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Warning: Unimplemented annotation type "FreeText", falling back to base annotation. Introduction to Cultural StudiesSession 1: IntroductionWhat is culture? - brainstorming- culture defines the way people act and lead their lives- Very divergent topic - food, language, clothing- Cul...

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Cultural studies

Introduction to Cultural Studies

Session 1: Introduction What is culture? - brainstorming - culture defines the way people act and lead their lives - Very divergent topic - food, language, clothing - Cultural norm, that defines what is acceptable - Makes people distinct from others - Rituals, standards and norms - Society defining standards - different definitions/meanings - Definition has changed over time - Different people share at least one characteristic with each other or have at least one common interest - Expression of individual or collective ideas through art, cooking, music - Morally defining for everyone who lives with a particular cultural background - Person can be part of different cultural groups - Traditions, religion - Can be exclusive to certain groups or regions - Stereotypes - Primary socialization - Laws - Culture is not fixed - culture as opposed to nature, nature vs. culture - Groups of people? - Would it be possible to have a culture consisting of just one person? - No, because you need shared aspects - Behavior - Language and culture belong together - You can‘t talk about language without taking culture into respect - Every culture has its own code

Session 2: Setting the Stage

- Heterogeneous product, different cultures - Not fixed (no finished product) - Material dimension - Artifacts, that display culture - Mental dimension - Myths, world views, religious and political opinions that are shared within a group - Social dimension

- Not so easy to distinguish between dimensions - Especially in a heterogeneous group - Dimensions often overlap or are all present at the same time - Historical development of culture Cultural Studies - When talking about culture we look at it from a certain point of time - Often find distinction between “high culture” vs “low culture” (mainly in the past) - Matthew Arnold (19th century) = became famous for his definition on culture - ! 19th century —> so it is no longer up to date - “What should be preserved is culture. What should be passed one is the past of every generation” - What is the best? Who gets to decide what is good and what isn’t? - Agreement/consensus —> obviously not by everyone, but at least by the majority - Code of a culture - But, who decides upon the code of a culture? - Social hierarchy/structure - Has to do a lot with power - Who gets decide what is considered high culture, valuable,…? - All kinds of groups/parts make up a culture – we should look at all kinds of aspects of that culture 1 von 44

Cultural studies

- Cultural studies tries to move away from the evaluation - When studying “culture”, what is it you’re actually looking at? - Cultural representations - Way people behave - Ferdinand de Saussure - Founding father of linguistics - Signifier (e.g. physical motion) vs signified (e.g. Greeting) - Language is a system of signs - Cultural studies took that knowledge at transferred/adapted it to cultural studies - A sign always stands for something else - If you don’t know the code of a culture, you cannot understand that culture, but you might even offend someone

- Processes that give meaning to a certain sign Religion, rituals

Mental, social dimension Niederschlag in sakraler Architektur, Lebensweise beeinflusst Zeitvorstellung, wirtschaftliche Neuerungen führen zur Ausbildung neuer sozialer Strukturen

Practices (things that are nonlinguistic, that we just do)

Mental dimension

Cultural memory

Mental, social and material dimension

- Kultur ist immer an einen Sprachbegriff gebunden - Kultur entwickelt sich weiter, ist kein statisches „Objekt“ - Erforscht die vom Menschen hervorgebrachte Einrichtungen, die -

zwischenmenschlichen, v.a. Medial vermittelten Handlungs- und Konfliktformen, sowie deren Werte- und Normenhorizonte Verschiedene Traditionen und Ausprägungen von Kulturwissenschaften Vor ein paar Jahren war Kulturwissenschaften an der Universität mehr oder weniger Landeskunde Britische Variante von Kulturwissenschaften ist hier relevant

What is cultural studies? - Academic discipline - Established in 1960s - Concerned with the study of culture, But in comparison to earlier ideas of culture, it is interested in ALL aspects of culture - Aim: to find out about various norms, structures and power hierarchies in a society

- Modern cultural studies avoids judgments - description, explanation, understanding of cultural phenomena and developments - Three central aspects - Culture = heterogenous product of human action, which is expressed in symbols, values and norms, behaviors and cultural artifacts

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- Only manifestations, and not cultures per se, can be observed and interpreted (constructive character) - Differentiation of the material, social and mental dimension of cultural studies Präzise Bestimmung theoretischer und methodischer Prämisse der Kulturwissenschaft unmöglich Hindernis: Vielfalt und Vielzahl subsumierter Forschungsrichtungen und Tendenzen in Geisteswissenschaften Kulturwissenschaft = Sammelbegriff für offenen und interdisziplinären Diskussionszusammenhang Kann keine allgemein gültige Definition, die der Begriffsvielfalt gerecht wird, geben Entwickelt Theorien der Kulturen und materiale Arbeitsfelder, die systematisch und historisch untersucht werden Kultur als Ganzes = Objekt, aber auch Rahmen für eigene Operationen

What are the concerns of cultural studies within anglistics? - One of the 5 sub-areas/columns of anglistics - Brought up a cultural turn in the humanities (1970s) - Change of perspective - Looking more at cultural aspects of certain things - Contributes to British cultural history - Comparing ones own culture with an anglophone culture - Also helps with understanding your own culture and norms - But also possible to compare aspects of British culture to aspects of American culture? 2 von 44

Cultural studies

- Wurzeln: - britische Variante der Cultural Studies, die als Ergänzung zu kulturwissenschaftlicher orientierten Literaturwissenschaft, das anglistische Studienangebot und Forschungsfelder erweitern

- Theoretische und methodische Anregungen aus Reihe innovativer ethnographischen, soziologischer und historiographischer Ansätze

- Britische Kulturgeschichtsschreibung

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Semiotik definiert Kultur als Zeichensystem bzw. Zeichenorientiertes Kommunikationssystem Gesellschaft durch art und weise der von ihr verwendeten Zeichen, sowie den zeichengebraucht bestimmt Auf Konventionen beruhende Abmachungen —> arbiträr Erkenntnis liegt der Semiotik zugrunde Untersucht Beziehungsrelationen zwischen Signifikanten und Signifikaten Um bestimmte Zeichen zu verstehen ist ein gewisses Vorwissen bzgl. Des Konzepts vorhanden sein Ferdinand de Saussure

index

icon

symbol

Beziehung zur Sache

Direkt (Teil-Ganzes, kausal, Zweck-Mittel); weißt häufig Merkmale des realen Gegenstands auf

assoziativ (Ähnlichkeit, Sachfelder)

arbiträr (Konventionalität)

Interpretation

Kausales Schlüsse-Ziehen

Assoziatives Schlüsse-Ziehen; Zeigefunktion

Konventionsbasiertes SchlüsseZiehen; Bedeutung wird mit Hilfe kulturell vermittelter Gebrauchsregeln entschlüsselt

Adressierung

Kein Urheber oder Adressat

Urheber/Adressat

Urheber/Adressat

Kulturelle Lokalisiertheit

gering (kulturelle Beobachterperspektive bedingt Zeichenhaftikeit)

Mittel (Assoziation setzt kulturelles Wissen voraus)

hoch (kulturelles Zeichensystem als Grundlage des Verstehens); Bekommt nur Bedeutung durch Einbettung in Situation

- If one considers culture in that way, one can recognize certain dynamics between the three aspects - Obsolescence of styling: - iconographic visual signage is made obsolescent as technology and styles change, and social norms become outdated

- Outdated social norms: - man holding the hand of a little girl - Ambiguity of meaning: - the grammar of visual language becomes imprecise when the logic of a sign is not consistently applied - Unclear what is actually meant, who’s the one in charge, where does the question mark belong to - As culture becomes progressively more symbol-oriented, designers have a greater responsibility to -

evaluate the impact of their artifacts on society, and the study of semiotics can help separate and analyze their „signs“ of communication at a very basic level Meaning making through „signs“ is not solely the province of design, and scholarship outside design recognizes the role of culture in making and negotiating meaning

Main objectives of cultural studies (mindmap)

- traditionally conceived as opposites - Nature = untamed, unorganized —> tamed through civilization (cultivation) 3 von 44

Cultural studies

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Apparent binary and opposition is being used to contrast humans with other beings Natural often seen as a paradisiac primitive state power structure and relations are established and culturally communicated Term culture implies a polarizing value judgment - Cultivated uncultivated; superficial civilization true culture; exalted education shallow entertainment dualism has its origin in the western understanding of nature and culture Nature = threat for the human, who tries to withdraw from it through cultivation Culture-nature-dualism not the only possible reaction to experience of nature, but a cultural construction itself Cultivation of nature is seen as the highest human accomplishment —> repeatedly celebrated in art and literature (e.g. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe)

Key Concepts - Power - Identity - active audience - Representation - Ideology - Anti-essentialism - Signifying practices - Language-game - Articulation - (the) Social - Political economy - Cultural materialism - Social formation - Politics - Culture - Subjectivity - Polysemy - Discourse - Texts - Popular culture - Discursive formation - Positionally - Hegemony —> Cultural studies writers differ about how to deploy these concepts and about which are the most significant Counter Culture? - questions conventions and directly opposes to the common perception of culture - Like-minded people gather and penetrate their opinion in order to change something in the society Identity vs. Alterity - Many people find their identity through Alterität —> being different - Construction of identity through the feeling of “us” - Community - Us them (Separation from inside vs. outside)

- Identität - Identitätsstiftende Sozial- und Sinnstrukturen: Hierarchien, Rollenverteilungen, kollektiv geteilte Werte und

Normen, Sitte und Gebräuche, religiöse, ethnische und nationale Überzeugungen - Ergeben kulturelle Ordnung, die Weltbild und Wir-Gefühl festigen, Selbstbild prägen und sie von anderen Kulturen unterscheidet - Alterität - Stärkung des Selbstbildes geht mit Ausgrenzung anderer Kulturen einher - Integration nach innen (us) Abgrenzung nach außen (them) - Altertet = Verhältnis von Eigenem und Fremden; kulturspezifische Konstruktion, die bestimmten Regeln folgt und meist politisch Funktionalisierungen ist

Universalism vs. Relativism - Universalistisches Kulturverständnis - Alle Menschen besitzen, unabhängig von der Kultur, der sie angehören, dieselben unveräußerlichen Rechte - Annahme der grundsätzlichen Gleichheit liegen Werte der Aufklärung zugrunde - Relativismus verlangt eine Unterscheidung und Gegenüberstellung von Kulturen - Annahme der grundsätzlichen Unterschiedlichkeit und Gleichwertigkeit aller menschlichen Kulturformen

- Universalismus - Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrchte (1947) —> fundamentals Ansprüche des Einzelnen gegenüber der Gemeinschaft

- Kulturrelativismus - Relativistische Position setzt sich zwar nicht Vorwurf des Ethnozentrismus aus, droht aber in ethischen

Relativismus überzugehen - Lehnt jedes Urteil über andere politische/juristische Praktiken, sowie jede Form interkulturellen Einfluss` ab - Realitätsfern - Ethnozentrismus 4 von 44

Cultural studies

- Wird damit begründet, dass angeblich universelle Menscherechte lediglich in westlichen Gesellschaften verankert sind, während andere Kulturen von völlig anderen Voraussetzungen ausgehen

Power and Ideology - Ideology is not something that is forced upon us - Enjoy ideologies —> want to live with them in a certain way - Without an ideology some parts of our life wouldn’t make any sense - It’s hard to get out of an ideology – we’re kind of born into it - Marxism and capitalism

- Are we really victims of ideology? - Have to be forced into seeing the truth

- agreement on centrality of the concept of power to the discipline fo cultural studies - Power: pervades every level of social relationships - Glue that holds the society together - Processes that generate and enable any form of social action, relationship or order - Specific concern with subordinate groups (class, races, genders, age groups) - subordination = matter of coercion and of consent : - Used to refer to maps of meaning that, while purporting to be universal truths, are actually historical specific understandings that obscure and maintain power

- e.g. television news —> produce understanding of the world that explain it in terms of nations as naturally

occurring objects - consequence: obscuring of class divisions of social formations; constructed character of nationality - hegemony: - Process of making, maintaining and reproducing ascendant meanings and practices - Implies situation where a historical bloc of powerful groups exercises social authority and leadership over subordinate groups through the winning of consent

- Centerpiece of Marx’s work: analysis of the dynamics of capitalism - Fundamental class division is between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and those who must sell their labor to survive (proletariat)

- Those who work the most have the most power - Power distribution - We’re viewing culture through the Marxist perspective

- cultural studies writers eventually had a productive relationship with marxism - Cultural studies is not a Marxist domain - Live in social formations organized along capitalist lines —> manifest deep class divisions in work, wages, houses, education and health

- Central practices commodified by large corporate culture industries - Marxism has been criticized for its teleology - Positioning of an inevitable point to which history is moving: demise of capitalism, arrival of a classless society - Problem on theoretical and empirical grounds - Cultural studies concerned with issues of structure and action - Marxism suggests regularities or structures of human existence that lie outside of any given individual - But also commitment to change through human agency - Has resisted the economic determinism inherent in some reading of marxism - Has asserted specificity of culture - Concerned with success of capitalism —> transformation and expansion - Attributed to the winning of consent for capitalism

- Semiotics of culture - Signs and codes - Index, icon, symbol - Dynamic between those fields - Different levels of arbitrary - Certain social groups have their distinct dialect or sociolect depending on factors such as social class, ethnicity, regional situation

- Language creates separation - Language is never still —> always moving, dynamic process - no direct access to nature, need a code as a way of connecting 5 von 44

Cultural studies

- structuralism extends reach from words to the language of cultural signs in general - Human relations, material objects and images analyzed through structures of signs - Claude Lévi-Strauss: describes kinship systems as „like a language“ - Family relations are held to be structured by the internal organization of binaries - Approach to food: not so much good to eat, as good to think with - Food = signifier of symbolic meanings - Cultural conventions tell us what constitutes food and what does not, the circumstances of their eating and the meanings attached to them

- Lévi-Strauss uses binaries - e.g. edible and inedible: marked not by questions of nutrition but by cultural meanings - Binary oppositions of edible-inedible mark another binary: insiders - outsiders - Barthes: argues that meaning of texts are to be grasped not in terms of the intentions of specific human beings, but as a set of signifying practices

Interculturality - intercultural competence is important for teachers - Need to remark on different cultures

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1950er/1960er: development of cultural studies in Great Britain Culture of the working class is enhanced Popular forms of entertainment —> object of investigation Old conventions: civil traditions High vs. low culture —> popular culture tries to get rid of this distinction

Main points of and Subjectivity

- What does it mean to be a subject? - What we think we are and what society thinks we are - I might be perceived by others differently than I perceive myself - Psychoanalysis: what happens subconsciously? - Freudian model - Self is constituted in terms of - Ego: conscious rational mind - Superego: social conscience - Unconscious: source and repository of the symbolic workings which functions with a different logic -

from reason

- Cultural study explores: - How do we become the kinds of people we are - How are we produced as subjects - How do we identify ourselves with descriptions such as male/female, black/white, young/old

- Deep structures of language - Syntagmatic, paradigmatic (Ferdinand de Saussure) - Alles läuft nach Mustern - Konstruktiv Dekonstruktiv - Through the structure of the language it is possible to figure out/find links to the structure of society —> language medium through which meaning is generated - Post-structuralism? - Can never be fully unweaved you can only partly understand it - Structuralism: - Way of perceiving the world in structures and patterns - Everything can be broken down into structures - Structured reality - Repeating patterns - If you change the structure of language, you also change the perception of culture - Deconstruction - No stable structure - More fluid constructs 6 von 44

Cultural studies

- speaks of signifying practices that generate meaning as an outcome of structure or predictable regularities that lie -

outside of any given person Searches for constraining patterns of culture as the product of social structures anti-humanist —> decentering of human agents Phenomena have meaning only in relation to other phenomena within a systematic structure Culture is concerned with the systems of relations of an underlying structure and the grammar that makes meaning possible

Culturalism

Structuralism

- focuses on meaning production by human actors in a

- points to culture as an expression of deep structures of

historical context - Stresses history - Focuses on interpretation as a way of understanding meaning

language that lie outside of the intentions of actors and constrain them - Synchronic in approach —> analyses structures of relations in a snapshot of a particular moment - Asserts the specificity of culture and its irreducibility to any other phenomena - Has asserted possibility of a science of signs and thus of objective knowledge

Session 3: Key Concepts in Cultural Studies Little Red Riding Hood - Charles Perrault (1695/1697)

„Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a little country girl, the prettiest creature who was ever seen. Her mother was excessively fond of her; and her grandmother doted on her still more. This good woman had a little red ridin...