Postmodernism and Popular culture

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Postmodernism and Popular culture.

M. K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

Department Of English

Pipavat Gopi yogeshbhai

Roll No  :27

Pg Enrollment No: 15101031

Paper Name  : The Cultural Studies

Topic: Postmodernism and Popular culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction:

Firstly, postmodernism was a movement in architecture that rejected the modernist, avant garde, passion for the new. Modernism is here understood in art and architecture as the project of rejecting tradition in favour of going "where no man has gone before" or better: to create forms for no other purpose than novelty. Modernism was an exploration of possibilities and a perpetual search for uniqueness and its cognate--individuality. Modernism's valorization of the new was rejected by architectural postmodernism in the 50's and 60's for conservative reasons. They wanted to maintain elements of modern utility while returning to the reassuring classical forms of the past. The result of this was an ironic brick-a-brack or collage approach to construction that combines several traditional styles into one structure. As collage, meaning is found in combinations of already created patterns

Preface of postmodearnism:

 

Postmodernism is the reaction against Modernism. Postmodernism is hard to  define because it is a concept that appears of study. Postmodernism is a complicated term or set of ideas, one that has only emerged as an area of academic study since the mid 1980. Art, architecture, music, film literature, sociology, communication, fashion, and technology. It hard to locate it temporally or historically because it’s not clear exactly when Postmodernism begins. Defining postmodernism, first we have to know about modernism and then we discuss the postmodernism in detail. Postmodernism in literature is usually associated with (among others) Acker, Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme, Jorge Luis Borges, Italy Calvino and John Ash berry.

Modernism:
Modernism began at the end of the 19thCentury and was in flounced by the new technologies and ideologies that permeated the period“ The term modernism is used to identify new and distinctive features in the subjects, forms concepts and style of literature and other arts..”   

Some of the examples of modernist books are as below:

·        “Ulysses” – James Joyce

·        The wasteland

·        Jacob’s room

    Top 10 Works of Postmodern Literature:

·        Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable Samuel Beckett

·        House of Leaves Mark Z. Daniele ski

·        Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut

·        Labyrinths Jorges Luis Borges

·        Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson

·        American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis

·        Catch-22 Joseph Heller

·        Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon

·        Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs

·        Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace

Characteristics of Modernism.

·        Note of stark realism in writing.

·        Note of pessimism, disillusionment and melancholy in writing.

·        Sense of fragmentation and loss of faith.

·        Use of symbol and scientific methodology.

·        Reflection of the modern chaos and confusion.

·        The bold treatment of love and sex in writing.

·        The decay of plot and characters in writing.

·        Passion for humanity and humanitarianism.

Postmodernism :

·        Irony, playfulness, black humor

·        Pastiche

·        Met fiction

·        Historiography met fiction

·        Temporal distortion

·        Paranoia

·        Maximalist

·        Faction

·        Magical realism

·        Participation

What is Postmodernism?
Postmodern culture in which people live attempt to rethink a number of concepts held deal by  Enlightenment, humanism and many modernists including  subjectivity, temporarily preferential progress, empiricism and the rules of law. As we all know that the postmodernism arose after the Second World War as a reaction to the perceived failings of  modernism whose radical artistic projects had come to be associated with totalitarianism mainstream culture. Postmodernism has been a dominant though not undisputed force in art, music, literature, film,
drama, architecture, and continental philosophy

Salient Features of Postmodernism are normally though to include We find the ironic play with styles. Citations and narrative levels. A metaphysical skepticism and Nihilism towards a “ grand narrative” of western culture. Postmodernist celebrates the fragmented view of human history, humanity and human values.

Frederic Jameson sees artistic movements like … Modernism and Postmodernism as cultural formations that accompany particular stages of Capitalism and are to some extent constructed by it. “ Invention is the construction of  identity” The third phase is dominated by global consumer capitalism the emphasis placed on advertising and selling goods, now called the “ Information Age” which is connected with Materialism. so, In  Postmodernism we find three main areas of capitalism. Like…..

1.     Market Capitalism

2.      Monopoly Capitalism

3.      Consumer Capitalism

 “Sometime Capitalism is harmful for society”  Jean Francois Lyotard argues that stability is maintained through “ Master Narratives” stories culture tells itself about its practices and beliefs in order to keep going. “Democracy will lead to universal human happiness.” Jean Baudrillard  describes the “Simulacra” of postmodern life which have taken the place of ‘real’ objects.

Example:
If we take the example of video game, and music or etc. we observe that Virtual
reality games adds another dimension to the artificiality of Postmodern life. So,
“ Artificiality turns into reality.” Perhaps Postmodernism is best compared to emergence of computer technology. In future, anything not digitization may cease to be knowledge.

Postmodernism :

Let’s discuss the texts of postmodernism. What we find in Postmodernism text? Postmodernism questions everything rationalist. Postmodernist literature rejected the Victorian aesthetic of pre­scripture morality. “Postmodernism explores the proportionality an irrationality of art.” Postmodernism reflects both the energy and diversity of contemporary coherence and depth. 

Examples of postmodernism texts are….

1.“Gravity’s Rainbow” ­ Thomas Pynchon
2. “Infinite Jest” – David Foster Wallace
3. “If on a winster’s Night a traveler” – Italo Calvino
4. “The Name of the Rose” – Umberto Eco
5. “Invisible Cities” – Italo Calvino
6. “Lolita” – Vladimir Nabokov

These are the examples of Postmodernism texts as well as Popular Culture, also. In those texts, we find fragmentation, ambiguities and all the characteristics of it. From the Postmodernism aspects people are free and celebrates their activities and accept the groups. So, this kinds of literature spread more and more and also accepts by people as popular culture. So, let’s discuss the popular culture.

Popular Culture :
Popular culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives attitudes means images and other phenomena. There was a time before the 1960s when popular  culture was not studied by academics. When it was, well just popular  culture. Generally, popular culture is considered as the cheap literature­ cheap culture but..Within American studies programs at first and then later in many disciplines including semiotics, rhetoric, literary criticism, films studies, anthropology, history, women studies , ethnic study, and   psychoanalytic approaches critic examine such cultural media as pulp fiction, comic books, television, film ,advertising, popular music and computer cyber culture. They assess how such factors as ethnicity, race, gender, class, age, region and sexuality are shaped by the reshaped in popular culture.
There are four main types of popular culture analyses:

·        Production analyse

·        Textual analyses

·         Audience analyses

·         Historical analyses 

Example:

The  famous poet :

Nida Fazli is a poet of various moods and to him the creative sentiment and inner urge are the sources of poetry. He thinks that the feeling of a poet is similar to an artist: like a painter or a musician.In contrast he found lyric writing a mechanical job as he had to fulfil the demands of the script and the director. Later he accepted the practical necessity of money which comes from lyric writing and helps one to ponder on creative work

Postmodernists tend to speak more of subject rather than the humanist
notion of independent individuals.”

Postmodern Justice:
­ fallible foundations that are “strong enough” ­ External critiques ­ Contingent framework ­ Active justice

Postmodern Arts:
In cultural studies, post modern visual art , sculpture, plastic art and designs may be seen as possessing the following features.

1. Incompatible styles are a favorite device.

2. The use of the vernacular and slang in art.
3. A conscious and excessive use of ornamentation, often mixing geometric and non – geometric shapes.
4. An increased use of technological media and electronics.

Subcultures, popular culture and Postmodernism:
The arrival of rock music, MTV, films, such  as Ridley Scott’s blade runner have created a whole  postmodern popular culture. Dick Hedger terms  these new forms of cultures, produced by marginalized groups “Subcultures”. These subcultures evade the hegemony imposed by the ‘high’ cultural forms and alter power  structures and social formations, leaving the society and all forms in a state of permanent evolution and change  where no form occupies any privileged position.
Postmodernists sees representation as an end in itself ,calls into question the notion of a “ Truth” behind signs , images and collapses the distinction between original and copy.

Epilogue :
Thus, we may conclude that Postmodernism rejects any totality of knowledge, ideology, or philosophy. It believes in the contingency of values and the very local nature of the truth. It is self reflexive – refers to itself, Parodies itself – self consciously. In contemporary world the distinction break down. It believes that with the advent of more technology and media, our lives are under constant  urveillance.
­

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Archetypal Criticism

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Archetypal Criticism

 

M. K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

Department Of English

Pipavat  Gopi  Yogeshbhai

Roll No :27

Pg Enrollment No: 15101031

Paper Name  : Literary Theory & Criticism.

Topic: Archetypal Criticism by
­            Northrop Frye

 

 

 

 Foreword:

There are many varieties of criticism. This  article over views some of the main types of criticism that occur regularly in everyday life. For other criteria which are used to classify criticisms, click here. For more subject ­specific information, see the pages on topics such as art, film, literature, theatre, or architecture..

Aesthetic criticism:

 Aesthetic criticism is that part of aesthetics which is concerned with critically judging beauty and ugliness, tastefulness and tastelessness, style and fashion, the meaning and quality of design, and issues of human sentiment and affect (the evocation of pleasure and pain, likes and dislikes). Most parts of human life have
an aesthetic dimension, which means there is plenty potential for criticism. Often

Architecture criticism

architecture criticism is considered the highest form of aesthetic criticism, because architecture combines art, science and technology to build a pleasing home environment, a "living space" which people have to inhabit everyday,
more or less permanently.

Logical criticism:                     

In a logical criticism, an objection is raised about an idea, argument, action or situation on the ground that it does not make rational sense (there is something wrong with it because it is illogical, it does not follow, or it violates basic conventions of meaning;– see Straight and Crooked Thinking.

Factual criticism:

In a factual (empirical) criticism, an objection is raised about an idea, argument, action or situation on the ground that there is something wrong with the evidence of the known experience relevant to it. Typically, Relevant purported facts are claimed to be false or implausible, i.e. not facts at all. Relevant facts are said not to have been definitely established as true, or the likelihood that they are true, has not been established.

Positive criticism
Example: Oprah Winfrey
A positive criticism draws attention to a good or positive aspect of something which is being ignored,disregarded or overlooked. People may be able to see only the negative side of something, so that it becomes necessary to highlight the positive side. A positive criticism may also be a type of self justification
or self-defense. The term "positive criticism" is also used in the sense that the criticism is "well­meant" or "well-intentioned" ("I mean it in a positive way") ­ here,it is emphasized the criticism is intended to serve a purpose which is constructive, or which the targeted person would approve of.

Negative criticism:

Negative criticism means voicing an objection to something, only with the purpose of showing that it is wrong, false, mistaken, nonsensical, objectionable, or disreputable. Generally, it suggests disapproval of something, or disagreement with something ­ it emphasizes the downsides of something. Negative criticism is also often interpreted as an attack against a person (ad hominem). That may not have been the intention,but it can be interpreted that way. Negative criticism can have the effect that the people criticized feel attacked or insulted by it, so that they
either do not take it seriously, or react badly to it. Much often depends on how much negative criticism there is, and how much criticism is transmitted at once. People can handle some negative criticism, but they may not be able to handle a whole lot of negative criticism, at least not all at once.

Constructive criticism
Constructive criticism aims to show that the intent or purpose of something is better served by an alternative approach. In this case, making the criticism is not necessarily deemed wrong, and its purpose is respected; rather, it is claimed that the same goal could be better achieved via a different route. Constructive criticisms are often suggestions for improvement – how things could be done better or more acceptably.They draw attention to how an identified problem could be solved, or how it could be solved better.

Archetypal Criticism:

About Northrop Fry:

Northrop Fry was born in Canada in 1921 and studied at Toronto University and
Merton College, Oxford University. Initially he was a student of Theology and then he switched over to literature defined an archetype as a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole.He published his first book, ‘Fearful Symmetry: A study of William Blake’ in 1947. The book is a highly original study of the poetry of Blake and it is considered a classic critical work. Northrop Frye rose to international prominence with the publication of ‘Anatomy of Criticism’ in 1957 and it firmly established him as one of the most
brilliant, original and influential of modern critics. Frye died in 1991. On the whole, he wrote about twenty books on western literature, culture, myth, archetypal theory, religion and social thought. ‘The Fables of Identity: Studies in poetic Mythology’ is a critical work published in 1963.

Three parts of archetypal criticism:

In the essay Frye critically analyses literature against the backdrop of rituals and myths. He interprets  literature in the light of various rituals and myths. Frye has divided the essay into three parts. The first part deals with the concept of archetypal criticism. The second part throws light on the inductive method of analysis of a text. The third part focuses on the deductive method of analysis. All the methods full under structural criticism. Another way of thinking about archetypes is to imagine that in some way it is possible to plot the important aspects  of a story onto a graph.

what is Archetypal Criticism?

The answer of this is in literary criticism the term archetype suggests narrative designs, patterns of action, character types, themes and images which are known to a wide verity of works of literature also to myths, dreams and even social rituals. Carl G. Jung (1975­1961) says it the, “collective unconsciousness” of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, freams also in works of literature. Thus in literature it becomes an archetypal criticism. It is generally said that there are many practitioners of various types of archetypal criticism like G. Wilson Knight, Robert Graves, Philip wheelwright, Richard chase, Leslie fielder and tossup Campbell. They have emphasized on the events of mythical patterns in literature. They believe that myths are closest to the archetypal literature. Rather than the
writers who write only for the sake of their fame.

THE CONCEPT OF ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM:
Literature can be interpreted in as many ways as possible, and there are different
approaches to literature and one among them is the archetypal approach. The term
‘archetype’ means an original idea or pattern of something of which others are copies. Archetypal approach is the interpretation of a text in it, and these cultural patterns are based on the myths and rituals of race or nation or social group. The ‘collective consciousness’ is a major theory if Jung. according to Jung, civilized man ‘unconsciously’ preserves the ideas, concepts and values of life cherished by his distant forefathers, and such ideas are expressed in a society’s or race’s myths and rituals. Creative writers have used myths in their works and critics analyze text is called archetypal criticism. T.S.Eliot has used mythical patterns in his creative works and the wate land is a good example of it.

TWO TYPES OF CRITICISM AND THE HUMANITIES:

Like science literary criticism is also a systematized and organized body of
knowledge. Science dissects and analyses nature and facts. Similarly literary criticism analysis and interprets literature. Frye further says that literary criticism and it’s theirs and techniques can be taught, but literature cannot be taught rather it is to be felt and enjoyed. This kind of criticism will give only the background information about a work. A meaningless criticism will distract the reader from literature. Literature is a part of humanities and humanities include philosophy and history also. These two branches of knowledge provide a kind of pattern for understanding literature.

NORTHROP FRYE’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM

Frye has written ‘the Archetypes of literature’ in 1951 and then ‘Anatomy of criticism’ in 1957 which is his one of the well renowned works. In his book “Anatomy of criticism” Frye has covered most the archetypal approaches in the theory of literature and the practice of literature criticism.In his ‘Archetypes of literature’ Frye outlines a theory of the arts in general and literature in particular which would be developed more fully in his celebrated “Anatomy of criticism”
Frye’s project is to identify and classify the archetypes of literature. The four ‘mythos’ that we are dealing with like, comedy, romance, tragedy and irony or satire. Frye uses the season in his archetypal schema. Each season is attached with a literary genre, for example;
Comedy with spring,
Romance with summer,
Tragedy with autumn and
Satire or irony with winter.

Fry gives the context of a genre determines how a symbol and image is to be
interpreted. He gives five different views of different fields like, human, animal, vegetation, mineral and water.

ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM AS “A NEW POETICS”
For Frye this, ‘New poetics’ is to be found in the principal of the mythological
framework, which as come to be known as ‘Archetypal criticism’.
Essentially: “What criticism can do?”
According to Frye;
“Is awaken students to
Successive levels of awareness
Of the mythology that lies
Behind the ideology in which
Their society indoctrinates
Them”
Unlike Freud’s concept, myths are collective and communal and so bring a sense of  wholeness and togetherness to social life. People and the whole civilized have their own mythologies, but there may be the common Jung called ‘Archetypes’.
There are Frye’s four essays titled,

1. “Historical criticism”­ A theory of modes.
2. “Ethical criticism”­ A theory of symbols.
3. “Archetypal criticism”­ A theory of myths.

4. “Rhetorical criticism”­ A theory of genres.
From all these we are concerned with Frye’s “Archetypal criticism” which suggests a theory of myths. This third essay has possibility been Frye’s most identifying the four seasons with four main plots or “mythoi” as we have seen earlier.

Distance:

Richter explains that for Frye:

“Each generation rewrites The stories of the past in Ways that make sense for It, recycling a vast Tradition over the eyes.”

          Of the different approaches of literary criticism, Northrop Frye has
established the validity of the archetypal approach and its relevance in the
elucidation of a text. About mythology, as it is the third theory of the essay
‘Archetypal criticism’, Frye points out there are only a few species of myth though
there are an infinite numbers of individual myths. For example, these species or
archetypes of myths include

“Myths of creation, of fall,
Of exodus and migration of
The destruction, of the human
Race in the past or the future,
And of redemption.”

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