Name : Baiq Ayu Ida Kholida
NIM : 2313034
1. Marxist Theory
a. Definition : Culture theory that embodies a set of
social, economic and political ideas that its follower believe will enable them
to interpret and change their world.
b.
History :
History is marked by the
growth of human productive capacity, and the forms that history produced for
each separate society is a function of what was needed to maximize productive
capacity.
The
beginning of Marxist thought came about through Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’
The Communist Manifesto during the late 19th century. In the 20th
century, the “Russian Revolution Architects” headed by Leon Trotsky applied
Marx’s ideas to literary texts. Trotsky was exiled by stalin, however, and
Theodor Adorno helped form the core of early Marxist critics. The Frankfurt
School then attempted to reconstruct the theory to enable it to withstand
totalitarian corruption. The criticism reached its peak during times of
economic tragedy and, consequently, following the Great Depression, faded away.
Marxism then resurfaced again years later in the 1960s during the time of
politically tumultuous events such as the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile
Crisis.
c.
Famouse people :
-
Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883)
ü
Born in Trier,
Germany in 1818
ü
German
philosopher who rejected the tenets of Romanticism in favor of philosophy of
dialectical materialism.
ü
Criticized the
injustice inherent in the European class/capitalist system of economics
operating in the 19th Century.
ü
Believed that
capitalism allowed the bourgeoisie to benefit at the expense of the
workers.
ü
The
Communist Manifesto.
ü
Das
Kapital, analyzes the capitalist
form of wealth production and its consequences for culture.
-
Friedrich
Engles (1820-1895)
ü
German Writers,
Philosophers, Social Critics
ü
Coauthored The
Communist Manifesto
ü
Declared that
the capitalists, or the bourgeoisie, had successfully enslaved the working
class, or the proletariat, through economic policies and control of the
production of goods
ü REFERENSI
ü Creft, Cross. 1997. Literature, Criticism and Style.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ü Perrine, Laurence. 1983. Literature: Structure,
Sound and Sense. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich.
2. Feminism
a. Definition : Theory that men and women should be
equal politically, economically and
socially
b. History : Feminism
itself has grown since its initial emergence; it is divided into three waves,
the first wave was in 1848-1920, the second wave was in
1960-1990 and the third wave was in 1990-present. Each wave fought for
different things, the first wave fought for the rights of women to vote in
general election, because at that time women were not allowed to vote. While in
the second wave, feminism fought for economic and social equality, and in the
third wave, is to be determined.
c. Famouse people :
— Dorothy E. Smith (1926)
ü Earned BA from London School of Economics
ü Earned PhD in sociology from University of California
at Berkeley
ü Husband left her with two children
ü Worked at Berkeley (where most professors were male)
and in England as a lecturer
— Sandra Harding (1935)
ü Professor of women’s studies at UCLA
ü Directs Center for the Study of Women
ü Author or editor of ten books
ü Given over 200 lectures at universities and
conferences
ü Written in such areas as feminist theory, sociology of
knowledge, and methodological issues related to objectivity and neutrality
— Patricia Hill Collins
(1948)
ü BA from Brandeis, MA from Harvard, and PhD from
Brandeis
ü Associate professor of sociology and African American
studies at University of
Cincinnati
ü Outsider within – one is part of a group but feels distant from that
group
3.
Culture
study
a. Definition : Related to New Historicism but with a
particular and cross-disciplinary emphasis on taking seriously those work
traditionally marginalized by the easthetic ideology by white european males.
It examines social, economic and political condition that effect institution
and product such as literature and question traditional value hierarchies.
Cultural studies is politically engaged. Cultural
critics see themselves as “oppositional,” not only within their own disciplines
but to many of the power structures of society at large.
b.
History :
Ø
50's--
Socialist humanism; (or Marxism) -- Richard Hoggart , Raymond Williams, and Edward Thompson.
ü
The
assumption of cultural studies that industrial capitalist societies are
unequally divided along class, gender and ethnic lines is drawn from Marxism.
But cultural studies goes further in contending that culture is the main arena
where this division is established and fought for, where subordinate and
marginalized groups resist the imposition of meanings which reflect the
interests of the dominant groups.
- Ø
60's
-- Culturalist -- Richard Hoggart , Raymond Williams, and Edward Thompson.
- Culturalism
focuses on meaning production by human actors in a historical context.
- Culturalism
stresses history.
- Culturalism
focuses on interpretation as a way of understanding meaning.
Ø
70‘s
-- Structuralist marxism; Semiotics;
E.g. Ferdinand de Saussure ; Louis Althusser ; Roland
Barthes
- Structuralism
points to culture as an expression of deep structures of language that lie
outside of the intentions of actors and constrain them.
- According
to Louis althusser, structuralism has two crucial aspects, they are: à
The
recognition that differential relations are the key to understanding culture and society à
As
a result, structure is not prior to the realization of these relations
- Structuralism
is synchronic in approach, analyzing the structures of relations in a snapshot
of a particular moment. As such, it asserts the specificity of culture and its
irreducibility to any other phenomena.
- Structuralism
has asserted the possibility of a science of signs and thus of objective
knowledge.
Ø
mid-70’s
- Post structuralism
-- Derrida
-- Foucault and discursive practices
Ø
mid- 80's -- postmodern debate
Thus, postmodernism argues that knowledge is:
—
Specific
to language-games
—
Local,
plural and diverse.
Ø
90‘s – regional Cultural Studies (e.g. that in Taiwan,
or inter-Asia Cultural Studies)
ü During
the Thatcher years (1979-90), British cultural studies began to fragment and
leave the shores of Britain. Cultural studies migrated to the United States,
Canada, Australia, France and India.
ü In
certain locations, it became less political and more concerned with aesthetic
and textual analysis. In other regions, it became more political and involved
with the plight of the marginalized and discourses of the periphery.
ü Cultural studies became highly diversified
C. Famous People
Ø
Richard Hoggart
ü
Richard
Horgart started his academic career as an adult education tutor at the
University of Hull.
ü
As
professor of English literature at Birmingham University, he founded the Centre
for Contemporary Cultural Studies.
ü
His
book The Uses of Literacy (1957) gave cultural studies its first identifiable,
intellectual shape.
ü
Basing
his work on F.R. Leavis's (1895- 1978) ideas on literary criticism,
ü
Hoggart
argued that a critical reading of art could reveal "the felt quality of
life" of a society. Only art could recreate life in all its rich
complexity and diversity.
Ø
Raymond Williams
ü
Raymond
Williams also started his academic career as an adult education tutor
ü
He
taught at Oxford University from 1946 to 1960.
ü
His
books Culture and Society (1958) and The Long Revolution (1961) draw on two
traditions within Marxism.
ü
For
Williams, culture is an all-inclusive entity, a "whole way of life,
material, intellectual and spiritual".
ü
He
traces the evolution of culture through its various historical conditions
towards a "complete" form.
ü
Williams
sees the emergence of a "general human culture" in specific societies
where it is shaped by local and temporary systems.
REFFERENCES
ü Castle,
Gregory.2007.The Blackwell Guide to
Literary Theory. USA: Blackwell Publishing
Ltd.
ü Daiches,
David. 1956. Critical Approaches to
Literature. London: Longman Group Limited.
