Limitations of Cultural Studies.

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Name: Kailash P. Baraiya

Study: M.A.

Roll no: 10, Paper: 08

Batch: 2016-2018

Enrolment No: 2069108420170001

Subject: - the cultural studies

Topic: Limitations of Cultural Studies.

Submitted To: Pro. Dr. Dilip Barad, Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University

 What is cultural studies?

                   The word ‘culture' itself is so difficult to pin down,  'ciltural studies' is hard to define. As was also the case in chapter 8 with Ealing showalter's 'cultural' modal of feminine difference, 'cultural studies' is not so much a discrete approach at all, but rather a set of practices. As Patrick Branlinger has pointed out, cultural studies is not 'a tightly coherent, unified movement with a fixed agenda, 'but a loosely coherent group of tendencies issues and questions'. Arising from the social turmoil of the 1960s, cultural studies is composed of following element like:

Ø Marxism

Ø Post Structuralism

Ø Post Modernism

Ø Feminism

Ø Gender Studies

Ø Feminism

Ø Anthropology

Ø Sociology

Ø Race

Ø  Ethnic Studies

Ø Post-Colonial Studies

                     Those fields that concentrate on social and cultural forces that either create community or cause division and alienation. For example, drawing from Roland Barthes on  the nature of literary language and Claude Levi-Strauss on arthropology, cultural studies was influenced by structuralism and post-structuralism. Jacques Derrida’s 'deconstruction' of the word-text distinction like all his deconstructions of hierarchical opposition, has urged or enabled- cultural to erase or the boundaries between high and low culture, classic and popular literary texts and literature and other cultural discourses that following Derrida, may be seen as manifestation of the same texuality.

              The discipline of psychology has also entered the field of cultural studies. For example, Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious structured as a language promoted emphasis upon language and promoted emphasis symbolic system, from Michel Foucault came the notion that power is a whole complex of forces it is that which produces what happens. A tyrannical wield power but is empowered by discourse accepted ways of thinking writing and speaking-and practise that embody exercise and amount to power. from punishment to sexual mores, foucult’s 'genealogy' of topics includes many things excluded by traditional historians, from architectural blue prints for prisons to memories of deviants'. Psychoanalytic structuralism approaches are treated elsewhere in this Handbook, in the present chapter we review cultural studies, connections with Marxism, the new historicism, multiculturalism, postmodernism popular culture and post-colonial studies before moving on to our group of six literary works. 

There Is a Five Types of Cultural Studies:-

Five Types of Cultural Studies:

1)   British Cultural Materialism

2)   New Historicism

3)   American Multiculturalism

4)   Post Modernism and Popular Culture

5)   Post-Colonial Studies 

In my assignment I am focusing on limitations of culture studies.

                   The weakness of cultural studies is in its very strengths, particularly he emphasis upon diversity of approach and subject matter. Cultural Studies can at times seem merely am intellectual smorgasbord in which the critic blithely combines artful helpings of texts and objects and then 'finds' deep connection between them, without adequately researching what a culture means or how cultures have interacted. To put it bluntly, cultural studies is not always fuelled by the kind of hard research that historians have traditionally practiced to analyse 'culture'. Cultural studies practitioners often know a lot of interesting things and      possess the intellectual ability to play them off interestingly against each other, but they sometime lack adequate knowledge of the 'deep play' of a meaning or  'thick description' of a culture that ethnographer clifford Geertz identified in his studies of the Balinese. Sometimes students complain that professors who overemphasize cultural studies tend to downplay the necessity of reading the classics, and that they sometime coerce students into 'politically correct' views.

               David Richter describes cultural studies as about whatever is happing at the moment, rather than about a body of texts created in the past.  'Happening’ topics’, generally speaking are the mass media themselves, which in s postmodern culture, dominate the cultural lives of its inhabitants, or topics that have been velarized by the mass media. But he goes on to observe that is this seems trivial, the strength of cultural studies is its “ relentlessly critical altitude toward journalism, publishing cinema, television, and other forms of mass media, whose seeming transparent windows through which we view reality probably constitute the most blatant and pervasive mode of false consciousness of era. If we are tempted to dismiss popular culture, it is also worth remembering that when works like hamlet or huckleberry Finn were written, they were not intended for elite discussions in English classrooms, but exactly for popular consumption.

         Defenders of traditions and advocates of cultural studies are waging what is sometimes called the 'culture wars' of academia. On the one hand are offered impassioned defences of humanism as the foundation, since the of the ancient Greeks of western civilization and modern democracy. On the other hand, as Marxist theorist Terry Eagleton has written, the current crisis in the humanities can be seen as a failure of the humanities, this body of discourses about imperishable values has demonstrably negated those very values in its practise.

           Whatever the emphasis, cultural studies makes available one more approach –and several methodologies to address these questions.

               

Limitations of cultural studies:-

1.   Diversity of approach and subject matter:-

           

                    The weakness of cultural studies lies in its strengths, particularly its emphasis upon diversity of approach and subject matter cultural studies can at times seen merely an intellectual smorgasbordin which the critic a lithely combines artful helping of texts and objects and then 'finds' deep connections between them without adequately researching what a culture means or how cultures have interacted.

     2. Not fueled by hard research:-

        Cultural studies are not always filed by hard researcher i.e. historians have traditionally practiced to analyse ‘culture ‘which includes scientifically collected data

3. lack of knowledge:-

       

             Cultural study practitioners often know a lot of interesting things and possess the intellectual ability to play them off interestingly against each other but they sometime lack adequate knowledge  of 'deep play' of meaning or  'thick description' of a culture that ethnographer Clifford Geertz identified in has studies of the Balinese. 

                 In the essay of Geertz uses 'deep play' word for the cockfight which is illegal is his society. He explains as a context of British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1948-1832),Who defines 'deep play' as a game with risks high that no rational person would engage in it. The amounts of money involved in the cockfight makes Balinese cockfight 'deep play'.

                And another words 'thick description' is used in the field of anthropology, sociology religious studies and human and organizational  development. The 'thick description, of culture means it’s not just explaining what culture is about also refers that in which contex the meaning is developed.

       4.  Necessity or reading the classics:-

            Sometimes students complain that professors who overemphasize cultural studies tend to Downplay the necessity of reading the classes and that they sometimes coerce students into 'politically correct' views.    

      5. Whatever is happening at the moment:-

            David Richter describes culture as '-about whatever is happening at the moment' rather than about post body of texts crated in the past.

              'Happening' topics, generally speaking, are the mass media themselves, which, in a postmodern culture, dominate the culture lives on its inhabitants, or topics that have been valorises by the mass media.

   

               But he goes to  observe that if this seems trival, the strength of cultural studies its “relentlessly critical altitude toward journalism, publishing, cinema, television, and other forms of mass media, whose seemingly transparent windows through which we view 'reality' probably constitute the most blatant and pervasive made of false consciousness the most  blatant and pervasive mode of false consciousness of our era”.

6. Tempted to dismiss popular culture:-

             

         If we are tempted to dismiss popular culture,  it is also worth remembering that when then works like Hamlet or Huckleberry Finn were written, they were not intended for elite discussions in English classrooms but exactly for popular consumption.  

7.  'Culture Wars' of academia:-

             Defenders of tradition and advocates of cultural studies are waging what is sometimes called the 'culture wars' of academia.

               On the one hand, as Marxist theorist terry Eagleton has written, the current 'crises' in the humanities can be seen as failure of the humanities can be seen as failure the humanities this 'body of discourses' about imperishable values has demonstrably negated those very values in its practices.

            On the other hand are offered impassioned defences of humanism as the foundation, since the time of the ancient Greeks of western civilization and modern democracy.

Conclusion:-

               Whatever the emphasis, cultural studies makes available one more approach –and several methodologies to address these questions.

       Source: Net and Text   

Novelists of the Victorian Age

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Name: - Kailash Baraiya

Study: M.A., Sem-02,

Roll No: 10

Enrolment No: 2069108420170001

Subject: - Victorian Literature

Paper No: 06

Topic: Novelists of the Victorian Age

Submitted To: Pro, Dr. Dilip Barad,              Department of English, M.K Bhavnagar University

 Introduction of Victorian Age:-

                         

                       The Victorian period generally begins in 1837 and ends in 1901. As a matter of expediency, these dates are sometime modified slightly. 1830 is usually considered the end of the romantic period in English, and thus makes a convenient starting date for the Victorian age. Similarly, since queen Victoria's death occurred so soon in of the previous century provides a useful closing date for the period.

              Generally Victorian age is also considered as the age of prose and especially of novel. In comparison to other forms of literature novel is a quite modern form. Novel spent its childhood in the second half of the 18^th century, while in the second half of the 19^th century; novel seemed to be much matured, adult and young. The 18^th century novelists like Richardson, Fielding Smollet and Sterne who gave a good move to English novel but the Victorian novelists led this form to the pick of the perfection.

                The early Victorian navel as cultivated by Disraeli, Trollope Dickens. Thackeray etc. was essentially a transcript from life. Instead of seeking inspiration from the middle ages or the world of romance, the Victorian novelists concentrated on the social, Political, economic aspects of Victorian society. The Victorian reader found in novel what he looked for, and the early Victorian novelists provided him a historical perspective of the age in a historical perspective of the age in its varied aspects the early Victorian novelists did not very much bother about coherent plotes. The structure was loose, and the progress of the story was loose, and the progress of the story was hampered by episodic instructions, unconnected descriptions and moral sermons by the novelists.

                   A noteworthy feature of the age was the  rice of the women novelists like Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Bronte sisters enriched the English novel. They wrote passionately in a poetic language but their range was limited and there were autobiographical patches in their works. Moreover, by the end of the nineteenth century the novel as a species of litterer had thrust itself into the first rank. Therefore this period is essentially regarded as an age of or novels. Because during this age or period novel made a phenomenal progress as various types of novel can be observed such as Domestic novels, Psychological novels, and Historical novels, which were cultivated by many prominent novelist as enlisted below.

Ø Charles Dickens

Ø Thomas Hardy

Ø Georgie Eliot

Ø William Makepeace

Ø Charlotte Bronte

Ø Emily Bronte

Ø Anne Bronte

Ø George Meredith

                  So, let’s elaborate these novelists by observing their novels in detail,

Charles Dickens:-

                      

                   Charles john Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812-9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his life time, and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novel and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

                  Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of 'The Pickwick Papers' within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humor, satire and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly and weekly instalments, Pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for navel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience’s reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist  Expressed distress at the way Miss Moocher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha, pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

His creative works are:-

Ø The Pickwick Papers

Ø David Copperfield

Ø Oliver Twist

Ø A Tale Of Two Cities

Ø Great Expectations

Thomas Hardy:-

               Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novel and in his poetry by romanticism, especially on the decaling status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native south west England.

Some of his Works Are:-

Ø     

Ø The Mayor of Caster Bridge

Ø Under the Greenwood Tree

Ø Jude the Obscure

Ø Far From The Madding Crowd

           During his lifetime,Thomas Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets, who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra pound, W.H. Auden and Philip Larkin.

             Many of his novel concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Hardy’s Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon,Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in Southwest  in  and South central England. Two of his Novels. 'Tess of the d' Urberevilles' and 'Far from the Madding Crowd', were listed in the top 50 on the BBC ‘S survey the Big read.

George Eliot:-

               

             Mary Anne Evans, known by bar pen name George Eliot, known by her pen name George Eliot was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bead (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silos Mariner (1861), Middlemarch (1871-72), and Daniel Deronda (1876) most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

               She used a male pen name, she said,to ensure that her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot’s the stereotype of women writing only lighthearted romances. She also wished to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as an editorand critic. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Laws, with whom she lived for 20 years.

                   Eliot’s Middlemarch has been described by Martin Amiss and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.

 William Makepeace Thackeray: -

                       William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19^th century. He is known for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a Panoramic Portrait of English society.

                  Henry Edmond is the most perfect novel of Thackeray. This gives the most complete and accurate picture of the past age. It is a historical novel which got publication in the year of 1852, the novel deals with the story of the early life of Henry Edmond. This novel is a typical example of Victorian novels. Thackeray’s work of historical fiction tells its tale against the backdrop of late 17^th –and early 18^th century England –specifically, major events surrounding the English restoration and utilizes the English restoration and utilizes characters both real and imagined.

Charlotte Bronte:-

                

                     Charlotte Bronte is the name among the successful novelists of the Victorian Age. She was born on 21 April 1816 and passed away on 31 march 1855. She was an English novelist and poet. Charlotte Bronte the eldest of the three Bronte sister who survived into adulthood and whose novels are English literature standards. in 1824 the four eldest Bronte daughters were enrolled as pupils at the clergy Daughter’s school at Cowan Bridge. The following year Maria ill, left the school and died : Charlotte and Emily, understandably, were brought home.

Charlotte Bronte’s famous navels like:-

Ø Jane Eyre

Ø Shirley 

Ø The Professor

George Meredith:-  

       

               Meredith was born in Portsmouth England, a son and grandson of navel outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was  five at the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian school in Neuwied, Germany, where, he remained for two years. He read low and was articled as a solicitor, but abandoned that profession for journalism and poetry. He collaborated with Edward Greyffydh peacock, son of Thomas Love Peacock in publishing a privately circulated literary magazine, the monthly observer. He married Edward peacock’s widowed. Sister Mary Ellen Nicholls in 1849 when he was twenty-one years old and she was twenty-eight.

His some famous work like:-

Ø The Death of Chatterton

Ø The Ordeal of Richard Federal

            In 1909, he died at his home in box Hill, surrey. He is buried in cemetery at Dirking Surrey.

          At the end of this assignment I can say that all the novelists were prominent in the Victorian age.

Source: Net and Text

 

       

   

 

 

I.A. Richards’s Views on the Language of Poetry

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Name: Kailash P. Baraiya

Study: M.A, Sem:- 02 Roll No: 10

Batch:-2016-2018

Paper No: 07

Enrolment No: 2069108420170001

Subject:-Literary Theory and Criticism

Topic: I.A. Richards’s Views on the Language of Poetry

Submitted To: Pro. Dr.  Dilip Barad, Department Of

English, M.K. Bhavnagar University

Introduction of I.A. Richards:

            I.A. Richards, born in 1893, is one of the great critics of the modern age, and has influenced a number of critics on both sides of the Atlantic, He and T.S. Eliot, are pioneers in the field of new criticism, though they differ from each other in certain important respects. He is the first- rate critic, since Coleridge, who has formulated a systematic and complete theory of poetry, and his views are highly original and illumination. In his “principles of literary criticism” chapter 34, he discusses the most neglacted subject, i.e.  thetheory of language and the two uses of language. To understand much the theory of poetry and what is said about poetry, a clear comprehension of the differences between the uses of language is indispensable. David Daiches says, “Richards conducts this investigation in order to come to some clear conclusions about what imaginative literature is, how it employs language, how its use of language and what is its special function and value”.

               Richards’s reputation as the forerunner of new criticism derives from two of his earliest books. Principles of literary criticism, published in 1924, was his  atttempt to establish a criticism based upon scientific method, of particular interest to Richards was the relatively new discipline of psychology, which be hoped would eventually justify his theory of value that the best art satisfies the greatest number of ,appetencies'. In practical criticism,  published in 1929, Richards applied his theories to the study of literature. The method he introduced, asking student to comment on poems without benefit of background information, was for a time a widely accepted exercise in evaluating literature. Richards was especially concerned with the reader’s reaction to the poem, he believed that only close analysis would reveal the complexity of great art and he warned against sentimentity and stock responses.

                 

               According to I.A. Richards, language can be used in two ways, I.e. the scientific use in the emotive one. It’s only in recent years that serious attention is given to the language as a science. In the scientific use of language, we are usually matters of fact. All the activities covered by this use require undistorted references and absence of fiction. I.A. Richards was an orthodox advocate of a close textual and verbal study and analysis of a work of art, according to Richards there are three objectives to writ 'The Practical criticism'.

                  

                            We may use a statement, true or false, in a scientific use of language, but it may also be used to create emotions and attitudes. This is the emotive use of language. We use words scientifically or for emotion attitudes when words are used to evoke attitudes without recourse to references like musical phrases. References are conditions for developing attitudes and hence the attitudes are more important, without carrying for the true or false references. Their sole purpose is to support the attitudes Aristotle wisely said, 'better a plausible impossibility than an improbable possibility'.

               

                              In the scientific use of the language, the difference in reference is fatal but in the emotive language it is not so. In the scientific use of language, the references should be correct and the relation of references should be logical. In the emotive use of language, any truth or logical arrengement is not   necessary –it may work as an obstacle. The attitudes due to references should have their emotional interconnection and this has often no connection with logical relations of the facts  refereed to.

           

                             Richards goes on to examine deferent uses of the word 'truth'. in the scientific use, the the references are true and logical there is very little involvement of arts. Richards says that the term ‘true' should be reserved for this type of uses- the scientific use. But the emotive power of the word is far too great for this. The temptation are there for a speaker who wants to evoke certain attitudes. So, Richards goes on  to consider the connotation of the word 'truth' in criticism. In literary criticism, the common use is 'acceptability' or 'probability'.   

Importance of Rhythm and Meter:

                

                          Rhythm and meter and integral and important parts of any poem because they determine the meaning of the words used by the poets. Rhythm, Meter and meaning can cot be separated, they form together a single system.

            Richards finds two kinds of be life and disbelief;

Ø Intellectual belief

Ø Emotional belief

The nature of poetic truth:

            

                         Poetic truth is different from scientific truth. It is a matter of emotional belief rather than intellectual belief. It is not a matter of verification, but of attitude and emotional reaction. In the principles of literary criticism he writes, “it is evident that the bulk of poetry consists of statements which only can the very to verify. They are not the kind of things which can be verified. if we recall what was said earlier as to the natural generality of vagueness of reference, we shall see another see another reason why references as they occur in poetry are rarely susceptible to scientific truth or falsity only reference which are brought in to correspond to the ways in which things actually hang together, can he wither true or false, and most references in poetry are not knit together in this way. But even when they are on, on examination, frankly false, this is no defect. unless forces the obviousness of falsity forces the reader to reactions which are incongruent or disturbing the poetic truth and equally a point more often misunderstood, their truth, when they are true, is no merit.

              

                             The enthusiasm for science is an apartment in principles of literary is never carried out in a rigorous programmer of research. In 1992, practical criticism followed: arguably a kind of reality statement after the illusions of principles. Practical criticism was no doubt a pedagogic necessity, the consequence of Richards’s work as a lecture in English literature. With the influx of student just back from the war, Richards had to direct his lectures to an audience with quite different expectations from those of pre- war student. The legacy of this pedagogical practice is the central and persistent place in angle American criticism which is accorded to interpretation and to close reading, Whether the objects are poems, Hollywood films, or historical documents, this is despite the fact that Richards himself practiced little contended close reading. Significantly, when Basil Wiley credits Richards with founding the modern school of new –criticism, ‘analysis’ begins with chapter ‘The four kinds of meaning', which pronounces that: the original difficulty of all reading, the problem of making out the meaning, is our obvious starting-point the answers to those apparently simple questions: what is a meaning, ‘what are we doing when we endeavor to make it out? What is it we are making out? Are the master- keys to all the problems of criticism? If we can make use of then the locked chambers and corridors of the theory of poetry open to us, and new and impressive order is discovered even in the most erratic discovered even in the most erratic twists of the most erratic twists of the protocols.

                    

                                Is it the return of the repressed in the form of Moore’s what do you mean by that? Is this behind Richard’s which to eliminate or bed poetry? And to invite answers only to the question, what does it mean? At the outset of practical criticism? Commentators have pointed to the underplaying of meaning  in the divisions between symbolic and evocative language for scientific and poetic use respectively.

Source of Misunderstanding in Poetry:

                   

                            According to I.A. Richards there are four sources of misunderstanding of poetry. It is difficult to diagnose with accuracy and definiteness, the source of some particular mistake or misunderstanding of the sense of poetry. It arise from inattention, or poetry, or sheer carelessness. I.A. Richards warns readers- in most poetry the sense is as important as anything else; it is quite as a subtle and as dependents on the syntax as in prose. It is the post’s chief instrument to other aims when it is not itself his aim. His control of thoughts is ordinarily his chief means to the control of our feeling and in the immense majority of instances we miss nearly everything of value if we misdeal his sense.

                 An over literal- reading is as great a source of misunderstanding in poetry as careless, ‘ intuitive' reading and prosaic “over-literal” reading are the simple- grades, the justing rocks. Defective scholarship is a third source of misunderstanding in poetry. The reader may fail to understand the sense of the poet, because he is ignorant of poet’s sense. A far more serious cause of misunderstanding is the failure to realize that the poetic use of words is defferent from their use in prose. Complaints may rest upon an assumption about language that can be fatal to poetry. Literary is one serious obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the poetic words. According to Richards poetry is different attitude from proud needs a different attitude for right understanding.

Comparative Criticism:

                    

                                Richards warns his readers against the dangers of over simple from of comparative criticism. The third comment quoted above, the critic has compared the present poet with Shelly in the Ode to West Wind,and has pointed out that the present poet has not has not succeeded in doing what Shelley has done, and that Shelley  is much more clear in his conceptions. But before making such comparisons, we. should try to determine the ends also bound to differst heir means are also bound to differs. As two readers are already parallel in their intents, divergence in their methods does not prove one poem better than the other. Such over- simple comparisons are fallacious and misleading. Comparative criticism has its value, but we must know what it is we are comparing and under what conditions and circumstances.A close consideration of the poem brings out that the poet was right in giving to his cloud a vague and shifting personality, and a ‘ clear conception ‘ of its personality would have been out of place and inappropriate. It would have over- burdened the poem. the has clearly avoided this danger ‘ when after five verses of 'antics' chiefly concerned with the cloud-shadow , he turns to the cloud itself in its afternoon dissolution he cuts the personification down, mixing his metaphors to reflect its incoherence, and finally, 'O frail steel issue of the sun', Depersonifying it altogether in mockery of its total loss of character. This recognition that the personification was originally an extravagance makes the poem definitely one of fancy rather than imagination –to use the Wordsworth in division – but it rather increases than diminishes the descriptive effect gained by the device. And its peculiar felicity in exactly expression a certain shade of feeling towards the cloud deserves to be remarked.

Conclusion:

             

                     Briefly, a proper understanding of figurative language needs closer study. Its literal meaning must be traced. Its literal meaning cannot be found in any imaginative appreciation of it. There should be a judicious balance between literalism and imaginative freedom. One should comprehend the meaning of poetry properly and then come to the judgment whether it has any fault or not.

  Source: Net and Text