Thinking Activity : Technoculture, Speed and Slow Movement

Hello Readers!

This is my academic blog on thinking Activity of Techno culture and Speed and Slow movement. This task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department.

• Introduction 

Risk theory for cultural studies reveals the extent that society culture thrives on risk, providing information about risk potential, possible solutions and so on. Risk theory is reflects on the psychological impact of techno-culture where cultural response to new devices are based upon an awareness that they create new risk. Most systems social, political and technological are now self referential : they generate risks and provide solutions ; they talk only within the system and rarely to the outside.

• Main Theorist and Theory 

1. Ulrich Beck   :  The Risk Society 
2. Carl Honore  :  In Praise of slowness
3. Jean Baudrillard : Simulation and Simulacra 
4. Paul Virillio  :  Speed and politics. 

• Simulation and Simulacra 

Simulation and Simulacra is a 1981 philosophical treaties by Jean Baudrillard, in which the author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture and media involved in constructing and understanding of shared existence.

Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no original, or not longer have and original. Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real - world process or systems over time.

The Slow Movement 

A movement that started out with food and ended Up touching Millions 

It all began when in 1986, Carlo Petrini founded Slow food to counter fast food and fast life. The idea quickly grew into an international movement,  reflecting an overwhelming desire for a cultural shift towards slowing down life's pace. This sparked off the beginning of a broader Slow Movement, which has now evolved into Slow Travel, Slow Cities,  Slow Companies, Slow parenting. 

Going slow is about doing everything slow it is simply a gentle reminder to all us that   :

1. We need to rushing through life so fast that we looses track of ourselves, our own values and what makes common sense. We need to reunite with inner voice that used to guide us - because without it was tend to make really shitty decisions both as individuals, parent, entrepreneurs and politicians. 

2.  We need to stop applying the same turbo - Speed to everything that we do.  Certain things are not cmeant to be rushed (such as a raising a child or cooking a nice meal)  so we need to back to doing things at the right speed and learn to slow down when life really matters. 

Carl Honore,  author of the international best -selling book,  "In Praise of Slowness"  that has been translated into over 30 languages, has recognized the importance of Slow brilliantly :

" Today we are addicted to speed, to cramming more and more into every minute. Every moment of the feels like a race against the clock,  a dash to a finish line that we never seem to reach.  This roadrunner culture is taking a  toll on everything from our health,  diet and work  to our communities, relationship and diet and work  to our communities,  relationships and the environment."

👉Paul Virillio  :  Speed and politics

Speed and Politics (first published in France in 1977) is the matrix of Virilio's entire work. Building on the works of Morand, Marinetti, and McLuhan, Virilio presents a vision more radically political than that of any of his French contemporaries: speed as the engine of destruction. Speed and Politics presents a topological account of the entire history of humanity, honing in on the technological advances made possible through the militarization of society. Paralleling Heidegger's account of technology, Virilio's vision sees speed—not class or wealth—as the primary force shaping civilization. In this "technical vitalism," multiple projectiles—inert fortresses and bunkers, the "metabolic bodies" of soldiers, transport vessels, and now information and computer technology—are launched in a permanent assault on the world and on human nature. Written at a lightning-fast pace, Virilio's landmark book is a split-second, overwhelming look at how humanity's motivity has shaped the way we function today, and what might come of it.

👉TED-Talk on 'In Praise of Slowness'

A world obsessed with speed, with doing everything faster, with cramming more and more into less and less time. Every moment of the day feels like a race against the clock. To borrow a phrase from Carrie Fisher, which is in his bio there; he'll just toss it out again -- "These days even instant gratification takes too long." (Laughter) And if you think about how we to try to make things better, what do we do? No, we speed them up, don't we? So we used to dial; now we speed dial. We used to read; now we speed read. We used to walk; now we speed walk. And of course, we used to date and now we speed date. And even things that are by their very nature slow -- we try and speed them up too. So he was in New York recently, and he walked past a gym that had an advertisement in the window for a new course, a new evening course. And it was for, you guessed it, speed yoga. So this -- the perfect solution for time-starved professionals who want to, you know, salute the sun, but only want to give over about 20 minutes to it. He mean, these are sort of the extreme examples, and they're amusing and good to laugh at. 

very serious point, and I think that in the headlong dash of daily life, we often lose sight of the damage that this roadrunner form of living does to us. We're so marinated in the culture of speed that we almost fail to notice the toll it takes on every aspect of our lives -- on our health, our diet, our work, our relationships, the environment and our community. And sometimes it takes a wake-up call, doesn't it, to alert us to the fact that we're hurrying through our lives, instead of actually living them; that we're living the fast life, instead of the good life. And I think for many people, that wake-up call takes the form of an illness. You know, a burnout, or eventually the body says, "I can't take it anymore," and throws in the towel. Or maybe a relationship goes up in smoke because we haven't had the time, or the patience, or the tranquility, to be with the other person, to listen to them. 

Citation :

“Slow Movement (Culture).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Feb. 2020, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_movement_(culture).

Thank you.... 

Presentation Paper No. 8 : Postcolonial Studies

Postcolonial studies from pinagondaliya

Presentation Paper No 5 :Character Studie Of Monster

Character Studie of Monster from pinagondaliya

Presentation Paper No 7 : Queer Theory

Queer Theory from pinagondaliya

Sunday Reading : Northrop Frye and religion

Hello Readers! 

This is my academic task Sunday reading Northrop Frye and Religion.

• Literary Criticism and Religion

There is a close relationship between literary criticism and religion. In his analysis, a literary critic considers God  as an archetype man who is portrayed as a hero in a work. God is a character in the story of Paradise Lost or The Bible,  and the critic deals with him and considers him only as a human character. Criticism does not deal with any actuality,  but with what is conceivable and possible.

Similarly religion is not associated with scientific actuality,  but with how things look like. Literary criticism work on cinceivability. Likewise,  religion function on conceivability. There can be no  place for scientific actuality in both,  but what,  is conceived is accepted by all.  Both in religion and literary criticism , an epiphany is at work. It is a revelation of god or truth and it is a profound insight. It originated from the subconscious, from the dreams. In human life there is a cycle of waking and dreaming and in nature also,  it could be seen and it is the cycle of light and darkness. Waking and dreaming,  and light and darkness are two antithetic factors, which bring about epiphany in a person.  It is during the day that man develops fear and frustration,  and he  resolves to achieve.  It is the  antithesis,  which resolves the problems and misunderstanding of man  and makes him perceive truth both in religion and literary criticism.


Thank you...... 

Thinking Activity : Digital humanities

Hello Readers! 

Welcome to my blog. This is my academic blog on thinking Activity of Digital humanities. Task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department. 

Click below to learn more about the Digital Humanities.

• Digital humanities 
• Literary criticism in the age of information  Digital Humanities 
• Digital humanities and Cyberspace Textually 

Q : 1 Define Digital Humanities? 

At its core digital humanities is more akin to a common methodological outlook than an investment in any one specific set of texts or even research,  arguing, competing, and collaborating for many years. A c

The digital humanities, also known as humanities computing, is a field of study, research, teaching, and invention concerned with the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities. It is methodological by nature and interdisciplinary in scope. It involves investigation, analysis, synthesis and presentation of information in electronic form.  It studies how these media affect the disciplines in which they are used, and what these disciplines have to contribute to our knowledge of computing.

Q : 2  what is it doing in English Departments? 

First,  after numeric input,  text has been by far the most tractable data type for computers to manipulate.  Unlike images, audio, Video, and so on, there is a long tradition of text -based data processing that was within the capabilities of even some of the earliest computer systems and that has for decades fed research in fields like stylistics, linguistics, and author attribution studies, all heavily associated with English departments.

Second , of course, there is the long association between computer and composition, almost as long and just as rich in its lineage.

Third is the pitch -perfect convergence between the intense conversation around editorial theory and mathod in the 1980s and the widespread means to implement electronic archives and editions very soon after; Jerome McGann is a key figure here,  with his work on the Rossetti Archive, which  he has repeatedly describe as a  vehicle for applied theory, standing as paradigmatic.

Thinking Activity : Unit 3 : CS in practice

Hello Readers! Welcome to my blog

This is my academic blog on thinking activity on cultural studies unit 3 cultural studies of Hamlet and To His Coy Mistress. This task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department.

Q : 1 The poem 'To His Coy Mistress' tells us a lot about the speaker, the listener and also the audience for whom it is written. But what does he not show? As he selects these rich and multifarious allusions, what does he ignore from his culture?

Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" tells the reader a good deal about the speaker of the poem, much of which is already clear from earlier comments in this volume, using traditional approaches. We know that the speaker is knowledgeable about poem and conventions of classic Greek and Roman literature, about other conventions of love poetry, such as the courtly love conventions medieval Europe, and about other Biblical passages. The poem also tells us lot about the speaker, listener and also the audience but let we discus what does he not show?

• What does he (Arnold) not show? What does he ignore from his culture?

He clearly does not think of poverty, the demographics and multifarious allusions, and socioeconomic details of which would show how fortunate his circumstances are. For example, it has been estimated that during this are at least one quarter of the European population was below the poverty line. Nor does the speaker think of disease as a daily reality that he might face. To be sure , in the second and especially in the third stanza he alludes to future death and dissolution. But wealth and leisure and sexual activity are his currency, his coin for present bliss. Worms and marble vaults and ashes are not present, hence not yet real.

Q : 2 If these two characters were marginalized in Hamlet, they are even more so in Stoppard's handling. If Shakespeare marginalised powerless in his own version of Rozsencrantz and Guildenstern,Stoppard has marginalized us us all in an era when - in the eyes of some-all of us are caught up in forces beyond our control. 

In the play of Hamlet, there are two marginalized characters; Rosencrantze and Guildenstern. In the twentieth century the dead, or never -living,  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were resuscitated by Tom Stoppard in a fascinating re-seeing of their existence, or its lack. In Stoppard's version, they are even more obviously two ineffectual pawns, seeking constantly to know who they are, why they are here, where they are going. In contemporary Indian culture we can see that people was marginalized under the power of politics. No anyone can raise their voice against politics  democracy. 

      Thank you 😊

  

Thinking Activity : Unit 4 C. S. in practice.

Hello Readers!

This is my academic blog on thinking Activity of cultural studies unit 4 : studies of Frankenstein in contemporary Indian culture. And popular writer and his Market. This task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department. 

Q : 1 Frankenpheme in contemporary Indian culture. 

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein address such critical contemporary scientific and political concern while at the same time providing Saturday Afternoon entertainment to generations. In the Routledge Literary Sourcebook on Frankenstein, Timothy Morton uses the term Frankenstein, drawn from phonemes and graphemes, as "elements of culture that are derived from Frankenstein. " Either separate work of art ie inspired, or another medium. 

Broadly defined, Frankephemes demonstrate the extent of the novel's presence in the 1824 Canning speech in parliament, in today's global debates about such things as genetically engineered food, and  of course in parliament, in today 's global debates about such things as genetically engineered foods, and of course in fiction and other media. 

• Some of  thousands of retellings, parodies, and other selected frankenphemes as they have appeared in popular fiction, drama, film and television. Indian writer also inspired by mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein and wrote Story with different perspective. 

• One of the Indian hindi drama; Enthiran translate  Robot is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film written and directed by S. Shankar. Dr. Vasi, a brilliant scientist, builds chitti, a unique robot, who is programmed to protect mankind and also feel human emotions. Problems arise when chitti fall in love with Dr. Vasi's girlfriend. Obviously the way of storytelling is different but some things is we connected with Frankenstein. Like the Dr. Vasi and Victor both are very brilliant scientists. They try to do something new. One make a robot and another made a human being but his looking like a monster and the movie we can see that Dr. Vasi make a robot but his look like a human being. Their both creation feel emotion for their creators wife. So some kind of movie's director inspired by mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein. So we can say that mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein is well known in the world. There are many adaptation is done. 

Q : 2 Any popular artists /writer and his market. 

• Morari Bapu and his Market :

Mararidas prabhudas Hariyani Is hindu spiritual leader and preacher from Gujrat state of India who is popularly known for his discourses on Ramcharitmanas across various cities in India an abroad. He is also known for philanthropy and social reforms through his discourses. He is widely famous Indian kathakar. 

At the age of 20, he gave his first discourse on Ramcharitmans under Ramprasad Maharaj at a nine day discourse held at Gandila, a village in Gujarat. He gave his first discourses abroad in nairobi in 1976. He gives discourses in Gujarati and hindi.  In India and abroad. He has given discourses in the United States,  United Kingdom, South Africa, kenya,  Uganda as well as on a curisr ship in the Mediterranea sea.

He keeps 300 year old copy of Ramayana with him which he received from his grandfather and received popularity in the India and abroad.

I.A.Richards : Verbal analysis

Hello Readers! 

This is my academic blog on thinking Activity of I. A. Richards  verbal analysis. This task given by Dr.  Dilip Barad head of English department.

I. A. Richards 

I. A. Richard was a pioneer in the

domain of new criticism. I. A.

Richard  one of the famous English critic, poet and teacher who was highly influential in developing a new way of reading poetry that led to the new criticism and that also influenced some forms of reader response criticism. Richard was born in Cheshire and educated at Cambridge university's Magdalene college.

His path breaking works:
1.The meaning of Meaning -1923
2. The principles of Literary criticism
3. The practical criticism 1929 

There are three objective to wrote 1. To introduce new kind of documentation. 2. To provide new technique. 3. To prepare a new way for education method. In his work he discuss about figurative language as well as metaphorical language which was an orthodox of close textual and verbal study and analysis of work of art. 

• Four kinds of meaning :

1. Sense : 

                   Sense is what is said, or the 'items' refers to by a writer.

2. Feeling :  

                    It refers to emotional attitudes, will,desire, pleasure, displeasure and the rest. When we say something we have a feeling about it, "an attitude towards it, some personal flavour or colouring of feeling." Words express "these feelings, these nuances of interest."

3.  Tone : 

                Tone is the writer's attitude to his readers or audience. The use of language is determined by the writer's 'recognition'  of his relation to his readers. 

4. Intention : 

                       Intention is the writer's aim, which may be conscious or unconscious. It refers to the effect  that he tries to produce. This purpose modifies the expression. It controls the emphasis, shapes the arrangement, or draws attention to something of importance. 

I.A . Richards views on language of poetry

• Four Types of misunderstanding : 

1. Misunderstanding of the sense of poetry
2. Over literal reading, prosaic reading
3. Defective scholarship 
4. Difference in meaning of words in poetry and prose.

• Verbal Analysis of poem :

Suraj Hua MaddhamSonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik,

 ...Suraj Hua Maddham, Chaand Jalne Laga

Aasmaan Yeh Haai Kyoon Pighalne Laga...

Suraj Hua Maddham, 

Chaand Jalne Laga

Aasmaan Yeh Haai Kyoon Pighalne Laga...

Main Thehra Raha,

 Zameen Chalne Lagi

Dhadka Yeh Dil, 

Saans Thamne Lagi

Oh, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Sajna, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Ho Oh Oh, Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh,

 Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa

Suraj Hua Maddham,

 Chaand Jalne Laga

Aasmaan Yeh Haai Kyoon Pighalne Laga

Main Thehri Rahi,

 Zameen Chalne Lagi

Dhadka Yeh Dil, 

Saans Thamne Lagi

Haan, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Sajna, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Hai Khoobsurat Yeh Pal, 

Sab Kuch Raha Hai Badal

Sapne Haqeeqat Mein Jo Dhal Rahe Hai

Kya Sadiyon Se Puraana 

Hai Rishtaa Yeh Hamaara

Ke Jis Tarha Tumse 

Hum Mil Rahe HaiYunhi 

Rahe Har Dam Pyaar Ka Mausam

Yunhi Milo Humse Tum Janam 

JanamMain Thehra Raha, 

Zameen Chalne Lagi

La La La, La La La, La La La

Dhadka Yeh Dil, 

Saans Thamne Lagi

Haan, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Sajna, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Tere Hi Rang Se 

Yun Main To Rangeen Hoon SanamPaake Tujhe Khud Se Hi Kho Rahi Hoon Sanam

O Maahiya, Ve Tere Ishq MeinHaan Doobke Paar Main Ho Rahi Hoon

 SanamSaagar Hua Pyaasa, 

Raat Jagne Lagi

Sholo Ke Dil Mein Bhi Aag Jalne Lagi

Main Thehri Lagi, 

Zameen Chalne Lagi

Dhadka Yeh Dil,

 Saans Thamne Lagi

Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

SajnaKya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

Suraj Hua Maddham

Chaand Jalne Laga

Aasmaan Yeh Haai

Kyoon Pighalne Laga

Sajna, Kya Yeh Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar Hai

It  is very song we can see that writer use metaphoric language. Moon, sky, land etc uses of metaphor for express lover's feeling.  
How can Moon burn? How can Sky melt? How can Land walk? It is impossible but writer used metaphoric language. In this song we can find feelings of lovers to each other. Writer try to show lover's feelings through metaphors.

Lovers feel that in love, all things are not as it is but all things are changed. And they can find that all things are beautiful in love. They can also feel that their dreams are changed in reality. They have also a question in their mind that, is their relationship since before long long ago? They want to meet in all born. 

Beloved tells that she follows her lover. She lost her self behind her lover. 

How can sea thrust? How can night awake? 

Here, writer used personification very well. And also asked many questions in this song.

Feminism : Elaine Showalter and GayatrI Spivak

Hello Readers! 

This blog is about the views on feminism by showalter and Gayatri  spivak. Click here to know more about Elaine showalter.

Elaine Showalter :

Elaine Showalter, American literary critic and teacher and founder of gynocritics. She developed the concept of "gynocritics" and practised it through her life career. She, beings a specialized in Victoria literature, wrote on Pre-Victorian, Victorian, and modern female writers observing their social, cultural, religious and financial status in their own periods. She is well known and respected in both academic and popular cultural fields.


Feminist Criticism : Elaine Showalter 

Showalter is concerned by stereotypes of feminism that see feminist critics as being 'obsessed with phallus' and ' obsessed with destroying male artists'. Showalter wonders if such stereotypes emerged from the fact that feminism lacks a fully articulated theory.

In Toward a Feminist pietics Showalter divides feminist criticism into two sections :

1. The woman as Reader or feminist critique
2. The woman as Writer or Gynocritics.     Showalter traces the history of women's literature, suggesting that it can be divided into three phases :

1. The Feminine phase(1840-1880):
2. The Feminist phase (1880-1920)
3. The Female phase  1920-)

Showalter views on feminist poetics are intelligent, largely devoid of rhetorical extremities, and confidently provocative. Showalter speaks with calmly convincing authority, as one who firmly believes in the verity of what she's saying. She is both earnest, in that she sees change needing to occur immediately, and patient, in that she expects that, given time enough, the wisdom and truth of her cause will prevail.

Gayatri Chakravorty

Gayatri Chakravorty,  Indian literary theorists, feminist critic, Postcolonial theorist, and professor of comparative literature noted for her personal brand of deconstructive criticism, which she called criticism, which she called "interventionist."

An extraordinary criticism of the dangers of trying to talk for those who have no voice in society. Why?  Because it is extremely hard to truly understand what you have only heard about,  and not experienced.

"Can the subaltern speek ?"

A Macat Analysis of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's "Can the Subaltern speak? " -  one of the most important essays in the field of psychological studies ever written.


Postcolonialism is the study of the detritus of empire the after effects of the colonial era. It looks at the effects that colonialism had on colonised peoples.

Gayatri Chakravorty spivaka wrote her essay can the subaltern speak?  In 1988 to survey the products of what was then a new academic study she wondered hoe well Postcolonialism had been able to understand and give voice to the colonised, especially the least powerful groups -those she calls "Subaltern". Her essay criticized much of the work done by mostly white, mostly male, western academics.


Thank you...

Thinking Activity : Cultural studies unit 2

Hello Readers! 

This is my academic blog on thinking Activity of cultural studies unit 2 five types of cultural studies. This task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department. 

Five types of cultural studies 

Cultural studies is the science of understanding modern society, with an emphasis on politics and power. Cultural studies is an umbrella term used to look at a number of different subject. Categoeries studied include media studies including film and journalism, sociology, industrial culture, globalization and social theory. To pursue cultural studies is to try to decipher the world that we live in. 

1. British cultural Materialism 
2. New Historicism 
3. American Multiculturalism 

• African American writers
• Latina writers 
• American Indian literature 
• Asian American writers

4. Postmodernism and popular.                 culture 

5. Post-colonial studies 

Q : 1   What is your understanding about British cultural Materialism? 

Cultural studies is referred to as "Cultural materialism" in Britain, and it has a long tradition. In the later nineteenth century Matthew Arnold sought to redefine the "givens" of British cultural. Edward Burnett Taylor's pioneering anthropological study Primitive Culture argued that "Culture or civilization, taken in its widest ethnographic sense, is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society ".

Q : 2  What is contribution of Michael Foucault in new historicism? 

From Foucault,  new historicists developed the idea of a broad "totalizing" function of culture observable in its literary texts, which Foucault called the episteme. For Foucault history was not the working out of "universal" ideas: because we  cannot know the governing ideas of the past or the present, we should not Imagine that "we" even have a center" for mapping the "real. "

Q : 3  How can new historicists help in answering the question raised against Laputa episode in Gulliver Travels? 

In "The Flying Island and Female Anatomy : Gynaecology and power in Gulliver's Travels ," Susan Bruce offers a reading of Book III that makes some new historicist sense out of swift's use of Laputa.  Bruce examines a four -volume commentary on Gulliver's Travels by one Corolini di Marco,  in which the author gives a fairly dry account of his observations until he gets to the episode in Book IV, " A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms, " in which Gulliver captures rabbits for food. 

 Q : 4 Exemplify four types of analysis of popular culture. Apply it on popular artefacts.

There are four main types of popular culture analysis :

1. Production Analysis 

Production analysis ask the following kinds of questions : 

Who owns the media? 

Who creates texts and why? 

Under what constraints? 

How democratic or elitist is the production of popular culture? 

What about works written only for money ? Etc.. 

2. Textual Analysis 

Textual analysis examines how specific works of popular culture create meanings.

3. Audience Analysis 

Audience analysis asks how different groups of popular culture consumers, or users, make similar or different sense of the same texts. 

4. Historical Analysis

Historical analysis investigates how these other three dimensions change over time. 

Q : 5  Difference between modernism and postmodernism. 

Modernism was based on using rational, logical ways to gain knowledge, while postmodernism denied the application of logical thinking. In modernism, art and literary works were considered as unique creations of the artists. Authors were serious about the purpose of producing art and literary works.


     Thank you...

Thinking Activity : Cultural studies , Media Power and truly Educated

Hello Friends!

In our syllabus we have learned  about culture  and cultural studies. This blog is my academic task on thanking activity on cultural and cultural unit 1. This task given by Dr Dilip barad head of English department. So let's we look. 

Q : 1 What is Culture ?

A culture is a way of life of a group of people the behaviors, beliefs, values and symbols and they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the text. Culture is symbolic communication.

Culture means it was something coming from past well thought and making perfect. Today culture is about present of today. Everyday thought, voice lives is important. 

Q : 2 What is Cultural Studies? 

Cultural studies, interdisciplinary field concerned with the role of social institutions in the shaping of cultural. 

As Patrick Brantliger 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,  culture studies is composed of elements of Marxism, post-structuralism and postmodernism, feminism, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, race and ethnic studies, film theory, urban studies, public policy, popular culture studies, and postcolonial studies : those fields that concentrate on social and cultural forces that either create community or cause division and alienation. 

Q : 3 Four goals of cultural studies. 

Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic studies that draws from other disciplines like history, anthropology and political science. The goal of cultural studies is to analyze and understand how cultures are constructed and how they evolve over time.

• First,  cultural studies transcend the confines of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history. 
• Second,  cultural studies is politically engaged. 
• Third,  cultural studies denies the separation of "high" and "low" or elite and popular culture. 
• Fourth,  cultural studies analyzes not only the cultural work,  but also the means of production. 

Q : 4 How is understanding of 'power' at the center of cultural s^tudies  ?

Cultural studies read power with critical insight, it makes the students, scholar politically incorrect. This also makes it difficult for CS to survive in the academia wheres' are in majority.

• Let us understand 'power '

This video help us to understand power.

The power of capitalism :

• Where power comes from? 
• How it's exercised? 
• How one can read or write power? 

Six source of civic power :

1. Physical force 
2. Wealth 
3. State Action 
4. Social norms 
5. Ideas 
6. Numbers 

How power exercised? 

Three law of power  :

1. Power is never static 
2. Power is like water 
3. Power is compounds 

What we can do?  Read power and write about power. 

👉Michael Foucault 's knowledge and power. 

Foucault was interested in the way power structures depend upon structures of knowledge (arts, science, medicine, demographics) and how, once they acquire knowledge, create subjects to be controlled.

Foucault's methodology seeks to understand how some sections of the population have been classified as criminals or insane. That is, he is interested in understanding the processes of classification that helped exclude some people from society. Foucault argues that certain authorities who possess power in society produce knowledge about those who lack power. Such a system of knowledge is called 'discourse'. The arts, religion, science and the law are discourses that 'produce' particular subjects.

Discourse and knowledge produce certain categories of 'subjects' (people) who are then treated in particular ways: the immoral are 'remedied' by priests, criminals are jailed by the law, the sick are treated by doctors, and the insane shut away in asylums by psychiatrists. What happens, therefore, is that the production of knowledge about those who lack power leads to very effective practices of power on the part of the authorities. Knowledge and classification systems such as medicine, the law or religion are therefore modes of social control.

👉Why Media Studies is important in our digital culture?

Media, Culture and Everyday Life offers an exciting opportunity to engage with current debates in media and communication studies about the impact of contemporary media on everyday life. The programme addresses the changes, challenges and unprecedented possibilities that digital media bring to everyday life in the twenty-first century, while emphasizing the importance of studying media in a wider historical context.

By exploring the ways in which media and everyday life are intertwined, the programme addresses broader questions of modernity and social change, ranging from experiences of everyday space, time and mobility, to the impacts of media on self and identity, how we access, ‘store’ or remember the past, and the broader environmental, infrastructural and social impacts of digital technologies.

Informed by cutting-edge research in the field of cultural, media and communication studies, the programme is widely interdisciplinary in scope, drawing on perspectives from disciplines such as cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy, cultural geography, visual culture, urban studies, games and memory studies.

The programme is built around three core modules which focus on:

• The study of contemporary media together with past forms of media, in order to a) understand the historical origins or predecessors of today’s media, and b) to understand how media change is produced, experienced and negotiated

• Reflection on the role of contemporary media technologies in social and cultural life, drawn from students’ own everyday experience of media.

• Research methods and approaches used in the study of media, culture and everyday life.

You will develop skills that directly enhance employability, including applying critical thinking skills, giving presentations, plus data management, problem-solving, team-working and research design and implementation.

You'll be able to pursue your own specific research/study interest in media, culture and everyday life via a 12,000-15,000 word dissertation and by choosing from a range of masters-level module options offered by the Department and wider School.

You will develop skills that directly enhance employability, including applying critical reviewing skills, giving presentations, plus data management, problem-solving, team-working and research design and implementation.

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Thinking Activity : Ecocriticism & Ecofeminism

Hello Readers! 

This is my academic task on Ecocriticism and Ecofeminism. Let's we look that what is Ecocriticism and Ecofeminism.

What is Ecocriticism? 

In simple words,  Ecocriticism is a study of the relationship between literature and physical environment. Ecocriticism takes as it subject the interconnection between nature and cultural.

Ecocriticism is a term used for the observation and study of relationship between the literature and the earth's environment. It is also referred to by some other fields such as ecology, biopolitics, sustainable design, environmental histroy, environmentalism, and others. Ecocriticism was first defined by Cheryll Glotfelty and it clear for other critics and writers.

Ecocriticism , it can be called an "increasingly heterogeneous movement " that takes an entirely earth -centered approach. It is about literature on the environment.

Ecocriticism as a literary theory :

The traditional theory considers the linguistic or the cultural background or the social background as an important factor, eco-critics nature as a dominant factor as they believe that our evolution as a society is largely dependent on the Forces of nature. Because according to them, the world in which we live is not made only with language and social elements.

• What is Ecofeminism? 

Ecofeminism emphasis the relationship between women and nature. Ecofeminism is a feminist approach to environmental ethics. Ecofeminism established by French feminist Francois d'Eaubonne in the 1970s,  is a relatively new from of feminist theory.

This approach combines the ecology and feminism and explains the feminist nature to help understand the ecology. Feminists have given the concept of gender theory to analyze the relationship between the human and nature. So,  it can be considered a branch of Ecocriticism and is the field of studying the interconnection between the oppression of women and nature.

The land is often considered as a feminine in nature because of its fertility that nurtures the life and is owned by the man as a property. So,  the feminists draw the lines of comparison to understand the similarity of dominant nature of man over women and the domination of land in the context of gender relationship.



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