What does THEORIES do?

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Ideas:
Feminist literary criticism is a political attack upon other modes of criticism and theory,and because of its social orientation it moves beyond traditional literary criticism.
Feminists believe that our culture is a patriarchal culture,that is,one organized in favor of the interests of men.
Feminist literary critics try to explain how what they term engendered power imbalances in a given culture are reflected,supported,or challenged by literary texts.
Feminist critics focus on absence of women from discourse as well as meaningful spaces opened by women’s discourse.
Feminist critics largely agree on a threefold purpose:to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices,to promote discovery and reevaluation of literature by women,and to examine social,cultural,and psychosexual contexts of literature and criticism.
Feminist critics wish to make us act as feminist readers;that is,to create”new communities of writers and readers supported by a language spoken for and by women.”

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Keywords:
Gender:
       There is an important distinction between sex and gender where sex describes biological or natural differences,while gender describes the social roles of masculinity and femininity,so gender is socially constructed.
Patriarchy:
       This was originally an anthropological term which describes a social system in which older men are entitled to exercise socially sanctioned authority over other members of the household or kinship group,both women and younger men.

Conditioning

The difference betweenfemale and feminine etc.

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Part  6   Cultural Studies

Times:
       
       Cultural studies formally began with the establishing of “Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies” in Birmingham University in 1964, then this method spread all over the world ,and is also active today.

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Members
Founders:
Raymond Williams(1921-1988)
Richard Hoggart(1918-)
Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-1993)
Adherent:
Stuart Hall(1932-)
Richard Johnson
Ien Ang
Tony Bennett
John Fiske()

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Works
Raymond Williams:
The Long Revolution(1965)
Communications(1962)
Technology and Cultural Form(1974)
Culture(1981)
The Country and the City(1973)
Richard Hoggart:
The Uses of Literacy(1958)
Edward Palmer Thompson:
The Making of the English Working Class(1968)
Stuart Hall:
The Popular Arts(1964,with Paddy Whamel)
Resistance Through Rituals(1976,ed with T.Jefferson)
Ien Ang:
Watching Dallas(1985)
John Fiske:
Understanding Popular Culture(1989)
Television Culture(1987)

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Ideas
In cultural studies the concept of culture has a range of meanings which includes both high art and everyday life.
Cultural studies advocates an interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture.
While cultural studies is eclectic in its use of theory,using both structuralism and more flexible approaches,it advocates those that stress the overlapping,hybrid nature of cultures,seeing cultures as networks rather than patchworks.

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Keywords:
Culture:
The term ‘culture’is chiefly used in three relatively distinct senses to refer to :the arts and artistic activity;the learned,primarily symbolic features of a particular way of life;and a process of development.In cultural studies this term  specially refers to a particular way of life whether of a people,a period or humanity in general.
Popular Culture:
Popular culture is type of writing or other cultural product,which come into fashion in the mass and usually is seen as worthless and harmful.But in cultural studies the boundaries between popular culture and high culture are in the process of dissolving,because they think the forms of culture are constructed in social and historical context.Popular culture and high culture often  share similar themes,and a particular text can be seen as high culture at one point in time and popular culture at another,more importantly,popular culture is a representation of a way of life within the period it emerges.

[Ferdousi Begum]

keep it up, dear!

[Gopa B. Caesar]

keep showering wishes APPA!

[Tamanna Islam]

very informative dear! carry on.

[Gopa B. Caesar]

thanks a lot, ma'm

[Binoy]

Theories make your brain fuddled so you confuse with yourself. Theory is the discovery of the unhappy minds who want to prove you poor with their intellectual showdown. Never mind, be a powerful theorist, to spoil the peaceful sleep of the gullible!

[sushmita]

Great answer from Binoy Sir.

[Binoy]

I seek an answer from Gopa. Are you around?

[Gopa B. Caesar]

Sir,
My immediate response to the answer was definitely one full of "AWE"...
For a few seconds i thought i have actually lost my JAW...
And then i think i would humbly like to re-battle.

I personally feel that, we all actually eat-sleep-drink-live theory, when i am poor i think of being an equal to a richman...when as a woman, i feel oppressed, i think of throwing the patriarchs away. In these cases the MARXIST/FEMINIST within, even though not polished enough, may comfortably surface. Therefore, I would not like to consider it as a mere "discovery of the unhappy minds who want to prove you poor with their intellectual showdown"...rather I would love to watch it as a force that enacts an individual as an active one to read each particle in the world, to read even between the lines.

Thanks a lot for your wishes

Regards
Gopa B. Caesar