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Cultural Studies

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239 views18 pages

Cultural Studies

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aishwaryamit99
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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UNIT 7

CHAPTER

26
cultural Studies
Literaryand cultural studies gives
access to historical and emergent
arditions of literature, culture and thought. Through critical interpretation
and dialogue, we
can see how language mediated through texts arranges
andallows different ways of knowing and lIiving. In the process you will read
language.
some of thegreatest wordsmithsand thinkers in the English

Introduction of Cultural Studies


of
Culture' can quite easily be credited as the source of all art as culture is capable
both influencing and transforming individual everyday experiences, in the private
and the public domain. Cultural Studies as an academic discipline, offers to study
field of
the wavs in which literary texts are theorised and read. This inter-disciplinary
Study offers to investigate and combine politics, political economy, sociology,
media
history, anthropology, philosophy, ethnography, communication and literary text
theories and much more to comprehend the ideological base on which a
is built.

Cultural Studies, therefore, is a study of 'a particular way of life, whether of people,
of period, or a group,' according to Raymond Williams. Also,logical it is important to
nderstand that 'Cultural Studies' as an academic discipline is a approach to
human.
M00king at allsocial practices as 'political' rather than as aesthetic or
hus, like any academic discipline, this field, too, is defined by its
Object of study-namely culture
Ihe history of the discipline itself - its origins and evolution
Assumptions, methods and approaches - the different critical theories
--- Clifford Geertz, The
ere isno such thing as a human independent of Culture."
Interpretation of Cultures.
The above remark by Clifford Geertz points a certain co-relation between an

Dlal and his contemporary socio-political-economic history which becomes CIn this Chapter
prescriptivethatin shaping literary life. "Culture" is the socio-political
his personal and " Introduction of Cultural Studies
the private spaces
di0ccupi
scouresed dominates the public space and permeates into
by the individuals and becomes a part of their subconscious identity.
Feminism
Postcolonialism
Mostly, the literary texts produced by authors are symptomatic of their respornse/ " Manxism
to the social dynamics of their times, alonging or nostalgia for the
period
Teact
gone
ion achieve. Poststructuralism
by, or a vision of a utopian tomorrow they seek to
UGC NET
Origin and Evolution of Theories About Critical Studies
Cutural Studies Different thinkers propunded their ritical theories Thee
hn ven dittvul to pin down on a date/ period to Leavisite Criticisrn
mark the origins of Cultural Studies' for the study of Deriving fron the works f FP Leavis, the
Vulture has always attrated literary and critical focussed on re-distributing, vxial capaities on
mholars asa focal point of theirlearning of the author
and hisoontext. Nonetheless, the tradition could be
to the anonical traditial literature,
ppilarty
Great Tradition" in the Lraviar1 voxahulary
dated back to the 1860s with Mathew Arnold's
It strongly believed that the kwhedye "1he
Culture and Civilisation' which looked at the power endowed its beneficiaries with sxial asets. ThisCsea
of literar texts, especially canonical literature, in
shaping individual sensibility. termed by Pierre Bordieu as "Cultural Capital
Frankfurt School Theory
Origin of Cultural Studies Incontrast to the Leavisite Citícism, the Frankfurn
Cultural Studies as an academic fieldof study gained 1930s developed Icultural studies sternning frm an
currency with the publication of Richard Hoggart's of the popular culture, like popular music, popular Site
Use of Literacy (1957) and Raymond William's magazines. The imporant theorists of this chns,
Culture and Society (1958), challenging the and Horkheimer looked at "cultural industrie"
privileged aspects of literary traditions and taking
into account non-canonical cultural forms. role in socialcultural theories.
The stepping stone of Cultural Studies in Britaín was Mass Communication Theory
the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the Recent scholarship is expanding the soope of cultural wu
University of Birmingham in 1964 as Richard looking at new vistas like visual studies, cybercuiu
Hoggart as its first director. Under the directorship of technologies of embodiment and globalisation
Stuart Hall who joined Hoggart in Birmingham in The Politics of the Practising Experts
1964. the field of British Cultural Studies expanded
to concern itself with questions of subjectivity, Cultural studies as a field is constantBy fluid and in fx af cra
identity and power-politics. for it is a response to the various social changes occuring e
The scope of the programme widened and its access
immediate society and worid at large. Therefore. the ideriga
was shared with a wider audience through the leanings of the practitioners of culture studies have brug wt
its domain various other ideological theories in reading ate .
publication of the journal Working Papers in its context.
Cultural Studies.' By 1978 aseries of books were
brought out to discuss the approaches within the Such as Marxism, Feminism, Race, Caste, gender, and
domain of British Cultural Studies. which further defines the perception of the given theoris,
his/her work exclusive within an overarchíng framewotk.
Evolution of Cultural Studies
It is important to note that though the
Cultural Studies was primarily discipline framed at
of
Birmingham and the academics there played akey Major Thinkers of
role in its development, the scope of
Cultural Studies needs to take intoContemporary
account the Cultural Studies
developrment of this framework at other
such as in South-East Asia, sites too,
etc. Australia, Canada, Europe Richard Hoggart Bst
was a
Also, it is Born on 24th September 1918, Richard Hoggart and Sooang
specificities important to
of those Comprehend the
teritories or
cultural academic with English Literature, Cultural Studies impovenistes
understand Cultural Studies as a global nations to
the same time
as his prime areas of concern. He was born in an
He was
raise
Universt
the various
places where Cultural mount.of At
cultural specificities family and lost his parents at a very young Age. the
the his grandmother. He won a scholarship to read atFirst-Class degre
coming Studies developed
together wider ideologies of explain he
of Leeds and graduated from the University with a
and identity- Wo
He also served in he Royal Arillery duringthe Second
such politics class struggle,rubricpower-pol itics
Studies, as under the of sufferingbe
caste, nationality the Cultural Hoggart died at the age of 95 in 2014. He was
and so on. feminism, race, dementia.
culturalStudies 697

Growing up in anon-Welsh neighbourhood, Williarns attended


Literary Career and Works King Henry VIIIGrammar School in Abergavenny. His political
Staff Tutor at the University of Hull
He
sered as a
1959 and as a Senior Lecturer in English consciousness began to develop fairly
early in his life for he was
fourteen when the Spanish Civil war broke out and it was the
1946 to
trom
1962. He also served as a Professor of at a
fhom
1959 to
Birmingham University. He founded the period marked by the rise of Nazism. Also, his membership in the
Engishat local book club which had leftist leanings kept him
Contemporary Cultural Studies in 1964 and in the
(entrefor
director till 1969. He served as the know-how of the massive changes taking place of
space. He soon becamea supporter of the League
its
served as socio-public
Assistant director of UNESCO from 197l to 1975 and Nations and also bought a copy of the Communist
Manifesto by
Warden at University of London from 1976 to
Karl Marx.
1984. College, in Carmbridge, he joined the
served a member of various public bodies. While attending the Communíst
Hoggart as
British trial of Communist Party of Great Britain. He wrote Raymond
witness in the 1960
pamphlet alongside Eric Hobsbawm. In I940,
He was a key was Party
hether DH Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterly's Lover British army. However, he stayed back at
dramatisation of Williams joined the the time when
ahscene. Later, in 2006, the digital David Cambridge to take his exams; and this was
his trial was made for BBC in which actor Germany invaded Russia.
Tennant portayed his role. In 1946, Williams received his M A from
the Trinity College.
tutor in adult education at the
Major Works Soon after, he began to serve as a
a journal titled
Auden (1951) University of Oxford. In 1946, he also began Clifford Collins
Letters, which he co0-edited with
Politics and
The Uses of Literacy (1957) and Wolf Mankowitz until
1948.
The Way We Live Now (1995)
Mass Media in a Mass Society (2004) In 1948, inspired by TSEliot's
Notes towards The Definition
Promises to Keep: Thoughts in Old Age (2005) of Culture, Williams began exploring the concept of culture. His
resulted in a successful book
First and Last Things (1999) first draft The Idea of Culture'
(2003) 1958. Williams writings
Everyday Language and Everyday Life titled Culture and Society, published in the New Left.
interested
ASort of Clowning (1990) were widely acclaimed and
An Imagined Life (1992)
ALocal Habitation (1989) Major Works 2024
An Idea and its Servants (1978) Culture and Society, 1958
Speaking to Each Other (1970) The Long Revolution, 1961
1973
Townscape with Figures (1994) The Country and the City,
An English Temper (1982) Marxism and Literature, 1977
with the New Left, 1979
An Idea of Europe (1987) Politics and Letters: Interviews
Border Country, 1960
The Tyranny of Relativism (1998) Culture and Materialism, 1980
Between Two Worlds (2002)
Problems in Materialism, 1980
Liberty and Legislation(1989) Modern Tragedy, 1966
AMeasured Life (1994) 1968
May Day Manifesto,
Contemporary Cultural Studies (1969)
The Literary Imagination Towards 2000, 1983
Ihe Future of Broadcasting Drama in Performance,
1954
(1969) Novel from Dickens to Lawrence, 1970
The English
Continuing Education (1983) Brecht, 1968
Drama from Ibsen to
EM Forster (1982) Writing in Society, 1983 1989
People of theBlack Mountains,
Raymond Williams Raymond The Sociology of
Culture, 1982
novelist and critic, The Fight for
Manod, 1979
AWelsh Marxist theorist,
on 31st August,
1921.
The Volunteers, 1978
Henry Williams was born
globe, Williams'
writings Wales?
translated round the were fundamental in Who Speaks for
Widely
on culture and politicS of culture and
arts Loyalties, 1985
1950
critique Materialist Reading and Criticism,
the Marxist
underst
and inandi
theng dissemination ofCultural Second Generation, 1964

approach.
UGC NET
698 Tutor
Communtcations, 1966
Hall retired from the Open
University
he was elected Fellow of the British Ain
E1997 nglsh
Onwell, 1971
Language and Literature, 1981
The Year 2000, 983
he received European Cultural
Margriet Award. At the age of 82, Academy
Foundations'
he
In 24%
Marx on Culure, 2005 on 10th February, 2014.
His memoir, Familiar Stranger::A Life
breathed hig
Stuart Hall was posthumously published in 2017Between Two
Born on 3rd February, 1932 Stuart Hall was a Jamaican-born
Key Concepts Related to the
Islond
British Marxist sociologist. political and cultural theorist who
along with Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams was the Cultural Studies:
founding member of the Centre for British Cultural Studies in
Birmingham. He also foundedthe influentialNew Left Review,
and Ideology Hegemony, Power
abi-monthiv joumal covering world politics, economy and Hegemony
cultures. Derived from the Latin word
'hegemonia' ,,
Literary Career and Works means authority, rule or dominance
economnic state over another.
of one hegemoy
political o
Hallsucceeded Hoggart as the director for the Centre for British the socio-cultural and political Hegemorny stands to
Cultural Studies in 1968 and served as its director till 1979. He dominance of one definore
expanded the scope of the curriculum and research base at the group over the other.
relations which could be Controlled by intricate state
centre by incorporating race and gender as allied aspects in the
studv of culture. He also tried to incorporate new ideas from religious or social, a given military, political, power
economic
French theorists such as Michael Foucault. the culture and values classified group could dominate
operating in the society and
dictating its terms to the sub-ordinate.
In 1979, Hall left the post of the director and
joined the Open As in the case of power relations
University as a professor of sociology. There, he went on to between the ruling and
become the President of the British Sociological
Association working class, the coloniser and the colonised, the racial
from 1995-97. or the gendered superior and the 'other'
and so on.
In 1995, Hallwas the founding editor of Power
Culture. He was also closelySoundings:
of Politics and A Journal
associated The concept of Power' is most fundamental to the
journal, Marxism Today. Hall played a crucial role in with the shaping of socio-cultural and political spaces, where the
Arts Movement. For movie the Black
Julien, Hallwas a heroic figure.directors, John Akomfrah and Isaac dominant hegemonic group maintains a status quo by
influencing their socio-economic-politico-cultural
Hall wrote
several influential articles, such as The dominant is able to influence the beliefs, valuesorder
and
Situating Marx: Evaluations and perceptions; and this is done to control the
Encoding and Decoding in the Television Departures (1972) SOCio-economic resources. Power is mostBy authontatNe
Resistance through Rituals (1975) Discourse (1973) and deeply rooted in the everyday social existence.
Policing the Crisis - A
The Hard Road to Book-(1978)
Renewal (1988) Ideology
Formations of An ideology is a set of beliefs and ideas held by an
Modernity (1992)
Questions of Cultural Identity (1996)
Cultural Representations individualeconomic
social,
or a group which becomes
or political theory. The
fortheir
a basis term

Familiar Stranger: A Life and Signifying Practices (1997) "ideology" was coined by a French philosopher.,
Antoine
Hall spoke Between Two Destutt de
used
1983 at heinternationally on 'Culture' in aIslands (2017) Tracy in 1796. However, the conceptis
understoodit
and later University of Illinois. series of lectures in much
to be. differently today than what Tracy
became a theoretical These lectures were recorded
Theoretical History base for
Cultural
Grossberg in 2016. published Jennifer SlackStudies 1983:A
by In the couldbe

and domain of cultural studies, ideologydetermining


Lawrence understood as
power relations clustered
patterns of idea SOCialand
that steer within a complex
political space.
culturalStudies 699

Origin and Evolution


the cultural
The different historical circumstances and
Feminism climates of different countries make it
difficult to define
However, it is
Oneis not
but rather becomes, a woman."
born, feminism originating at a given point. 1837 by a
Sinon De Beauvoir's quote from her 1949 book The Second believed that the word 'feminism'was coined in
word was first
amazingly compressesthe whole debate of feminism by French philosopher Charles Fourier. The in
1872, in Britain
hghlighting how the cultural machinery operative within used in France and Netherlands in
1890s and in United States in 1910s.
anv society imposes the idea of performativity on the fragmented based
genders present within the society. Asociety that privileges Feminism is diverse and within itself is
feminists. Yet, broadly
e male gender over the female gender believes in ritual on the different worldviews held by three waves
divided into
repetition of a certain tasks and activities that relegate the modern western feminism is
male gender to a subordinate status. Women, then, even or phases dating from 1830s to
ahen bom with an equal apparatus as their male 1. The first wave of feminism,
movement.
1920s, is best known for the suffrage
counterparts, through social conditioning are made to dating from 1920s
helieve and live as inferior grade. Thus woman' becomes 2. The second wave of feminism,women's liberation
onwards, revolve around
that category which is socially, politically, economically and various other
exploitations movement, seeking social equity and
in various other ways exploited and these Various forms of legal rights for women.
could be both visible as well as invisible. diverse as it stems
are various visible 3. The third waye of feminism is more
abuses, physical tortures and brutality from the failures of the second wave, attempting to
women. However, there
forms of violence committed against attain the same goals differently.
violence that women are
are grave invisible forms of is another very
right to education, Besides these three waves of feminism, there
subjected to such as being denied their as the Literary
professional opportunities, important body of feminism, known
vote, economic independence, on. Feminism. The Feminist Literary Criticism
was born out of
abortion, right to inheritance and so the debates of second wave
feminism. It was considered
of movements, ideologies re-read literature,
radical and revolutionary as it sought to the 1970s were
Feminism or feminisms are a series attain social equity for before
and social activism that
seeks to
supressed especially thecanonical texts, which exceptions such as
tries to recover those exclusively male authored barring a few
Women. It is a discourse that social and and George Eliot. The
voices that have been buried by the Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte
DOdies and gender-neutral was
oppressive subjects need not canon which so far was considered
Cultural prejudices and these gender
'men' but also the femaleof social attacked by the literary feminists
trying to give an
superior gender writers and women
ny be the through centuriesbelieves the explanation for the absence of women
that has become patriarchal Virginia Woolf's 1929
privileges the male gender and readers from the literary scene.
attempts to do that and
conditioning that be normative.
master piece, A Room of One's Own reading of the literary
discrimination against women to as a gender-sensitive
to look at
feminism so begins the era of
It is difficult, nearly impossible, different level of texts.
is at a society seek
uniform body for eachthe society
feminists in various families,
gender-based bias. Also, Forinstance,inupperclass Major Thinkers of Feminism
social lequity differently. employmentas per their Elaine Showalter
for another class
thewill right for women tostep outHowever, in work because of figures of Feminism in the
Believed to be the founding Showalter was born Elaine
would be liberating. and women Elaine
where both men working woman woman.
does not United States academia, for
background She is widely acclaimed
their lower-class status, the of an empowered Cottler in Boston in 1941. term
of 'gynocritics,' a
emblem but at developing the concept and practice
writers. Showalter has widely
automatically become antherefore,are plural anddiverse, that
machinery denoting the study of women criticism.
contributed feminist literary
Fermi
the nism
core,
or feminisms,destabilise the cultural
to the inferior
sex.
attermpt other' or
regards woman as the
UGC
700 NET TUtor
Literary Career and Works
Literary Career and Works
Her most significant cont ribution is her
"Engian
She attained her Bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College 1949
Second Sex, which is one of the
and Master's degve fom Brandeis University.
her Phl) in 197O from the University of
She received
California. Soon contemporary ferminism. She wrote
wrote travel
foundational reatise,Ih
extensively
she started working at Douglass College at Rutgers
genres. She
stories.
diaries, essays, novels
Universitv. Later she joined Princeton University in 1984
2003.
and remained there till she took earlv retirement in 1970s ornwards, Beauvoir became active in
Showalter specialiscd in Victorian literature. Her nost
liberation movement. As a part of the
movement France's
important workswere on hvsteria and madness in women's
manifesto, that included a list of women
who shad
he sigpen
abortion which was then illegal in France.
writing Her works contributed immensely towards
understanding the female literary tradition. She made a Simon de Beauvoir had alifelong relation with
pathbreaking contribution in the field by mapping the Ceremonie Des Adieux, she wrote the painful In Sartre.
female traditiongoing through three phases of feminism, last years. After Sartre's
publishedaccount
death, she of
his tis
Showalter was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship and her.
let ers
Rockefeller Humanities fellowship (1981-82). Both significantly influenced each other's works,,
She also served as the President of the Modern Language extent of their influence on each other remains thaough the
Association (MLA). In 2007, she was the chair ofjudges for issue. The other important scholars influencing debatabie
the prestigious British literary award, the Man Booker works were Hegel and Leibniz. Beauvoir's
International Prize.
Beauvoir studied Mathematics at the Institute Cathol 3
She is credited with coining the term 'gynocritics'. The Paris, Philosophy at the Sorbonne and literature at Instits
term values the female perspective in reading of literary Sainte-Marie. She completed her degrees in 1928 and w
works. It is a very important body of work for it rejects the only the ninth woman to do so, owing to the fact that French
concept that female writing is an answer to sexism or women were only recently granted the access to hiãher
gender-based discrimination. Rather she traces the history education.
of women 's writing as a separate body of writing. She first worked with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Claude
Major Works Levi-Strauss. The three of them completed their teaching
practice from the same secondary school. From 1929 to
ALiterature of Their Own, 1977
1943, she taught at the Lycee Montgrande, after which she
The Female Malady, 1985 could sustain herself through her writings.
A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne
Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, 2009 In 1954, de Beauvoir won France's most prestigious litera
Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture, prize for The Mandarins, in which her lover, Algren, appeis
1997 as a fictional character.
Sexual Anarchy, 1990
Inventing Herself, 2001 She died at the age of 76 in 1986due to pneumonia. She was
The Vintage Book of American Women Writers, 2001 buried next to Sartre at the Montparnasse Cemetry in ri
Facuity Towers, 2005 Post her death, De Beauvoir's adopted daughter, Syve L
The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe: A Bon published her letters to both Sartre and Algren.
Sister's Choice, 1991 Biography, 2016
Speaking of Gender, 1989 Major Works
Women's Liberation and Literature, 1971 The Second Sex, 1949
Daughters of Decadence, 1993 The Woman Destroyed, 1967
Teaching Literature, 2002 The Mandarins, 1954
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, 1958
Simone de Beauvoir
Born in January l908,
She Came to Stay, 1943
Simon de Beauvoir was a The Ethics of Ambiguity, 1947
feminist, social and political activist, a philosopherFrench All Men are Mortal, 1946
writer. She significantly
feminist existentialism. contributed to feminist theoryand
a Letters to Sartre, 1990
and Adieux: A Farewel! toSartre, 1981
The Coming of Age, 1970
poturol
Stuaies 701

Others,1945 Mary; Maria, 1991


Rlood of Political Writings, 1989
A. Done, 1972 Vindication of the
and
ASaid Images, 1966 Posthumous Works of the Author of a
JesBelles byDay, 1948 Rights of Women
the Origin and Progress
AnmericaDav Woman
TheIndependent An Historical and Moral View of Effect it has Produced
and the
PhilosophyStudent of theFrench Revolution
ManofaMarch, 1957 in Europe, 1794
Wollstonecraft, 1979
TheLong Sade, 1953 Collected Letters of MaryWollstonecraft to Gilbert
Must We Burn 1944 The Love Letters of Mary
Arthud and Cincas,
Spirit Come First, 1979
Imlay, 1879
When Things of the1961 The Female Reader, 1789
The Prime of
Life, Sampler of Life and Thought of
War: Force of Circumstance, Volume I:
1944-52 " Ahead of her Time: A
bar the Mary Wollstonecraft
Stories
Moral Conversations and
Mary Wollstonecraft The Feminist Papers
Wollstonecraft was a writer, philosopher Women and Education
Bom in 1759, Mary century,
women's rights. By the twentieth
nd an advocate of
one of the founding
feminist Judith Butler
she came to be regarded as unconventional American philosopher
philosophers; though during her times
her Born in 1956, Judith Butler is an have significantly
much attention. and gender theorist. Her works
personal relationships received philosophy, feminist
contributed to the field of political
Works theory, queer and literary theory.
Literary Career and works are of
thinkers, both her life and her
For many feminist
significance. Her most significant
contribution is A Literary Career and Works
argues
(1792)in which sheinferior going on to
prime
Rights of Woman She studied at the Bennington College before Bachelor of
Vindication of the to men, but
turned her
study at the Yale University. She received l984. Since
not born inferior make a in
iat women are education. She goes on to
right to as the Arts in 1978 and Doctor of Philosophy
Dy being denied the behalf of both men and women, the of
1993, she has been teaching at the University
on both
piea to the society benefit only by
education of California, Berkeley, in the department of Comparative
whole could Literature and the Program of Critical Theory. In
2002,
oety as a
genders. variety
Wollstonecraft wTOte aconduct she held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the
writingcareer. books, University of Amsterdam. Butler also served on the
uing her brief pamphlets, historydeath in 1797, editorial board of several journals.
of works, novels, treatises, After her Memoir, revealing
literature. Her most notable works are Gender Trouble and Bodies
books and children's widower, published A with
her especially her two affairs That Matter, in which she puts forth her theory about
Willam Godwin, and mnore than
unconventional lifestyle Imlay. This Memoir performativity of gender and challenges the conventional
Gilbert reputation. understanding of gendered roles in the society. Butler is a
Henry Fuseli and her birthto
her, damaged after giving recipient of several awards for her exemplary works.
celebrating of 38, soon the great writer
died at the age up to become Major Works
Wollstonecraft she grew
her second daughter, Gender Trouble, 1990
Mary Shelley. Women, 1790
Precarious Life,2004
and Undoing Gender, 2004
Major Works Men
Rights of VWoman, I 792 Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?, 2009
ofthe of Bodies that Matter, 1993
AVindication the RightsWonan, 1798
AVindication of Residencein Sweden, Norway The Psychic Life of Power, 1997
of
Wrongs Short Notes Towards a Performative Theory of Assembly,
Maria: Orthe during a 1787 2015
Letters written Daughters, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality, 2000
and Denmark, 1796 Educationof Giving arn Account of Oneself, 2003
on the 1788 Senses of the Subject, 2015
ThoughtsFiction, 1788Real Life,
Mary: A Storiesfrom
Original
702 UGC NET Tutor
Antigone's Claim: Kinship between Life and Death, 2000 Major Works
Parting Wavs, 2012
Subjects of Desire, 1987 Semiotike, 1969
The Power of Religion in the lublic Sphere, 201| Powers of Horro, 1980
Revolution in
Who Sings the Nation-State, 2007
Dispossession: The performative in the Political, 2013
Poetic LAyuagp, SI
Desire in Language, 1969
Is Critique Sccular, 2009 The Kristeva
Prejudicial Appearances: The Logic of American Antidiscrimination Law, New MaladiesReader, 1986
of the Sosl,
2000 Teresa, My Lave: 199%
An
Women and Social
What is a People? Transformation, 2003
of Avila, 2008
This SnCredible
Imagsned 1ife
Need to Believe,
Against Sadomasochism, 1982 Hatred and Forgiveness, 2005
Radical Thinkers, 2016 Hannah Arendt, 999
The Queer Intersectional in The Samurai, 1983
Contemporary Germany, 2018 The Severed Head:
Julia Kristeva The Portable Capital
Kristeva, 1997 Visions, 201
Julia Kristeva (bom on 24th Language: The Unknown, 1981
June, 1941) is a
philosopher, literary critic and a psychoanalyst Bulgarian-French Murder in Byzantium,
and feminist. Proust and the Sense of2004
Literary Career and Works The Sense and Tirne, 1993
Kristeva was intermationally acclaimed
verv first book, soon after the publication of her
Non-Sense of Revolt %6
Time and Sense, 1996
Semiotike in 1969. Her entire The Old Man and the
addressing a wide array of subjects, such as oeuvre contains works In the WoBves, 1991
linguistics, literary intertextuality, semiotics and Beginning was Love, 1987
Marriage as a Fine Art,
analysis, art histories, theory, psychoanalysis,
feminist approaches and sopolitical and cultural The Enchanted Clock, 2015
the field of on. She is popular 2015
structuralism and
She is believed to be one of post-structuralist thought to0.
in Colette, 1999
About Chinese Women, 1974
the key figures in the
feminism along with de Beauvoir, school of French Passions of Our Time, 2019
Kristeva proposed the idea of Luce Irigaray and Helen Cixous. Nations Without Nationalism, 1993
feminism. In the feminist circles, multiple identities in her study of Possessions, 1996
controversial and therefore her feminist her arguments were " Crisis of the
mostly European
2001 Subject, 2000
aambiguous,
yet her famous stand was
considered Intimate Revolt,
noteworthy contribution. disambiguation of three types of feminism is The System and the Speaking
Subject, 192
Kristeva
was highlyattained her byeducation from Luce Irigaray
influenced
to read under the works of several universities in France. She
Barthes.
the tutelage of Michael Bakhtin. She got a
scholars like
Born on 3rd May 1930, Luce Irigaray 3.
Lucien Goldmann and chance Belgian-born French feminist, psychoana
By early 1970s she Roland philosopher, linguist and cultural theorist
marriage with the began to teach at the
few workS under novelist, Philippe Columbia University. After Literary Career and Works
her married
name, Sollers Joyaux, she also her
Kri2004.steva was the recipient of Julia Joyaux. published a OneHer and
mmost notable works are This Sa
of Other Woman. Someof
he
She won the Holberg
International Memorial Speculum
works are imaginary dialogues withemis
2006
received amongof other Hannah Arendt Prize for Prize in Nietzsche n
Western Philosophers such as extensivey
Commander the Orderawards Political
Commander Thought.
Kristeva is the founder of theof Merit, and theVaclay
of the Hiedegger. Also she writes
She also Hegel, Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, Levinas a
o

Legion of Merleau
Havel Prize. Honor, through her study of
P
Ponty. She contributes
pointeds

Simon de
Beauvoir
specificallythe
difference between thelanguage
Prize , and
wom

Commit ee. speak.


way men
culturalStudies 703

Inigaray
received her Bachelor's degree from the Literary Career and Works
Louvain in 1954 and Masters degree in
U'niversity of She holds honorary degrees from Universities in Canada,
1956. Ireland, UK and USA. From 2008 to 2014, she was at the
From 1956
to 1959, she taught at a high school in Cornell University as a Professor.
Brussels.
She attained her Doctorate degree in 1968. Her prime focus
In1961.she
completed her Master's in Psychology from during this time was English Literature and the works of James
as an
of
the University Paris. In 1962, she received aspecialist
Joyce. She joined the University of Bordeaux in 1962
diplomain Psychopathology. In 1968, she completed her assistant and kept ascending in posts.
was
doctoratefrom Paris X Nanterre. She earned a second During the time of French students riots in 1968, shewhich
h) in 1974. Her second PhD earned her great repute charged with the opening of University of Paris VIII,
alternate to the
hut also led to her suspension from Ecole Freudienne de was believed to have been opened as an
Paris. directed by Lacan where she attended Lacan's traditional French academia. In 1974, Cixous opens the
VIII,
seminars. Her work was not received well by Lacanian Centre for Women's Studies in the University of Paris
and Freudian circles. the first of its kind in Europe.
Not much is known about Irigaray's personal life for she In the 1970s, Cixous began writing on the relationship between
extensively
believed that an interest in her biography would impact sexuality and language. Thereon, she has published
as "the
the reading of her works and be used against her in the and on a variety of subjects. Derrida referred to her
male-dominated society. greatest living writer in the French language."
the
Irngaray's works combined various ideologies in putting In 2000, a collection in Cixous' name was created at
forth her perspective theory on women/ feminism. She Bibliotheque nationale de France to which Cixous donated all
brings together structuralism/ post structuralism, her manuscripts.
Manism and psychoanalysis while offering her feminist Major Works
argument. The Newly Born Woman, 1975
Major Works Stigmata, 1988
The Book of Promethea, 1983
This Sex Which is Not One, 1977 Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing, 1993
Speculum of the Other Woman, 1974 Helen Cixous, Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing, 1994
Ethics of Sexual Difference, 1982 Coming to Writing and Other Essays
In the Beginning She Was, 2012 Writing Notebooks of Helen Cixous, 2004
Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzche, 1991 Reading with Claice Lispector, 1989
ILove to You, 1990 The Terrible But Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King
To Be Two, 1994 of Cambodia, 1985
The Way of Love, 2002 Hyperdrecam, 2006
Entre Orient et Occident, 1999 Manhattan, 2002
Sharing the World, 2008 First Days of the Year, 1990
The Irigaray Reader, 1991 Peaceful Revolution, 1994
White Ink: Interviews on Sex, Text and Politics, 2008
Thinking the Difference for a Readings: A Novel, 1991
Forgetting of Air, 1999 Dream I Tell You, 2003
New Human Being, 2017
ToBe Born: Genesis of a 1994 Insister of Jacques Derrida, 2006
Democracy Begins Between Two, The Laugh of the Medusa, 2010
Translated from the French, 1992
Elemental Passions: Portrait of Jacques Derrida, 2001
Conversations, 2008 Veils, 2001
Everyday Prayers, 2004 Philippine, 2011
Death Shall be Dethroned, 20 l6
Helen Cixous Love Itself: In the Letter Box, 2008
French feminist, poet,
Born in 1937, Helen Cixous is a most Zero's Neighbour: Sam Beckett, 2007
and literary critic. Her which
playwright, philosopher Laugh Angst, 1977
of the Medusa"
notable work is "The feminist. The Day IWasn't There, 2004
poststructuralist
established her as a Inside, I986
704 UGC NIT TutOr
Ahstncts and Hriet Chncles of the lime, 2016 driven hy natinaa thinben
yEapes, 2012 Mohandas Gandihi nd Vva
Tombye), 2014 talpolitical nedhanism
Soose. 2002 oher approach, however, onEDS tuigst
etn in Painting Witing on Contemporary Ats and lhscourse in which the
Aesthetk, 2012
olites, ithich and Ierfomance, 2016 "Ppie' ometimes defending
other times glorifying them
iheoretians ite
Vollevs of Humanity Essays 1972-2009, 2011
Twists and Tums in the Heart's Antarctc, 2013 Spivak could be asS ted with
d ranslormation.
Bdwad Sad
this plitks
Neuter, |472
Origin and Evolution
Clearly postcolonialism is to do with
Postcolonialism binary power relations that the
"Things fall apart,thc centre cannot hold;
nd the colonized. operate exami
Yet,the prefix 'postbetween
is
thening á
debate in the term
Mere anarchy is looscd upon the world." Lraditions within posteolonial The aCaue tw diteea
(WB Yeats poem 7he Scond Coming')
terminologles- posteolonialism prcter
The idea of 'anarchy' and things falling While he firstPost-coonial and posteolonial, respecte
centre cannot hold in a way best describesapart becauNe the focusses on the
literature post the colonial rule, inhistory. peoltikdes
the traditions of
colonialism which the postcolonial corpus of literature, independence is which the
theory and activism challenges,
sixteenth century. the colonial andDating back to the Necond UNage NUally seen as the watershed date the
dernotes the years of political and atu
between the West and the non-west has imperial encounter struggles that need not depend on
believeindependence
led to historical, for post-colonial, for they to
quai,
political and cultural ramifications often postcolonial in thought. their resistance to be
Eurocentric superiority on the dictating a
be inferior, barbaric and natives who are believed to It is
uncivilized. The difficult to resolve the debate, Yet, it is believedthat te
of the colonial authority
along with itssuperimposition
culture and
nationalist debates after 1945 as well as the
intellectul
civilization have led to the social exclusion and
works that were
antí-colonialist are both responsible in
of the native systems, cultures and
civilizations.
denigration shaping the posteolonial worldview,. In the
In an attempt to domain d
postcolornial studies, however, Edward Said's publication
of the colonial establish the dominance and
ruler, the colonizer pre-eminence Orientalism in 1978 is understood to be the precu 4
has often posteolornial
suppress the native systems of culture and sought to studies. Said non-materialist approach shape
by Foucault's ideas on Power
including their language, ritual practices and other civilisation, highlights the theury
life codes by routine exelusion and depravation
These acts of demeaning them as regressive or obsolete. and neo-colonial situations. as central to the postcolonal
resisted by thesuppression and
natives in orderoppression,
to save their however, were theorists, Spivak and Bhabha, Other important postcolonu
too, used theory
languages,
there was cultures and lifestyles. Also, at a indigenous understand the postcolonial situation.
political resistance to the broaderoflevel, While Spivak offered a Deridean reading. Bhabha oflereda
colonizer whowas considered to be an authority the
Lacanian examination, In the ficld of postcolonialstudes.
This opposition outsider.
where dhe colonized between he colonizer and the much was also offered by postcolonial writers of fiction,
authority, voice can attempts o regain its colonized who were answering back the Empire through theirow
lost power,
be
understood
history. poitics, and literature as
postcolonial in mechanisms.
Post respectively.
the colonialis1nto can therefore be said to be Thinkers of Postcolonialism
colonized the culonial the response of
the important division of oppression. is Elleke Boehmer
avery
Postcolonialism
social and political cultural studies for it
Acclaimed Poostcolanal
into two justice, Posticnolequalliitsiems incanorder
structural Cxamines as a in the field of Literature
approaches. Theoniafirst be
to bring
about studies, Elleke founding
Boehmer
figure
is: a Professor
in English at the University of Oxfordof and
World
Goverming
one brrooadly
being divided Body Fellow in
Wasbortn
anti-colonial 1961 Dutch
o
at Wolfson College. Boehmer
parents in Durban, South Africa.
turolStudies
705

Literary Career and Works


her studies in English Edward Said
and
maicine, but ould Modern languages.it.
not complete
Born in Palestinian America in 1935, Edward Said was a
professor of literature at the Columbia University. He is
ini. Bochter bevame intluence by the
thought ot Steve Biko, an one of the founding figures in the academic domain of
'hil in English literature and activist. She
her doctoral
postcolonial studies.
st. lohn's College in the 19s0s. Said's father, Wadie Said, was a Palestinian who served as a
soldier in the US army. So, Edward Said was born a citizen
Colonial and Pstolonial Literature:Migrant of the United States. Said received his education at British
Licqh uhlished in l995 oveN a vast expanse, looking and American schools. This offered Said a bi-cultural
the angiphone literarv produtions trom 1830s, cutting perspective, which he applied to understand the different
ARN MTIAi ens and also exanmining both the English as cultural-politics off the Western and the Eastern worlds,
wE as stolonial wites. This work is inportant as it especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
S vanus peses of identitv fomation vis-à-vis
kns ot nationalitv. gender, andcolonial encounter. Literary Career and Works
Arhner wOrked as the general editor of Oxford University He is a key figure in postcolonial theories offering a critique
Ps for their series in Postcolonial literatures. She is also on of the cultural perceptions of the West in their looking
down upon the other or "he Orient."
ütorialboards of manv international joumals On
He joined the Columbia University in 1963 as a faculty in
Aosoionial Writings.
the English department and taught there till 2003.
She is also the trustee of the Charlie Perkins Scholarship
abishe in 2010 which funds the study of aboriginal In 1974, he also served as a Visiting Professor of
Ausralian students. She is also a Rhodes Trustee since Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
Man
2016. In 2014-15. Boehmer served as a judge for theseveral During 1975-76, he was a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced
Sooker International Prize. Boehmer
holds Studies in Behavioural Sciences at the Stanford University.
to her areas of In 1977, he became the professor at the University of
ortant posts and continues to contriute
Teres
Columbia. In 1979, he was a Visiting Professor at John
Hopkins University in the department of Humanities.
Major Works Allin all, he lectured at more than 200 universities in North
1995 America, Europe and Middle East. He was awarded at least
Colonial and Postcolonial Literature,
Ihe Shouting in the Dark,
2015 twenty honorary degrees during the course of his
Stories of Women, 2005 professional life. He was the recipient of the Bowdoin Prize
Networks of British Empire, by the Harvard University,Lionel Trilling Book Award, the
Indian Arrivals. 1870-1915:
2015 Wellek Prize of the American Comparative Literature
Nie Babv, 2008 Association, the Spinoza Lens Prize, the Lannan Literary
Postcolonial Poetics, 2018 Award for Lifetime achievement, among many others.
Sharmila and Other Portraits, 2010 received
Short Introduction, 2008 His autobiography, Out of the Place (1999) too
Verv
Neison Mandela: A
and The Postcolonial, 2002 three awards. In 2011, BBC published the Representation
he examined
Cmpire. the National. of the Intellectual, a six-lecture series in
which
Sareens Against the Sky. 1990 the role of a public intellectual.
An Immaculate Figure, 1993 leukaemia for
He died in September 2003, after enduring as a tribute
Bloodlines, 2000
Mandela: The Black Pimpernel, 2013Representation, about twelve years. Several books were written
Neison Postcolonial Past: Beyond to him and in 2012, the Barenboim-Said Academy
was
Ihe Future ofthe established in Berlin to monumentalise this great critic.
Bundle, 2013
2017
Introduction andBiography
Mandela:
UGC NET
Tutor
706
Literary Career and Works
Engit
Major Works In 1965, Spivak joined University of lowa
Onentalism. 1978
Culture and Impeialism, 1993
the Department of English. She was highlyas prote
The Question of Palestine, l979
Covering Islam, 1981
Out of Placc: A Memoir, 1999
Marx, Gramsci, Derrida,
She translated some
In 1974, she founded the
Mahasweta
of the works of
MFA in
Devi
Derrida. iandnfluenetb
Foa
Reflections on Exile andOther Essays, 2000 Departmnent of Comparative Literature.
started working as a professor and TraSnusblsaetqiuoennthyin the
On Late Stvle
The Edward Said Reader, 2000
Power. Politics and Culture, 2001
various universities. visiting profesr ;
The World, the Text and the Critic, 1983 She received eleven honorary doctorates from U
The Endof the Peace Process, 2000
Represerntations of the Intellectual, 1994
of London, Toronto, Virgili and so on.
In 2012, she received the Kyoto Prizein inthe Art.s
Univerite
Peace and itsDiscontents, 1995 Philosophy, being the only Indian recipient
Her name also appears on several
The Politics of Dispossession, 1994
Humanism and Democratic Criticism academic journals. advisory boardsri
Parallels and Paradoxes,2002 Her most significant contribution to the fela.
Freud and the Non-European, 2003 postcolonial studies is her idea of marginality and subal
After the Last Sky, 1986 andthe intersection between feminism and
Joseph Conrad and the fiction of Autobiography, 1966 postcolonialie
Since 1986, she has preoccupied herself by teaching an
Beginnings: Intention and Method, 1975
Musical Elaborations, 1991 training landless illiterates in Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhani
Conversations with Edward Said With the help of the financial aid left to her friend. L
Culture and Resistance, 2003 Metzger, she established the Pares and Sivani Chakravany
From Oslo to Iraq Memorial foundation for Rural Education. She ls
Music at the Limits
dedicated much of her Kyoto prize money to it, enabling the
The Pen and the Sword, 1994 education and development of the illiterate masses.
Yeats and Decolonisation, 1988
Acts of Aggression, 1999 Major Works
Edward Said: Continuing the Conversation, 2006 In Other Worlds, 1987
Cultural Imperialism, 1993 A Critique of Post-colonial Reason, 1999
The Arabs Today, 1973
The Post-colonial Critic, 1990
Crimes of Terror: The Legal and Political
Federal Terrorism Prosecutions, 2015 Implications of Outside in the Teaching Machine, 1993
Mona Hatoum, 1993 (Posthumous) Death ofaDiscipline, 2003
The Poliics of The Spivak Reader, 1995
Anti-Semitism, 2003 Other Asias, 2003
Gayatri Spivak
Born in 1942, Gayatri
Nationalism and the Imagination, 2010
An Aesthetic in the Era of Globalisation, 2012
influential Chakravorty
figures in the field of
Spivak is one of the most Can the Subaltern Speak 2008
known for her essay, Can the postcolonial studies, best Conversations with Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak, Z000
scholar,literary theorist andSubaltern Speak? She is an Indian Readings, 2014
Who Sings the Nation-state Language, Politics, Belonging
Spivak completed her early postcolonial-feminist
Kolkata.atIn 1961, she joinededucation
critic.
and graduation from (co-edited with Judith Butler), 2007 WB Yeats
English Myself Must I Remake: The Life and Poetry of
the Cornell University. Inthe1962,
graduate
she program to in 1974
depart m ent of
Comparat transferred
Scenesof

of iPaul
ve Literature
working under
on Yeats. She the guidance
Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee and Certain
de Man. Herand started Teaching, 2018
school, Sligo,presented a
discussing course
postcolonial realn,
on thesis was
Yeats' Yeats in Yeats Summer
Harlem, 2012
Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered
Post-coloniality.

positioning within the 1992


Raw Motion
Through the Roadblocks: Realities in
culturalStudies 707

HomiK Bhabha putting forth the theory of Marxism, strikingly sums up the
Bornin1949,, Homi K. Bhabha is an Indian English scholar cruxof his philosophy. Marxism attempts to offer a historical
theorist. He was born in Bombay into a Parsi family. analysis of the socio-economic means of production, thereby
eived his carly education and Bachelor's degree from offering an understanding of the class relations arnd social
University of Mumbai, and later went to Oxford conflicts. According to Marx and his friend and collaborator,
('niversity Friedrich Engels, arn investigation into the structure and the
role of economic and productive processes within it is the
Literary Career and Works key tocomprehending the contemporary society.
He serves as Professor of English and American literature Marxist theorists argue that incapitalist societies, there is a
and as the Director of the Mahindra Humanities Centre at definitive relation between its two major classes, the
Harvard University. proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and this relationship
He taught at the English Department at the University of comprises mostly of contradictions in the material interests
Sussex for almost ten years, after which he received a senior of both. The proletariat or the working class consisting of
felowship at the Princeton University. He was also a visiting wage labourers, employed to produce goods and services is
Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow exploited by the oppressive bourgeoise or the ruling cdass
faculty at Dartmouth College. that owns the means of production. The bourgeoise wold
Bhabha also served as an Editor of Public Culture, an amass and appropriate the surplus produced by the
academic journal by Duke University Press. proletariat leading to a more than unequal distríbution of
the profit, leading to depravation and dissatisfaction arnong
In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the the labour class.
Indian Government.
The increasing exploitation of the wage labourers and the
Bhabha is a very important figure in the field of growing dissatisfaction among them leads to social crísis
postcolonial studies; he is credited with coining of various which often shoots out a revolution. For Marx this in itseif is
important terms in the field of postcolonial studies, such as a process that could finally culminate in the establishrment of
hybridity, mimicry, difference, ambivalence and so on. socialism, a society that is classless and maintains equity
among it citizens thereby catering to the needs of all by
Major Works India after erasing the boundaries between the bourgeoise and the
Midnight to the Boom: Painting in proletariat, the ruling and the working class.
Independence, 2013
Marxist Literary theory, drawing its base from economics,
Mtra Tabrizian: Another Country, 2012 Reflections on moves on to focus on class relations and the mnarket scenario
Contemporary
Our Neighbours, Ourselves: within which the text, the writer and its readers operate. The
Survival, 2011 Marxist critic is able to comprehend not only what the text
Raqib Shaw: Absence of God, 2009 says but also why it says and what it not says owing to the
1000 Names, 1998
invisible power relations operative in the society. A Marxist
Mary Kelly, 1997 critic, therefore, goes beyond the obvious and tries to
The Location of Culture, 1994
understand the underlying ideology of the text and that of its
ldentity: The Real Me, 1987 author.

Origin and Evolution


Marxism as a doctrine developed around mid-nineteenth
Marxism of material production at century when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels put together
"The class which has the means time over the means of their concept of historical materialism in order to offer a
control at the same
ES disposal, has thereby, generally speaking, the scientific understanding of the society. The term "Marisrn"
so that are
nental production,lack the means of mental production was popularized by Karl Kautsky who considered himself an
ideas of those who orthodox Marxist.
subject to it." Since Marx and Engels did not put together a
German ldeology
Karl Marx from The Marx, a German political theory of Marxism for literary studies, there systermatic
from Karl
The above scientist, believed to be the key figure in
statement various traditions of Marxism in the later developed
cernturies.
thinker and
708 UGC NET
Tutor
The carly Marxist literary thcory focussed on realism and the
realist novel and was bclieved to be dogmatic. The second
The Eighteenth Brumaire of
Louis Engith
phase of Marxist literary theory attempted to challenge the
dogmas and offer an extension to the carly classical Marxist
Critique of the Gotha
Theses on Feurbach, 1888
The Civil War in France, 1871
Program, 1891 Napolean, I852
theon bv eplacing socialist rcalism with bourgeoise The Holy Family, 1845
The Frankfurt School of critics realism.
developed their of Hegel 's
of Marxism depending upon
their
perspectives. Post World War II, thepersonal
own versions
ideological
Critique
The Philosophy
Poverty of Philosophy, 1847of Right, 184
latter half of the Wage, Labour and Capital, 1849
twentieth centurv saw different theories of TheClass Struggles in France
with psvchoanalvsis. feminism and Marxism blended 1848-1850
media studics. AWorld Without Jews, 1844
Karl Marx Capital, Volume II, 1894
Value, Price and Profit, 1865
Born in Trier, in the German Theories of Surplus Value
was a German Rhineland in 1818, Karl Marx
theoretician philosopher, economist, historian, political
and activist. He was
Capital, Volume II, 1885
later converted to born to a Jewish family, who Selected Writings
Christianity.
career in law, Marx too Like his father who Marx/ Engels Gesamtausgabe
studied law in Bonn and pursued a Revolution and
then completed his PhD
wanted to pursue an thesis in Philosophy in 1841. Marx
Berlin and Collected Works ofCounter-Revolution,
Karl Marx and
1896
academic career. However, he moved
among a group of thinkers
An Unfinished Revolution Frederick Engels
times and this considered too radical for the Marx-Engels- Werke, 1983
Marx concerned ruined his academic
prospects. Soon after
himself with political and
Marks on Suicide, 1864
Herr Vogt, 1860
took on in the field of social issues and The
journalism. Annotated Communist Manifesto, 1848
On Religion
Literary
In1845. heCareer and Works Karl Marx on India
wrote The German
Friedrich
of history. Engels, in Ideology, co-written with
the
In 1848, which Marx began
he returned to to develop the theory
revolution.heAs the revolution failed,
Louis Althusser
Germanyhe to take part in Born in Algeria in 1918, Louis
London where spent the rest of his came back to French Marxist Pierre Althusser was 2
By 1859, he
focussed his study
life.
education from anphilosopher. received his highet
He
began to develop establishment
his idea of the entirely on Economics and Superieure in Paris. He spent his life called Ecole Noma
published his ributions to Political he Catholic professors under the influence t
as
Economy. This wasCont the Economy which Marxism and some critics
Historical Materialism.to become a PrefaceCritique of the
to his later Political of
to be affected by it believed his reading
for Althusser
Marx continued to theory of Marxism despite was a cri
being a key member of thebigFrench
economi
worki n gc s and write and publish his ideas on
late intohistorical
Communist Party.
the political Al thusser is
mnat erialism.
affected his health, leading tohardly getting exhausted himself and to believed
the night, He
affiliation French
to be a Structural
Marxist thoughhis
his death as aenough sleep. This layered structidueolraloigismcal
with is not direct and simplk
Major Works stateless person. His higher various complexities.
Capi
The ta l : The Process of talist education
World War. Like was deferred due to the in second
The Comnmunist ManifestCapi
Germanandldeology, 1846o, 1848
Economic PhilOsophic Production,
A
Cr iti que of
1867 army, Athusser too many
prison,
The AlCxperiernce
thusser came
French soldiers serving the
was held a
prisoner in Germany.
Capital, Poli1,tical ManuscrJ859ipt 1844
Volume 1867Economy, of
mental
war under
also
left an
the influence of Marxism
indelible mark on his

However wel, accor


l-beindg,ingleaving
to a fehim depressed1forlong periods
w critics this period of mentel
instability played an important role in shapinghs
philosophical thought.
cturalStudies
nglish
52
Literary Career and Works
709

In1946. Althusser resumed his studies. Around this Gramsci's knowledge base included various thínkers such as
across a Machiavelli, Vilfredo Pareto, Georges Sorel and Benedetto
nod, he came
series of thinkers and Croce; these were the widely respected Italian intellectuals of his
nhlosophers who influenced and impacted his times. His notebooks exhibit adeep understanding of critical
Anguments. Such as Helene
Rytmann,
Hegel. Herman Hesse, and Jacques Martin, theories of these thinkers and cover a wide range of topics like
so on. Martin Italian Nationalism, French Reyolution, fascism, Fordism, civil
smially'cultivated
Cvailles, Georges
IAlthusser's interest in reading Jean society, high and popular culture and so on.
Canguilhem and Hegel. The
ombination of Catholicism and The theory of cultural hegemony could be credited to Gramsci
Marxism led him to in which he unravels how bourgeoise, that is the state and the
adopt German idealism and Hegelian thought. ruling class, uses cultural institutions to maintaín power in a
Ahusser delivered many lectures and conferences at
Fxole Norman Superieure in capitalist society. The bourgeoise develop their ideology which
eminent French philosophers such participation with emanated as "common sense" or the belief system which
as Lacan and dictates a pattern of cultural norms and values allocating power
Deleuze. These lectures had a great impact on and resources to the superstructure. The proletariat are left out
wel-known French philosophers, who were amongnowhis from this space which becomes elitist.
students, like Derrida, . Michael Foucault., Pierre
Bourdieu, etc. Literary Career and Works
Later in his life, his bent of mind shifted In 1911, Gramsci won a scholarship to study at the
towards of Turin. This was a period of great social turmoil as University
Voltaire, Condorcet, Hobbes and Locke. His study was Turin was
compiled in book form, released by Francis Matheron in going through phases of industrialisation kicked off by the
2006. setting of fiat and Lancia factories.
In 1913, he joined the Italiarn Socialist Party and got a
In 1980, owing to his growing mental instability, he observe the Russian Revolution. chance to
killed his wife, Helene Rytmann. He was not tried
legaly because of his mental condition but was sent to In 1914, Gramsci began writing for socialist
newspapers and his
writings turned him into a respectable journalist.
an asylúm. He did little academic work thereafter and
died in 1990. In 1916, he co-edited Piedmont edition of
ner Avanti, an Italian
newspaper, which became the manifesto of the Italian Socialist
an
Major Works Party.
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, 1970 For the most part of his life, he kept working for the
ic
Politics and History, 1981 working class. The establishment of the new fascistwelfare of the
h
Sur La Reproduction under Mussolini and their emergency laws heeded government
For Marx, 1965 to the socialist parties. Gramsci evern served 1l several blows
Fhilosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the. health continued to deteriorate in jail. At the age years in jail. His
Scientists and the Other Essays, 1974 of 46, he died in
the year 1937.
Essays on ldeology, 1984
Montesquieu, RouSseau, Marx, 1972 Major Works
How to be a Marxist in Philosophy, 2017 Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1947
Essays in Self-criticism, 1974 2003 Prison Notebooks, Volume 2, 1948
The Humanist Controversy and other Writings, The Antonio Gramsci Reader:
1937 Selected Writings 1916-1935,
Antonio Gramsci an Italian Marxist., The Modern Prince and Other
The Southern Question Writings, 1959
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was
politician. Heis considered Selections from Cultural
phineo-Marxist
a losopher
and comnmunist
as he tried to
break free from traditional
founding member of the
L'albero del Ricco, 1966 Writings, 198S
Selections from Political Writings, 1910-20, 1974
Marxism.He was the
Communist Party of Italy and was
imprisoned by
In prison, he wrote
Pre-prison
A
Writings, 1994
Benito Mussolini's fascist regime.
Great and Terrible World: The
significantly contributed to 1992 Pre-Prison Letters:
about 30 notebooks which history. II 1908-1926
the twentieth century poolitical
Materialismo Storico, 1948
UGC NET
710
Roland Barthes
Bonin November 1915, Roland Gerard arthes
Poststructuralism literary theorist, critic, philosopher
amidt ocrrences of ideas developed and influeice a wide artay h ry
The temm Poststructuralisnn' Such as semiot ics, structuralism,
be understood as a
several historncal vents coud namely anthropoogy
counterrevoution against the system before it,
human
struturalism Stnucturalisnn's premise that Literary Career and Works
culture could only be comprehended by means of a From 1935-39, Barthes studied
model, structured on language, was fundamentally dassical literatute,
his academic periods were plagued by
challenged by poststructuralists by emphasising the which prevented him frorn taking ariy perds d
plurality and multiplicity, that is considered as a base by
structuralists. The rejcction of self-sufficiency offered Due to his medical condition, he was qualifying
als,
bv the meaning of a given word within a linguistic code military service during World War Il.
is the main premise of the poststructuralists. To both The period between 1939-48 was spent
structuralists as well as poststructuralists, language is grammar and philology. Soon, in the year receiving
1941, he
central. However, one chooses to construct the subject
in and with language, while the other questions this very
construction of the subject. For this reason, the
equivalent M.A degree from the
Tragedy. University of eanee
Paris
discourse of the poststructuralists theorists or thinkers In 1948, Barthes gained various
is not based on one common doctrine; and is rather
based on anti-essentialism.
institutes in France,
the Centre NationaleRomania
short-term
and Egypt. By 1932, hepostne
vei
a
de la Recherche
Origin and Evolution spent seven years studying sociologyScientifique,
and
why
contributing to journals and magazines. lexicoiog:
It is difficult to pin down the origin of
to one thinker or one date. poststructuralism In 1957, Barthes began
However, one can argue that he met Richard Howard,teaching at Middlebury College vter
poststructuralism as a philosophical position originated
with the disillusionment translator.
who would later become his Engs
with the systems in the Post
World War ll period. More specifically By the 1960s
the disappointments faced from stemming from
the failure of the
Barthes works had earned him great repute H
was travelling
Socialist communist politics and the death of
conferences. extensively
to deliver lectures and a
leader, the Soviet
Joseph Stalin. To rip apart the
Capitalist, socialism was perceived oppressive He wrote his best
However, dismantling of the bases toof be necessary. This essay provedessay in 1967, The Death of the
an important piece in the
Auther
politics was equally pertinent. the socialist study
Other important events
deconstruction and the structuralist
contributed to the thought. He
post s truct u ral ist thought
leading to the beginning of the which avant-garde
was developing similar literary magazine, Que Ted
were
against he Gaulist party and left-wing protests
the theoretical premise.
France. This was also the the students riots in InBarthes wrote his
exiSarrestenthadialisbeen time 1977, autobiography
t philosophy of Albert Camus andpromise of Department at the Collegeelected
when the Barthes was
in 1975 titled Roland|Barhes
the chair to the Semioo
thinkers acrossexhaust of France. He died in an accident
theed. globe, Jean-Paul 1980. His last few works were basically
At this
point, emerged meditations t
poststructDerriuralidsta, Paulthinkersde such as Roland
Jacques generationseveralof photographs of his mother who died in 1977.
Guat
hesetadiri,stiGiles Del e uze Man, Michel Barthes, Major Works
nct rs had their ownri SpiFoucaul
ural houghtschol, amaki
stoneructcommon
and Gayat
v ak. t, Felixof Mythologies, 1957
Each Camera Lucida, 1980
these definition orng it difficofult toversi on of post The Death of the
foundatchalionallengedconcethepts. Westschoolern metahought
come up
physics and its
A
. Yet, allwithof Lover'
S/Z, 1970
s Author,
Discourse,
The Pleasure of the
1977
1967

The Text, 1973


Fashion System, 1967
The Empire of Signs, 1970
cuturalStudies 711

Image-Music-Text, 1977
1953 Major Works
Is'riting Degree Zero, 1964 OfGrammatology, 1967
Elements of Semiology, Specters of Marz, 1993
Mourning Diary, 2009 (Posthumous) Archive Fever, 1995
The Rustle of Language, 1984 (Posthumous) The Gift of Death, 1992
Reader, l975
ABarthes Margins of Philrsoptry, 1972
The Grain of the Voice, 1981 (Posthumous) The Anirnal that Therefore 1 Am, 292
Travels in China
Glas, 1974
CriticalEssays, 1963 194)
The Post Card: Frorn Sscrates to Fresd and Beyrd.
Criticism and Truth, 1966 The Truth in Painting, 197%
The Semiotic Challenge, 1985 (Posthumous) Limited Inc, 1988
Sade, Fourier, Loyola, 1971 Speech and Phenornena, 1967
The Responsibility of Forms The Work of Mourming, 201
Sur Racine, 1963 The Beast and the Sovereig
What is Sport? Right to Philosophy, 1990
The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies, 1979 Deconstruction in a Nutshell, 197
(Posthumous) Of Spirit, 1989
Introduction to the Structural Analysis of the Narrative, Acts of Literature, 1991
1966 On Touching- Jean-luc Nancy.2000
Spurs, 1978
Jacques Derrida ElMonolinguisrno del Otro, 1996
Algerian-born Of Hospitality, 1997
Born in July 1930, Jacques Derrida was an and Acts of Religion, 2002
Poststructuralism
French philosopher associated with was Rogues: Two Essays on Reason, 2003
Deconstruction. His early education at school A Derrida Reader, 1991
frequently interrupted due to the changing governmental Learning to Live Firnally
However, at the age of 22,
politics implemented at school.Superieure where he met and
On Cosmopolitanísrm and Forgvenes, 2001
he entered the Ecole Normale In 1954, he completed
Dar La Muerte, 2004
became friends with Louis Althusser. Edmund Husserl. Philosophy in a Time of Terror, 2003
Philosophy on Memoirs of theBlind: The Seif-porrait and Oher Rrs 1
his Master's degree in Deconstruction and Critícism, 1979

Literary Career and Works the


Echographies of Television, 1996
received a grant to study at The Rhetoric of Drugs. 1989
During 1956-57, Derridaspent the next two years teaching Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Probieo of the
Harvard University. He children ofAlgerian soldiers. From Sign Husseri's Phenomenoiogy. 1989
French and English to the philosophy at the Sorbonne. On Sovereignties in Question
1960-64, Derrida taughtAlthusser he earned a
permanent Khora, 1990
of 1980.
Tecommendation
Ecole Normale Superiere In the
teaching position at first honorary doctorate from Michael Foucauit
Derrida received his also awarded a state Borm in 1926, Michel Foucauit wras a French philosopher
of
Columbia. He was historian, social theorist and a literary itic He is most
University University of Paris. 'Ghost Dance'
doctorate by the the film, associated with poststructuralist and postrmodern thaugh
Derrida worked in contributed to the script of though he rejects these labels. His key area of interest
In 1983. character. He
his own
alongside Ken McMullen in
directing it. however, laid the reiationship between pwer 27
depictingand I worked knowiedge. Foucauit recesved his education z the Lyca
the film received several honorary degrees and Henry IV and Ecole Normale Superiore where he devepe
years, he Professor at various
In the later worked a visiting
asremembered an interest in philosophy and cane under the infuercCE
awards and for his significant Hyppolite and Althusser He soon begn pubiistng one r
universities. He is fields of phenomernology,
to
the
postmodernism He died in 2004 of after another which brought to fore his struturaist thxg
Contribution He would, however, distane hirnselí fro thse idez
poststructuralism and
pancreatic cancer. couple of years later.
712 UGC NET Tutor
Literary Career and Works The Birth of Biopolitics, 2004
From 1966 to 1968, Foucault gave lectures at the
Universitv of Tunis. In 1968 he retumed to France and
The Foucault Reader, 1984
Society Must be Defended, 1992 (Posthumns)
became the head of the Department of Philosophy at the
Universitv of Paris VIIL Around this time, he also became a
member of many left-wing groups.
Abnormal, 1999 (Posthumous)
Power/ Knowledge: Selected
(Post(Phuns)hnA,
Security, Territory, Population, 2004

He is notably read by scholars engaged with


discussions on
1980 Interviews and
The History of Sexuality: Volume
feminism. sexuality. historical
methodologies and
crypto-normativity besides those interested in structuralist
The Hermeneutics of the
Subject, 3,The
2007
Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology
and poststructuralist thought
processes.
Foucault was extensively read and received several
He died in 1984 at the age of 58 awards.
Language,
The CourageCounter-Memory,
of Truth
This is Not a Pipe, 1973
Practice, 1977 (Posthums,
disorder. due to neurological Technologies of the Self: ASeminar with
Major Works Foucault Live
Death and the Labyrinth, 1963
Michel Foa
Discipline and Punish, 1975 The Punitive Society
The History of Sexuality, 1976
Madness and Civilisation, 1961 Fearless Speech, 2001
The Essential Foucault (Posthumous)
TheOrder of Things, 1966
The Archaeology of
The Birth of the Knowledge, 1969
Introduction
On the
to
Karnt'sAnthropology
France Government
of the Living:
Clinic,
What is an Author 19691963 1979-1980 Lectures at the Colig
The Foucault Effect:
Hermeneutics of the Studies
Subject in Governmentality

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