Education:
Higher education what some claim jump started cultural studies in Britain. It also helped further the movement in America. “Few would deny that education is both an individual and a social good.” By reaching higher academically new thoughts and disciplines are created, a big reason American cultural studies got under way. Also, education helps define cultures for the individual and the community. “It can lead us forth into the relatively homogeneous cultural values and expectations of a traditional community, or into the complexities of hybrid identities and conflicted values of a culturally diverse society.”

2) Wikipedia: Hegemony: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony
Hegemony is a word used to describe the dominance of one social group over another. The ruling class obtains “some degree of consent from the subordinate, as opposed to dominance purely by force. It is used broadly to mean any kind of dominance, and narrowly to refer to specifically cultural and non-military dominance, as opposed to the related notions of empire and suzerainty.” Antonio Gramsci created the more widely known accounts of Hegemony. “According to Gramsci, hegemony consists of socio-political power that flows from enabling the "spontaneous consent" of the populace through intellectual and moral leadership or authority as employed by the subalterns of the State.”

3) Leo Marx: http://web.mit.edu/sts/faculty/info/Marx_Leo-css.html
Leo Marx was/is not a decendant of the famous Carl Marx but he too had an impact on Cultural Studies. “His work examines the relationship between technology and culture in 19th and 20th century America.”

--Clayton

History of Origins: European Theory

Both texts relate the important contributions to the loosely defined field of "Cultural studies" by European activists, theorists, philosophers and such. These texts explains a lot of the conflicting arguments and statements between different people's theories as well as the shared derived traits people have "borrowed" or built upon. Gramsci's hegemony theory was an example of non-British influences to cultural studies and as an example where his ideas were extended beyond it's original boundaries to include other perspectives, this methodology is now incorporated into a wide variety of cultural subjects to reveal hegemonic tendencies(Introducing Cultural Studies p.51).

New Keyword: Intellectuals. I found the term “Intellectuals” difficult to grasp until I read this entry and read more about the psuedo-collective group of individuals. "...all work involves some degree of intellectual creativity, and thus "all men are intellectuals, one could say: but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals" and "They can be divided between the organic intellectuals who arise within every social class except the peasantry, and the traditional intellectuals, the priests, administrators, scholars, scientists, and so on, who claim a certain autonomy of the social field, and who thereby betray their lack of it." (New Keywords pp.189-190)

2. Antonio Gramsci's Wikipedia article; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci);
nuff said.

3. I found this essay and find it interesting from the historical point of view, It talks about the comparative features of the former British imperialism and the current American cultural hegemony. (http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030901fareviewessay82512/niall-ferguson/hegemony-or-empire.html)

History of Origins: European Theory

In "The Impact of European theory" from A Cultural Studies Reader, the authors start by discussing the importance of Europe in the rise and development of Cultural Studies. Throughout the articles, Munns and Rajan, and Sardar and Van Loon, reiterate that Britain in particular had a fascination with its own culture, and they believed that above all they had set a "prototype for the world to follow," (52, Introducing Cultural Studies). This self-obsession, creates a biased toward other countries that do not hold the same values as the British, and therefore other "locations where the concerns and perspectives of the margins are seldom considered," (52, Introducing Cultural Studies). Overall, Munns and Rajan discuss many types of theories that originated in Europe that helped shaped the parameters of cultural studies, focusing on "structuralism, hegemony, semiotics (the system of signs), post-structuralism and deconstructionism." The impact that European theory had on the beginning of cultural studies despite being subjective, created a discipline that gave meaning to values, issues, and ideas pertaining to society.


1) Term from New Keywords, "Deconstruction"
New Keywords did not have the word form structuralism, so I looked up another common theory mentioned in the articles, and the most standard meaning of deconstruction is, "a movement of overturning or reversal of the asymmetrical binary hierarchies of metaphysical though, in such a way as to register the constitutive dependence of the major on the minor term; on the other, a movement beyond the framework delimited by these terms to an always provisional suspension of their force." (pg. 71)

2) Link to Wikipedia, Structuralism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism
"Structuralism consist of analyzing social events to discover the structures that both underlie them and make them possible, which are then typically broken down into units, codes, rules of combination." Wikipedia provides further information about the history of structuralism and common uses throughout multiple disciplines.


3) Link to other source, Semiotics:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html
Even though I did not discuss this to the fullest extent, the study of semiotics is a key theory present throughout cultural studies.

History of Origins: European Theory

Today’s readings dealt with the historical contribution of Europe and Europeans (especially the British, who as was mentioned in class sort of saw themselves as separate from the continental mainland) to the rise and development of Cultural Studies. The readings looked at the European/British beginnings of cultural studies as a field of knowledge – how it began as ‘civilized’ Westerners examining and making judgments about other cultures – but also discussed the later backlash against these Eurocentric origins by “colonial intellectuals” who “challenged the ‘Britishness’ of the New Left” and took into account groups (women, immigrants) who had been previously overlooked (p40).

1) Sardar and Van Loon mentioned that “intellectuals play a key role in Gramsci’s ideas”, specifically “organic intellectuals” (51). New Keywords’ definition of intellectual is enlightening, denoting “a category of people whose social status rest on their claim to intellectual expertise (but who are not simply writers, philosophers, or artists)”.
Gramsci argued that there were “Organic intellectuals’ who arise within every social class except the peasantry, and ‘Traditional intellectuals’, the priests, administrators, scholars, scientists, and so on, who claim a certain autonomy of the social field and thereby betray their lack of it” (190).
It goes on to state that “the central question becomes one about the social interests that go along with possessing and exercising knowledge, about whether those interest are strong and coherent enough to give intellectuals some kind of relative independence as a social group, and bout how those interests ling intellectuals in relation to the power of the state or of a ruling class”, but emphasizes that a variety of theories have been applied in an attempt to answer these questions (190).

2) Wikipedia helps explain Gramsci’s thoughts on “cultural hegemony”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony

3) UCLA Prof’s page on “Cultural Studies and Ethics”, basically a short essay that summarizes/reviews British Cultural studies and their ties with media, ethics, politics…
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/

Pretty sweet little youtube bite-sized lectures on Cultural Theory (this one's Marxism 101: Althusser's Concept of Ideology):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz3YNMPMNzU

History of Origins: European Theory

Sardar and Loon commence by stating that from the very beginning, British Cultural Studies is more than British...it is "internationalist"(p.40). The New Left was created since it was deemed virtually impossible for non-english speaking colonialists to break into the British Cultural sect. These colonial intellectuals brought a new perspective and enlightenment to the British Left establishment, creating the New British Left.
Sardar and Loon continue by naming some of these colonial intellectuals who brought about the diversity and political dimention seen in British Cultural Studies today. French philosopher Althusser and his thoughts on Structuralism, the Italian Antonio Gramsci, a believer in the Marxist movement. The idea to be brought from this section of the book is that "a series of movements, groups and individuals have absorbed and manipulated his theories (Gramsci)-cultural studies jbeing just one example (p.51).
Munns and Rajan go into greater depth in defining the specific goals and beliefs of such renound intellectuals as Althusser, Foucault, Freud, Saussure, Levi-Strauss...All of these men provided theories that were critiqued and have been adapted within their culture specific context, be it British, American, European...

1. TERM: Sign...Munns and Rajan talked about sign systems and how they help the theories to produce meaning of the subjects trying to be conveyed. The New Keywords defines sign as "a broad class of objects, events, or marks that are used or interpreted to convey some meaning"(p.321). Therefore the theories used by these intellectuals are explained using sign systems...they are used to define language, cultural experiences, encompassing socio-economic, phychological, historical, political, biological, ethnic and religious realities (p.82).

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics
I thought posting the Semiotics definition from wikipedia could be useful to go along with the term sign. Semiotics refers more to the way in which the systems of signs are transmitted, meaning anything from codes, coined phrases, etc...and is seen to extend on the definition of language. It goes beyond linguistics in the sense that it can adapt itself to mean certain things given its subject matter (medium or sensory modality).

3.http://ec.europa.eu/culture/portal/index_en.htm
I just thought this was an interesting site to look at. We have talked alot about the specific theories and beliefs of theorists over the past 100 years. To look at the cultures that are present in Europe and how people express their cultures is endless and imaginative at the same time. I guess it just led me to think that it is amazing that there are people who actually attempt to define why people act the way they do and represent themselves in certain ways.

Anita

History of Origins: European Theory

Sardar and Van Loon discuss the role of colonial intellectuals within British cultural studies in the 1980s, and how the influx of colonial perspective “challenged the ‘Britishness’ of the New Left” and ultimately expanded the realm of cultural studies (p. 40). Sardar and Van Loon seem to imply that until then, British cultural studies were preoccupied “with the ‘style’ and behavior of young working-class men” and didn’t really examine the many diverse identities that make up British culture (p.41). With these changes it could begin to investigate the marginalized individuals within British society, and understand more fully different cultural identities across Britain's history.

Two key terms which seem to accompany this shift: hegemony and the subject.

The Impact of European Theory, introduces the idea of ‘the subject’ in its first paragraph;

“Such theoretical formulations, inherently interdisciplinary in their foundations and implications…provide models for understanding the formation/construction of agency for the human subject, the implicit and explicit drives that motivate or hinder such an agency in a socio-cultural arena, and explanations of sign systems (ranging from language to myths) which produce meanings...the subject is constructed in and between layers of language and cultural experiences, encompassing socio-economic, psychological, historical, political, biological, ethnic, and religious realities” (Munns and Rajan, p. 82).

This is somewhat dense, and I’ve cut some things out, but for the most part it suggests the unique position of different individuals within the many overlying social structures. The word 'subject' also has many meanings in different contexts that most of us have probably heard somewhere.

Wikipedia's page on 'the subject' (this page is pretty ambiguous as well)

‘Hegemony’ is not in New Keywords, but can be found [again] on good ‘ole Wikipedia

Also, reading Althusser's theory about ideology helped me place these definitions a little better.

History of Origins: America

It is hard to point out specific texts or people that built the foundation for cultural studies in America. Instead, it was sparked by a range of movement and issues. The GI Bill and America’s rise a global power after WWII are said to have caused the emergence of cultural studies in America. Many struggled with the task of finding an identity for America and there was no legitimate method for analyzing its culture. German intellectuals fleeing to America from Nazi Germany sparked a focus on mass media and its effects on a new concept called mass culture. Some viewed it as a threat to individualism while other recognized it as part of the cultural experience (something that went against most of Europe’s “elitist” views). Issues brought up by the civil rights movement shifted the focus to race and gender’s integration into “the construction of patterns of domination and subordination.” (p. 212) The Vietnam War then changed the way Americans perceived themselves and their relation to the rest of the world and “marked the end of the post-war” era of cultural consensus.”

1) “Identity” is a term that can be brought up a number of times while looking at cultural studies in America. America, after just becoming a world power, searched for a collective identity for themselves which proved hard because of its diverse background. The identity of the individual comes into question when looking at the mass media’s roll and mass-culture. On the subject of race and gender in American culture we’ve seen recent movements of ethnic and sex identities. Keywords says “Identity is to do with the imagined sameness of a person or of a social group at all times and in all circumstances; about a person or a group being, and being able to continue to be, itself and not someone or something else. Identity may be regarded as a fiction, intended to put an orderly pattern and narrative on the actual complexity and multitudinous nature of both psychological and social worlds. The question of identity centers on the assertion of principles of unity, as opposed to pluralism and diversity, and of continuity, as opposed to change and transformation.”

2) Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GI_Bill
The GI Bill of 1944 had a profound effect on higher education in the United States. It aided in the creation of Cultural Studies as a field in America.

3)http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/books/series/Seriesamerican.html

This links to a number of books recommended by our fine university. Each book has a brief summary which can give you a good look at how ethnic cultural studies can be approached today.

History of Origins: European Theory

As the title of today's post suggests, the main theme of this reading is Britain's contribution to Cultural studies (in the European Theory article this expands to include Europe as a whole). What we find in both readings is that Europe started the cultural studies phenomena, and also gave the subject its worst shortcoming. That is, as Europe gave birth to the field of cultural studies, so did it give birth to its "Western" bias and perspective. We see this on page 52 of Introducing Cultural Studies where it mentions that British cultural studies in particular has a tendency to see its own culture, "...as a prototype model for the world to follow" Also in the Impact of European Theory article, "...Levi Strauss is blind to the fact that his own bipolar structure is an imposition of the West" (83) The main issue with the begining of cultural studies is that it was terribly flawed.

1) A keyword I found particularly useful is "civilization". This ties back to cultural studies tending to favor the culture of the one who is studying another. In 1879 Arnold said "Civilization is the humanization of man in society" (35) So according to Arnold, the term "civilization" is what makes us human. However, this is purely a subjective idea. After all, you are always most likely to say that you yourself are furthest from the uncivilized (you are the one doing the research). So it's fairly predictable, that when studying civilization anyone different from you becomes less civilized; or to follow Arnold's definition, less human.
2)Wikipedia has an article on Semiotics "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics" read it if for no other reason than that they keep bringing it up in all the texts and if you don't know what the term means (I didn't) you'll continue to be lost.
3)Here is an article on structuralism, one more term I had to look up:"http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/struct.htm"

History of Origins: America

In the introduction to Cultural Studies in America by Jessica Munns and Gita Rajan, American studies is roughly defined as “the emergence of interdisciplinary studies engaged in understanding the genesis and development of the national culture through a study of ‘great’ works and movements.” Simply put, a large part of American culture studies is built upon prominent literary works and the contributions of writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, and Twain. The study of American culture and history must also include pertinent social advancements, like the women’s movement and the civil rights movement. The text explains that “…by moving history, to some extent, from background to context, by looking at popular as well as canonical works, by insisting on an interdisciplinary approach, and by raising questions of method, the Americanists made a vital contribution to the scholarly study of culture.”

1) An important key word to note when reading this introduction is media. The concept of mass media and the influence that it has on popular culture and opinion is interwoven throughout this text. It is cited by Munns and Rajan that “each communications medium- the print word of the Gutenberg era or the electronic media of the present age- alters beyond out recognition our ways of thinking and perceiving.” In New Keywords by Bennett et al, mass media “constitute powerful one-way systems for communication from the few to the many... The critical tradition, under the influence of Marxism, has often been concerned with the question of the media’s role as an agent of powerful groups (political or commercial, elites or classes), purveying ideologies which may conceal the reality of structures of inequality from those who are most disadvantaged by them.” For the full definition of media, see New Keywords 211-214 p.

2) The American civil rights movement was cited alongside the women’s movement as being an important contributor to the construction of patterns of domination and subordination in America. The Wikipedia article about the civil rights movement provides adequate information about this movement and would be good to gloss over before reading the introduction to American cultural studies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281955-1968%29

3) This website offers a word bank of key terms found in the book, Keywords for American Cultural Studies edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. Clicking any of the words in the word bank will bring up a short definition and/or excerpt from a literary source containing that word.

http://keywords.nyupress.org/

History of Orgins: European Theory

What cultural studies can do, its social and cultural effects on the world was of important concern to Sardar and Van Loon in Introducing to Cultural Studies and to some of the European scholars and philosophers studying cultural studies. According to “The impact of European theory” in the Cultural Studies Reader, the theories that were created to study the “nature in culture, or elaborations of subjectivity or identity-politics in society,” were valued for their capacity to provide a “methodology for producing, reading, and consuming cultures and cultural practices.” The theory of signs, or semiotics, for example, looked at language as something that generates meaning by a systems of relationships, by producing a network of similarities and differences. This linguistic theory of the signs also served as an influential ground for other theories, such as structuralism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and post-structuralism. Structuralism, as it is often noted, shifted and “situated language in a scientific frame.”

1. Since several theorists have challenged Freud/Lacan’s “phallocentric models of male/female identities in culture and their proliferation in language,” gender is an important term to consider in cultural studies. According to New Keywords, “several developments transformed understandings of sex and gender...one was the overturning of earlier feminist suspicions of psychoanalytic theory as inherently masculinist, and the development of a specifically feminist pschoanalytic body of theory” (Curthoys, 141).

2. Link to Wikipedia: “Hegemony” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony
Hegemony is a key term in understanding Antonio Gramsci’s “unique theory of subjectivity.” He believed that “cultural practices ranging from art, literature, education, architecture, theatre, philosophy and religion exert ‘hegemonic influences in society.” Hegemony binds society together without the use of force with the use of negotiation and consent.

3. Link to other outside source: Semiotics http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html
An indepth explanation of the linguistic theory of signs.

--Theresa

History of Origins: European Theory

The discourse on early Cultural Studies, as well as cultural studies' early discourses, owes a remarkable enrichment to voices and perspectives coming from U.K.'s former colonies and other European countries. These contributions helped to broaden the issues, making the new-born discipline eminently encompassing. However, the authors didn't hold themselves back with criticising several assumptions, sometimes up (or down?!) to the very quiddity of critical notions, such as: culture, art, dialectical materialism. Sardar and Van Loon name two thinkers believed to be crucial: Louis Althusser (1918-1990) and Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937).


"The French philosopher L. Althusser imported structuralism into Marxism in his effort to make it a science. Althousser conceptualizes society as a structured whole which consists of relatively autonomous level - legal, political, cultural - whose mode of articulation (or "effectivity", as he says) is only determined "in the least instance" by the economy. [...] So, for scientific Marxism, there is no society but only modes of production which evolve in history and are permanently inherent in the relatively autonomous levels of the structured whole". The ideas and terminology of Althusser stimulated a proficuous debate on ideology and Marxism; nevertheless Althusser's ideological standpoint itself was later attacked by E.P. Thompson in The poverty of theory, 1978. "The key term in Gramsci's thought is hegemony, which is critical for an understanding of history and the structure of any given society. Hegemony is what binds society together without the use of force." (Sardar and Van Loon, page 49). As A Cultural Studies Reader point out, Antonio Gramsci was influenced by many other authors: Benedetto Croce, Nietzsche, Hegel, Marx, Lenin to name a few. The book by Munns and Rajan then continues by mentioning a number of -isms and other authors, all somehow or other connected to each other. The variety of interconnections is a result itself of the interdisciplinary cultural studies approach. As we discussed in class today, sometimes it was quite difficult for some of them to read others' publications due to the lack of a lingua franca. In some cases it was harder: Gramsci's manuscript written in jail wasn't even meant to be published..
Also, the Cold War and the absence of the World Wide Web didn't make things any easier..



Ideology: "Gramsci emphasized the complexity of the relationship that define human reality at any particular time and place; and he rejected the assumption that such relationships were the necessary result of trascendental forces - like the economy. Consequently, he opposed the tendency to assume that class and/or economic relations necessarily provided the truth about everything. [...] His concept of hegemony describes an ongoing struggle to create ideological consensus within a society, while his concept af common sense emphasizes the fragmentary and contradictory nature of the unconscious meanings and beliefs with which people make sense of their world." from New Keywords, page 176.


"Structuralism began in linguistics with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure [...] As a method, the basics of structuralism consist of analyzing social events ... to discover the synchronic structures that both underlie them and make them possible, which are then typically broken down into units, codes, rules of combination, etc. The essential theory underlying this method is that these structures are autonomous, and that their units are interdependent, because they are constituted through contrast with one another. So how we discursively conceive of ourselves, or anything, for that matter, is dependent on contexts found within historically contingent systems". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism

A link I found useful related to today's readings is: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B
The web page is entitled "Semiotics for beginners", however, it depends on what this Welsh university means for beginner..

One more thing: if you feel like taking a break after the semiotics for so called beginners (see above), go to youtube and type in "monty python marx", then select one of the videos. The communist quiz sketch and the philosophical soccer match are awesome..

History of Origins: Great Britain

In General Introduction by Jessica Munns and Gita Rajan, they explain the origins and the ways of cultural studies. The text explains that cultural studies evolved from a separation of cultural classes amongst countries after World War II. Distinctions became more and more apparent after "development" of certain countries above others. The distinction was made by designating countries in the "global south" the title of third world, the middle region of development to be second world, and the super powers to be the first and best. Culture and its differences has become defined now by economic development and social interaction as opposed to traditional values of indigenous regions. The text explains that "With this double agenda, with regard to cultural studies as both an academic project and a particular social formation, we hope to bring together an energetic mode of inquiry and one of the most dynamic and vital disciplines to be taught in the academy in recent years."pg. 77 Artifact and Artifice reader. This explains what separated Britain from other countries in values and what cultural studies is, which is a an extensive investigation academically of what a culture is and how it got to be that way over the course of time.

1) A useful keyword to think of when reading this article is the word development, which is a very controversial word to use when thinking about humans sustainability on this planet in which development does not really describe more successful living and could also in turn describe destruction of our surroundings. The process of development is described in the New Keywords book as "The insidious corollary to this argument (the traditional economic model of development) is the claim by authoritarian governments that economic development must and should precede social and political development. These governments point to the length of time it took for industrializing countries in hte C19 to achieve a level of economic stability, and to the fact that only later did their governments begin to focus on civil liberties and social rights."pg. 80

2) A good article to read on wikipedia would be the article on "Third World", which describes the hierarchy of nations that we see on the planet today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_world

3)This article is one that speaks of the economic development of nations during and post WWII from britannica online. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-25768/economic-development

History of Origins: Great Britain

After reading through the text, a correlation can be made between the two as they both seem to mention the importance of cultural studies constantly being refined.  As Munns and Rajan states, "cultural studies has been subject to prolific growth in academic institutions in the late 1980s and the early 1990s." (Munns and Rajan 152).  And as Sardar and Van Loon says, "its constant goal is to expose power and relationships..." (Sardar and Van Loon 9).  Basically, these two have stated that cultural studies is still in the process of growing and will continue to do so because there is no determined definition of the study and will, more than likely, not have a definite definition for as long as we know it.  

1) Term from New Keywords: Evolution

Through the readings, it seems to have the common trait of cultural studies and how it evolves. Steven Rose chooses to define evolution as "unrolling, unfolding, or opening out." (Rose 117).  Taking this term into relation with cultural studies definitely makes the point that cultural studies itself has and always will be current and up to date.  As new culture comes into play, cultural studies will be following it every step of the way.  

2) Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_evolution  

This gives us an insight into cultural evolution and how we may be affected by the changes and not have noticed it.  

3) Other link: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/146212/cultural-evolution

Here's more about cultural evolution. 

Cultural Studies in Britain

Both texts that we read can relate to eachtother as they refered to the same founding fathers and the same texts as the grounds for culture studies. As far as the importance of Britain culture, both mentioned the Hungarian uprising as an important time in Britains culture formation. The difference between the two, perhaps, would be the informational style of writing in the graphic novel and the more "historical" or "dates and facts" style of writing in the reader. After reading both of them it helped to see the important aspects and what to focus on. The New Left played an important role in Britian culture studies, "..the formation of the New Left is seem by many historians as a precursor to cultural studies. The New Left emereged as a British response to the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956." (Introducing Culture Studies page 39)

Keyword: ELITE..."implies a process of selection- which may be natural, social, or cultural.....When the term is applied to the relations between social groups, there is the further connotation that the few are not just distinguished from, but exercise some form of power over, the many" I chose this word because I have seen in many of our readings and wanted to see its specific link to culture studies.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_uprising Here is a link to information on Hungarian uprising. It was brought up in both texts. In a nut shell, there was a nation wide uprising against the Stalinist Government which eventually overthrew the government.

Other link: http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=history Here is a link on the New Left

Cultural Studies in Britain

In A Cultural Studies Reader, Munns and Rajan discuss the beginnings of cultural studies in Britain, stating that "all the standard accounts of British cultural studies trace its origins to the 1950s and to the emergence of three key texts" (Munns and Rajan 149). Using these texts as the foundation of British cultural studies, Munns and Rajan highlight the development of the field through the 1990s.

1) Term from New Keywords: Representation
Both New Keywords and Introducing Cultural Studies discuss the importance of representations to the study and understanding of cultural studies. In New Keywords, Freadman states that "representations stand for their objects in some sense, but 'standing for' is a contested expression. If an object needs a representation, then it is part of that logic that the representation is not its object; but if the representation is different from its object, how can it truly stand for it?" (Freadman 307). This view of representation forces us to consider and scrutinize the value and meanings of representations in cultural studies.

2) Wikipedia link: Richard Hoggart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hoggart
Richard Hoggart is credited in both texts with giving "cultural studies its first identifiable, intellectual shape" (Sadar and Loon 27).

3) Link to outside source:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1993/10/thompson.htm
This site provides a more detailed history of E.P. Thompson's life, concluding with Thompson's great work, The Making of the English Working Class.

History of Origins: General

In the “General Introduction” from A Cultural Studies Reader, Munns and Rajan begin by discussing the emergence of cultural studies. They say that most scholars agree that cultural studies began around the time after WWII. There were several factors that lead to the endeavor of cultural critique. However, there is no “absolute beginning” of cultural studies (Munns and Rajan 149). The Cultural Studies Reader and Introducing Cultural Studies focus on the texts of Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, and Stuart Hall. These founding fathers were “concerned with the question of culture in the class-based society of England” (Sardar and Van Loon 25)

1) Term from New Keywords, “class”:

The most conventional meaning of class is “a division or order… or rank or grade of society” (39). Classes affect life chances for individuals-the probabilities of social and occupational mobility; of educational access and achievement; of illness and mortality. They also shape the experiences of individuals, producing the possibility of (more or less coherent) class consciousness (40).

2) Link to Wikipedia, Marxism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism

Stuart Hall, one of the founding fathers of cultural studies, describes himself as always remaining a “shouting distance of Marx” (Sadar and Van Loon 37). Here at this site, we can further read about the practice of Marxism.

3) Link to other source, Stuart Hall:

http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/h/a.htm

This site includes a brief biography of Stuart Hall and a list of some of his works. The site mentions Hall as being faithful to a Marxist tradition, but Introducing Cultural Studies points out his ambiguous relationship with Marxism.

History of Origins: General

Sardar and Van Loon begin Introducing Cultural Studies by trying to define what exactly cultural studies is. The conclusion I got from it is that cultural studies has no clear beginning, yet it is attributed to the “founding fathers”, Hoggart, Williams, Thompson, and Hall. Both the book and the reader pin the post World War II era as the foggy beginnings of cultural studies. “The Second World War had just ended, educational opportunities within Britain were being promoted as a means of post-war reconstruction. But pre-war class politics was still the norm in a changed and rapidly changing social environment. Moreover, Britain was being invaded by popular American culture that shaped public consciousness and highlighted the class-ridden character of English cultural life.” (Sardar/Loon, 25) Munns and Rajan complement this history: “Most scholars in both countries see it emerging as an area of academic research, and consequently, a pedagogical practice from different socio-political and economic changes that followed the second world war.” (Munns/Rajan, 1)

1) Each text commemorated the works of Karl Marx as being a key ingredient to the history of cultural studies. In main part, his ideas about class and society. Keywords defines class as “a social ordering that articulated privilege and deference”. (39) It goes on to say that, “Classes affect life chances for individuals--the probabilities of social and occupational mobility; of educational access and achievement; of illness and mortality. They also shape the experiences of individuals, producing the possibility of (more or less coherent) class consciousness”. (40)

2) Sticking to the origins of class and its connections with cultural studies, I investigated Karl Marx on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”.

“Marx devoted himself to an intensive study of history and elaborated on his idea of historical materialism, particularly in a manuscript (published posthumously as The German Ideology), the basic thesis of which was that "the nature of individuals depends on the material conditions determining their production." Marx traced the history of the various modes of production and predicted the collapse of the present one—industrial capitalism—and its replacement by communism.”

3) One of the founding fathers of Cultural Studies was E.P. Thompson, who’s work focused on understanding class. Sardar and Van Loon write, “class is not a thing-it is something which in fact happens (and can be shown to have happened) in human relationships”. (Sardar/Van Loon, 31) Thompson defined class as “a social and cultural formation arising from processes which can only be studied as they work themselves out over a considerable historical period”. (Sardar/Van Loon 32) He explores how different class standings can effect the way an individual views life. For more information on Thompson, visit http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/HIStompson.htm

So, although there are many differing views on the term "class", it is evident that it is important to understanding the origins of cultural studies.

History of Origins: General

From reading the introductions of the texts Introducing Cultural Studies and A Cultural Studies Reader, I found that both share many of the same ideas and agree on the history and parameters of cultural studies. Cultural studies is viewed as having no true beginning, unlike physics or philosophy. Both texts mentioned the “founding fathers” (Hoggart, Williams, Thompson, and Hall) and addressed the importance of the Second World War as being a key beginning point in the cultural studies field. Also, both texts addressed the issue of using/creating the term “others” as causing a lack of individualism and creating a negative bias. Race, class, and gender are also mentioned as being defining features in culture.

1. Term from Keywords: “Other”
“The other is what eludes our consciousness and knowing, and it is what resides outside the sphere of “our” culture and community” (Robins 249).
“The other is necessary for change and creativity to exist in the world (both collective transformation and self-alteration)” (Robins 249).
The term “other” is referred to in both texts, referring to any group outside of one’s self. Keywords provides a better understanding of the term and describes the several dimensions the term has.

2. Link to Wikipedia: “New Left” <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left>
The New Left played a key role in cultural studies and is even thought of as being the forerunner to the field of study. Provides the origins, key leaders, and history of the movement.

3. Link to other outside source: “Birmingham's cultural studies department given the chop”
<http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/socialsciences/story/0,,745058,00.html>
Provides an insightful view of the present day situation of what has happened to the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, the sight of where the name “cultural studies” originated. Also, all four “founding fathers” (Hoggart, Williams, Thompson, and Hall) were at one time associated with the CCCS.

History of Origins: General

In the "General Introduction", Munns and Rajan provide an overview of the origins of cultural studies. They argue that cultural studies has its roots in cultural critique. According to Munns and Rajan, "cultural critique is more than an interdisciplinary solution, it provides a spectrum of approaches to questions that are raised in today's global, multi-classed, multi-racial, and multi-cultural societies" (2). In other words, cultural critique is a way of understanding the world with its different power relations and cultures.

An important term to consider is "history", which, according to New Keywords, "principally signifies a retelling of past events which is professedly true" (Schwarz, 156). Munns and Rajan do not intend their Reader to be a history of ideas, but the historification of cultural studies is still key to their work. Instead, they consider their Reader to be "an interpretation of how certain ways of thinking about culture have come into being in relation to cultural phenomena" (7).

Munns and Rajan often refer to Matthew Arnold and Karl Marx, because of their significant influence on the practice and purpose of cultural critique (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold and http://www.cultureguide.com.au/marx/ for more information on Arnold and Marx). Both Arnold and Marx saw cultural critique, and thus cultural studies, as a way of changing society for the better. Munns and Rajan agree, saying that "cultural studies is an inherently powerful tool with a radical potential for intervening in the education and socialization, i.e., acculturation, of future generations of students" (6). As with knowledge in general, cultural studies in particular is a powerful force in the political and economic structures of our world.

"Orientalism"

Today in class we started to define/describe the term “orientalism,” using the “Introduction” to Edward Said’s Orientalism (1977) and (lurking in the background) the entry for this term in New Keywords.

In his introduction to Orientalism, Said discusses how he will use this term, focusing on how one society (“European”) defines another (“the Orient”) in terms of what is “different” about it, so that “European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self” (Said 3). In other words, by defining “the Orient” as everything that is NOT “European,” Western identity can claim to be both coherent and superior.

Please add to, contest, and generally build up our sense of this term in a comment to this post. In your comment, you might:

• Quote important passages or summarize key ideas from Said
• Quote important passages or summarize key ideas from the “Orientalism” entry in New Keywords, by Nicholas Dirks
• Point out differences between Said and New Keywords
• Refer us to other entries in New Keywords that complement the entry for “Orientalism”
• Link us up to definitions or discussions on the web that illuminate ideas, words or names used by Said in Orientalism or Dirks in New Keywords
• Discuss how “Orientalism” complicates our picture of culture—or, specifically, how it interferes with the “art-culture system” in Clifford

Are You an Author?

“Author” is one of those terms that, unfortunately, New Keywords does not describe. (The book is—as its editors freely admit—a necessarily selective and incomplete “collection” of terms.) If there were to be an entry for this term, however, it would have to address Roland Barthes’ 1967 essay “The Death of the Author.” (The essay was later included in his 1977 book Image-Music-Text. Here are some notes on it). This phrase should remind you of Mitchell’s “art” entry in New Keywords; remember how he talks about the many twentieth-century announcements of the “death” of various art forms? Barthes declares that the idealized author is “dead” because “We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.” This conception of “text” should be familiar to you too, by now.

What Barthes means by an “author” is mostly a nineteenth-century figure, although he does not really note this historical condition. (Nor does he bother to seek out examples of authorship to support his argument beyond those who are iconic in France.) Another key ingredient of the term “author” would be Michel Foucault’s 1970 essay “What Is an Author?” (Here is an excerpt from the essay, and here is a summary.) Foucault, in describing his notion of the “author-function,” fills in some of the historical gaps in Barthes’ essay, by looking at authorship beginning in the Middle Ages as a way of controlling ideas and defining intellectual property. In other words, it was only when “a system of ownership and strict copyright rules were established (toward the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century) that the transgressive properties always intrinsic to the act of writing became the forceful imperative of literature. It is as if the author, at the moment he was accepted into the social order of property which governs our culture, was compensating for his new status by reviving the older bipolar field of discourse in a systematic practice of transgression and by restoring the danger of writing which, on another side, had been conferred the benefits of property.” Huh? I think what he’s saying here is that governing forces have always kept tabs on who is writing in order to regulate what is written; it was only when this regulation eventually gave authors ownership of their work (thus enabling authorship as a profession) that authors took on a heroic cultural role. Here you might think of the distinction, as marked perhaps in the aisles of the mega-bookstore, between capital-L “Literature,” where you find “great books,” and plain old “literature,” as it would appear in the phrase “travel literature” or “scientific literature,” i.e., a body of writing. Like the difference between “art” and “Art,” this distinction implies cultural status: great Authors write great Literature.

It would also be important that our prospective entry for the term “author” address the contemporary textual phenomena of email, text messaging, and of course the web, with many kinds of sites, including social networking sites, discussion groups, virtual reality games and blogs like this one, that are “authored” by all kinds of folks. These forms of authorship seem to confirm Barthes’ idea that a text is nothing but “a tissue of quotations from innumerable centres of culture”—think of the abbreviations used in text messages, which practically constitute a new dialect; the many cultural references we make in our emails (“Did you see last night’s episode of Battlestar Galactica???”); and of course the quotations from and links to other sources that comprise the web.

Please comment on this post to indicate you have successfully signed on as a co-author of this blog. In your comment, why don’t you name one of your favorite Authors? Or, if you want to resist validating that particular form of authorship, link us up to a virtual author you admire?