Englisch (Subject) / Steop Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture (Lesson)

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• phrenology biology –(pseudo)scientific racism(esp. 19th c) buildsideology/mythsvia scientificgrounds forslavery,exploitation,colonialism • (Scientific) Racism first emerges as a defensiveideology in order to defend economic profitsof slavery & slave trade• Spread quickly, especially after abolitionistmovements starting in 1787• Supported by Christian racism
• cultural hybridization myths of “inside” and “outside” producedichotomies (binary oppositions) e.g black vs white, East vs. West, dirty vs clean,them vs us....etc.vs.cultures as products of a complex history ofinterrelation and connection“Glocalisation”, the local meets the global
• Difference & hybridity “Difference can be constructed negatively asthe exclusion and marginalization of thosewho are defined as ‘other’ or as outsiders [...].On the other hand, it can be celebrated as asource of diversity, heterogeneity andhybridity, where the recognition of changeand difference is seen as enriching.”
• ideology Popular usage:• A systematic body of ideas articulated by a particulargroup of people• a particular set of shared meanings -> fixing meanings-> a particular extreme world view• e.g. Extreme political ideologies, fundamentalist religiousideologiesCultural Studies:• Unchallenged, shared, naturalized, dominant meanings• „Culture = ideology“
• Antonio Gramsci: hegemony • “Prison Notebooks“– Why are there no successful socialist revolutions?• Describes processes of power in which adominant group does not merely rule by forcebut leads by consent• Domination via the common sense ratherthan via coercion
• hegemony: negotiating dominance ‘[Hegemony] does not just passively exist as aform of dominance. It has continually to berenewed, recreated, defended, and modified.It is also continually resisted, limited, altered,challenged’Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature, 1977
• cultural studies: hegemony • „popular culture is an arena of struggle andnegotiation between the interests ofdominant groups and the interests ofsubordinate groups […] an arena in whichhegemony may be won or lost“John Storey, CS and the Study of Popular Culture, 1996• Popular culture as field of resistance andincorporation: making, maintaining and (re)-producing dominant meanings.
• hegemony: articulation • Dominant representations rely on dominantarticulations• have material effects (e.g. on the law, oneveryday practices, lead to internalisation, etc.)• produce/circulate– Hegemonic norms– Hegemonic identities– hegemonic power relations
• decoding Texts are polysemic; active audiences1.Hegemonic-dominant reading2.Negotiated reading3.Oppositional (counter-hegemonic) reading
• discourse • In popular usage:(sophisticated) debate/discussion• In linguisticsstretches of language (longer than asentence)perceived to be meaningful, unified• In narratology (literature/film studies)plot vs. story vs. discourse (HOW is it told?)
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• Michel Foucault • Key influence on Stuart Hall/Cultural Studies• Anti-essentialist thinker• Post-structuralist thinker– argues against formalist theories of language– Discursive model of meaning making– Seeks to identify the historical conditions anddetermining rules of the formation of discoursesor regulated ways of speaking about objects andpractices. Foucault’s project was to analyze “how humanbeings understand themselves in our culture”and how our knowledge about “the social, theembodied individual and shared meanings”comes to be produced in different periods.
• discourses … enable - constrain - constitute… produce subjects, define subject positions… produce social practices, social scripts… give meanings to subjects, objects, practices… are historically contingent… never consist of only one statement, one text,one action
• discursive formations • are criss-crossings of discourses, sets ofinterrelated discourses• are patterns of dominant articulations• sustain a regime of truth and have truth-effectse.g. ‚universal‘ scientific truths about humannature are just the outcome of contingent historicalforces, and are not ultimate truths.-> racism as discursive formation
• Orientalism ...based on the dichotomy: east – west… a contrasting image to define Europe...articulations with inferiority… constructs the Orient asprimitive, backward, mysterious,ultimately inferior, as „the other“… power relations in interest of the West;legitimates colonisation
• sex / gender Sexrefers to the biology of the bodyGendercultural assumptions and practices whichgovern the social construction („of men andwomen“)-> HeteronormativityComplementary, binary genderroles as norm
• national identity • identity + geography• identification with places and spaces• provides a sense of belonging• nations as communities with„a deep horizontal comradeship“
• the gaze a form of looking that has effects• e.g. pleasure of „unseen“ looking ->„scopophilia“, voyeurism• e.g power via surveillance -> self control(inspecting gaze)• e.g gendered looking (male gaze)
• The Invention of tradition • balancing counterpart to new social practices-> creates order and cohesion• Imagined community is dramatized & formalizedthrough ceremonial repetition– constructs a collective memory, social continuity• Mythological terrain where cultural identity isenacted
• Shakespeare • Matthew Arnold: The best that has beensaid and thought• Leavisism: The Great Tradition• Raymond Williams: A whole way of life• CCCS: A set of practices
• Shakespeare’s Plays ...might be considered– distinct pieces of cultural work (sense: culturewith a big 'C'),– products of a particular (English) way of life(sense: culture as a way of life) and– representatives of a certain stage of culturaldevelopment
• Americanisation „A generation of Brits had grown up loathingand despising American mass culture. When itcame to music, movies, TV, computer games –it was all American. A generation of Britscoming of age in the mid 90s really resentedthis. They felt a nationalistic resentment of thefact that America enjoyed this unchallengedcultural hegemony.

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