1)Link to the famous marxist aphorism that men make history,
but not under circumstances of their own choosing. We are subject to social
conditions first.
2)Economic basis of society of
society which gives birth to superstructure (dialectically) which in turn
conditions consciousness.
3)Intellectual life, Cultural life
and world view are all reflexes of the economic relations of Capitalism in
general. MATERIALISM
4)Material productive forces - this
is both the working class +industry +tendency toward overproduction inherent in
Capitalism. This equals conflict and ultimately crisis
5)Shift in economic foundations =
shift in consciousness - perhaps link to Williamson later. Also late capitalism
/commodity culture / Relational
Aesthetics vs. early capitalism / taylorism / heartfield
The
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
(CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham.
It was founded in 1963 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. Its object of
study was the then new field of cultural studies.
The
Centre was the locus for what became known as the Birmingham School of Cultural
Studies, or, more generally, British cultural studies. Birmingham School
theorists such as Stuart Hall emphasized the reciprocity in how cultural texts,
even mass-produced products are used, questioning the valorized division
between "producers" and "consumers" that was evident in
cultural theory such as that of Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School.
Handout:
Critical Positions on Popular Culture
‘In the social production of their life men enter into definite, necessary
relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of
production which corresponded to a definite stage of development of their material
productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the
economic structure of society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and
political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social
consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social,
political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men
that determines their being, but on the contrary it is their social being that
determines their consciousness.
At a certain stage in their development, the material production forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production, ...From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution.
With the change in economic foundation the whole immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic, in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.’
Marx, (1857) ‘Contribution to the critique of Political Economy’
‘[ The ruling class has ] to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, ...to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.’
Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology,
‘The working class...raw and half developed...long lain half hidden
amidst it’s poverty and squalor... now issuing from it’s hiding place to assert an Englishmans heaven born privilege to do a she likes, and beginning to perplex us by marching where it likes, meeting where it likes, breaking what it likes.
Matthew Arnold (1960) Culture & Anarchy
‘This form of compensation... is the very reverse of recreation, in that it tends,
not to strengthen and refresh and the addict for living, but to increase his unfitness by habituating him to weak evasions, to the refusal to face reality and all’
F.R.Leavis & Denys Thompson, (1977) Culture And Environment
‘Movies and radio need no longer to pretend to be art. The truth, that they are just business, is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. ... The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. ...The culture industry can pride itself on having energetically executed the previously clumsy transposition of art into the sphere of consumption, on making this a principle . ... film, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part ... all mass culture is identical.’
Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944) Dialectic of Enlightenment,
Richard Miles, 2012
richard.miles@leeds-art.ac.uk
At a certain stage in their development, the material production forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production, ...From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution.
With the change in economic foundation the whole immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic, in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.’
Marx, (1857) ‘Contribution to the critique of Political Economy’
‘[ The ruling class has ] to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, ...to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent them as the only rational, universally valid ones.’
Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology,
‘The working class...raw and half developed...long lain half hidden
amidst it’s poverty and squalor... now issuing from it’s hiding place to assert an Englishmans heaven born privilege to do a she likes, and beginning to perplex us by marching where it likes, meeting where it likes, breaking what it likes.
Matthew Arnold (1960) Culture & Anarchy
‘This form of compensation... is the very reverse of recreation, in that it tends,
not to strengthen and refresh and the addict for living, but to increase his unfitness by habituating him to weak evasions, to the refusal to face reality and all’
F.R.Leavis & Denys Thompson, (1977) Culture And Environment
‘Movies and radio need no longer to pretend to be art. The truth, that they are just business, is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. ... The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. ...The culture industry can pride itself on having energetically executed the previously clumsy transposition of art into the sphere of consumption, on making this a principle . ... film, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part ... all mass culture is identical.’
Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944) Dialectic of Enlightenment,
Richard Miles, 2012
richard.miles@leeds-art.ac.uk
Critical Positions on Popular Culture
‘The irresistible output of the entertainment and information
Industry carry with them prescribed attitudes and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers more or less pleasantly to the producers and, through the latter, to the whole. The products indoctrinate and manipulate; they promote a false consciousness which is immune against its falsehood. ... it becomes a way of life. It is a good way of life – much better than before – and as a good way of life, it militates against qualitative change. Thus emerges a pattern of one dimensional thought and behaviour in which ideas, aspirations, and objectives that, by their content, transcend the established universe of discourse and action are either repelled or reduced to terms of this universe.’
Herbert Marcuse, (1968) One Dimensional Man
‘One might generalise by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many
reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own
situation, it reactivates the objects produced. These two processes lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition... Their most powerful agent is film. Its social significance, particularly in its most positive form, is inconceivable without its destructive, cathartic aspect, that is, the liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage’
Walter Benjamin (1936) The Work of Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
[...] in our society, where the real distinctions between people are created by their role in the process of production, as workers, it is the products of their own work that are used, in the false categories invoked by advertising, to obscure the real structure of society by replacing class with the distinctions made by the consumptions of goods.
Thus, instead of being identified by what they produce, people are made to identify themselves by what they consume. From this arises the false assumption that workers ‘with two cars and a colour TV’ are not part of
working class. We are made to feel that we can rise or fall in society through what we are able to buy, and this obscures the actual class basis which still underlies social position.
The fundamental differences in our society are class differences, but the use of manufactured goods as means of creating classes or groups forms an overlay on them.
Judith Williamson (1978) ‘Decoding Advertisements’
‘Youth cultural styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges, but they must end by establishing new conventions; by creating new commodities, new industries, or rejuvenating old ones’
Hebdige, D (1979) ‘Subcluture: The Meaning of Style’
Industry carry with them prescribed attitudes and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers more or less pleasantly to the producers and, through the latter, to the whole. The products indoctrinate and manipulate; they promote a false consciousness which is immune against its falsehood. ... it becomes a way of life. It is a good way of life – much better than before – and as a good way of life, it militates against qualitative change. Thus emerges a pattern of one dimensional thought and behaviour in which ideas, aspirations, and objectives that, by their content, transcend the established universe of discourse and action are either repelled or reduced to terms of this universe.’
Herbert Marcuse, (1968) One Dimensional Man
‘One might generalise by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many
reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own
situation, it reactivates the objects produced. These two processes lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition... Their most powerful agent is film. Its social significance, particularly in its most positive form, is inconceivable without its destructive, cathartic aspect, that is, the liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage’
Walter Benjamin (1936) The Work of Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
[...] in our society, where the real distinctions between people are created by their role in the process of production, as workers, it is the products of their own work that are used, in the false categories invoked by advertising, to obscure the real structure of society by replacing class with the distinctions made by the consumptions of goods.
Thus, instead of being identified by what they produce, people are made to identify themselves by what they consume. From this arises the false assumption that workers ‘with two cars and a colour TV’ are not part of
working class. We are made to feel that we can rise or fall in society through what we are able to buy, and this obscures the actual class basis which still underlies social position.
The fundamental differences in our society are class differences, but the use of manufactured goods as means of creating classes or groups forms an overlay on them.
Judith Williamson (1978) ‘Decoding Advertisements’
‘Youth cultural styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges, but they must end by establishing new conventions; by creating new commodities, new industries, or rejuvenating old ones’
Hebdige, D (1979) ‘Subcluture: The Meaning of Style’
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