UNIT- III:

Media & Popular Culture- Commodities, Culture and Subculture;

Popular texts: Popular Discrimination; Politics & Popular Culture;
Popular Culture Vs People's Culture; Acquisition & transformation
of popular culture; Celebrity Culture- Film Industry; Personality &
Brand Management; Hero-worship & etc.; Film, Television & Visual
Culture; Advertising & Commercial Culture; Literacy & Media
Literacy; Importance of Media Literacy; Youth, Television &
Socialization

Media & Popular Culture- Commodities,

An important consideration in any discussion of media

and culture is the concept of popular culture. If culture
is the expressed and shared values, attitudes, beliefs,
and practices of a social group, organization, or
institution, then what is popular culture? Popular
culture is the media, products, and attitudes
considered to be part of the mainstream of a given
culture and the everyday life of common people. It is
often distinct from more formal conceptions of culture
that take into account moral, social, religious beliefs and
values, such as our earlier definition of culture. It is also
distinct from what some consider elite or high culture.

popular culture is usually our first exposure to other cultures.

A lens for viewing other cultural groups.
Culture:

The term ‘culture’ refers to the complex collection of knowledge,

folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes,
beliefs and customs that link and give a common identity to a
particular group of people at a speci ic point in time.
● Ethnic Culture: The term ‘Ethnic culture’ refers to the
characteristics of a people, sharing a common and
distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic or cultural
heritage (For example, the Toda peoples are known as the
son of the land in Nilgiris; live in a speci ic territory, speak
their own language and have a social organization distinct
from other groups living in that region).
● Social Culture: All social units develop a culture, even in
two-person relationships, a culture is developed, for
example in friendship and romantic relationships, the
partners develop their own language patterns, rituals, habits
and customs that give the relationship a special character,
which differentiates it in various ways from other
relationships.
● Group Culture: When a group traditionally meets, whether
the meetings begin on time or not, what topics are
discussed, how decisions are made and how the group
socializes are the elements that de ine and differentiate
group culture. A group that shares a geographic region, a
sense of identity and a culture is called a society.

Culture: Culture can be defined as the ways of life of the people in a

particular society.

Subculture: Subculture refers to the ways of life that exist within

the main culture.

Any group that exists within dominant, mainstream culture… “a

world within a world.”

A text is any media product we wish to examine, whether it

is a television program, a book, a poster, a popular song, the
latest fashion, etc.

Types of Culture:

The culture can be divided into three different types; they are;
● High Culture: High Culture is linked with the elite,
upper class society are families and individuals with a
recognized status. It is often associated with the arts
such as opera, ballet and classical music, sports such
as polo and race and leisure hobbies such as hunting
and shooting. High culture is associated with a small
elite in society not allowing entry to ‘outsiders’ by
maintaining its elite and exclusive position.
● SubCulture: Subculture is a culture enjoyed by a small
group within society. In this sense it is a minority part
of majority culture. They have distinct norms and
values which make them a sub-section of society.
● Popular Culture: Popular Culture suggests that it
borrows the idea from high culture and popularized it
by making it available for the masses. Therefore, it is
portrayed to be a product of the media dominated
world; that it is a positive force because it brings
 people of different backgrounds together in a common
culture.
● Global Culture: Globalization is the process by which
events in one part of the world come to in luence what
happens elsewhere in the world. They have become
interconnected; socially, politically and economically. A
global culture is a key feature of globalization; they
emerged due to patterns of migration, trends in
international travel and the spread of the media,
exposing people to the same images of the same
dominant world.

Media & Popular Culture:

Cultural texts are those objects, actions and behaviors that reveal
cultural meanings. A photo is an image, but is also a cultural
text, a picture with cultural information beyond just the picture
itself. Food and clothing also suggest cultural information and it
doesn’t stop there. The entire place and space, all of the people
and interaction, all of the rituals and rules and the various forms
in which they manifest themselves, are ‘readable’ texts, suitable
for observation and analysis.

The difference between a relevant cultural text and an irrelevant

cultural text has to do with the meaning transferred to that text
by the people who create or use the text. Before determining
whether a cultural text has particular relevance, you need to
know and understand how to identify and analyze a cultural text.
Identi ication of a cultural text is relatively easy. For example,
when looking around the class room or a place and brie ly
cataloging the people or the things then the objects like tables,
chairs or desks, lighting, black board and the student’s actions
are cultural texts. In other words, the space and objects within
‘readable’ are cultural texts.

An important consideration in any discussion of media and

culture is the concept of popular culture. The culture is
expressed and shared values, attitudes, beliefs and practices of a
social group, organization or institution.

Popular culture is the media, products and attitudes considered

to be part of the mainstream of a given culture and the everyday
life of common people. It is often distinct from more formal
conceptions of culture that take into account moral, social,
religious beliefs and values of culture. It is also distinct from
what some consider elite or high culture.

Popular Discrimination:

Everywhere in society there are differences in wealth, power and

status. Some groups have higher status and greater privilege than
others. This inequality in the system is what is called social
strati ication. In this unequal social system, there is often unfair
treatment directed against certain individuals or social
groups, which is referred as discrimination.
 Discrimination can be based on many different characteristics
like age, gender, weight, ethnicity, religion or even politics. For
example, prejudice and discrimination based on race is called
racism. Oftentimes, gender prejudice or discrimination is
referred to as sexism. Discrimination is often the outcome of
prejudice, a pre-formed negative judgment or attitude. Prejudice
leads people to view certain individuals or groups as inferior.

Popular discrimination is different from critical or aesthetic

discrimination. Popular discrimination stresses functionality
over quality. Popular culture exists on the boundary of everyday
life and capitalism or even imperialism. If a text can be
appropriated for use in common social situations then it is
relevant. The reader constructs the relevance and may internally
produce a meaning beyond the economic intention of the text or
should even co-construct a meaning in a social context.

Popular culture de initely contains the kinds of artistic truths

that intellectual art does, but that it is decoded through the
societal needs and experiences of the reader or viewer. The vast
majority of popular entertainment does not succeed and fails to
ind an audience.

Politics Vs Popular Culture:

Politicians need to care about popular culture because it is one

of the common bonds that tie increasingly segmented people
together, whether live in an urban or rural environment, are
aware of popular culture and a politician who can skillfully
navigate the use of pop culture references and appearances in
pop culture venues can increase his appeal to the Indian public.
For example, Narendra Modi the Indian Prime Minister has been
quite skillful in using pop culture in three different ways. First,
he is con ident in the language of pop culture and makes easy
references to his Social Media viewing habits, which the media
eagerly and lovingly report. Second, he makes appearances on
soft media interviews, where he reaches out to targeted sections
of the voters and also avoids annoying questions. Third, he uses
leading celebrities to campaign for him and to raise money for
him.

People’s Culture
A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors,
beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without
thinking about them, and that are passed along by
communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
Culture is symbolic communication.

Acquisition & Transformation of Popular Culture:

The individual is in the center of a complex system of

interaction with its immediate surroundings: the culture that she
or he lives in. The infant gets like this born into a set of
relationships, in its early years consisting of its family
members. Through them it experiences the culture of the family;
the cultural attitudes, behaviors, norms and values that
dominate the process of educating the early infant. In turn, these
values represent the cultures of the parents and their parents in
modi ication and adaptation to the current situation. This notion
is particularly important for the emergence of similar cultural
attitudes in cases of diaspora identities.
With an increase in age, the individual increases its relationship
to outside the family, including the school, later the university
or work place and the peer-group. The individual also enters the
wider in luence area of the media and slowly the area of
political and social in luence and learns from those experiences.
The two areas of in luence can be, relatively, distinct: the family
and the immediate social surroundings and equally the
social-economical-political surrounding.

While the family surroundings, and their in luence on the child

while developing its identity are highly personal, the social
reality (that is the general social, economic and political
environment) can be subject to intensive investigation, and
abstraction, as those phenomena can be more directly
generalized.

The acquisition of culture can identify two main areas: the

family and immediate social surroundings, and the social
reality. Changes in these surroundings will be re lected in the
cultural attributes of the individuals involved; depending on the
amount of individuals involved the changes can mean a change
in entire groups: changes in the political system, for example,
represent such a fundamental change.

The world is in continuous change, with the advancement of

technology, and changes in the political and economical
structure the changes have become a continuum with great
speed. For many, cultural adaptation has become part of
everyday life.
 Media & Cultural Imperialism:

Cultural imperialism is the domination of one culture over

another. Cultural imperialism can take the form of a general
attitude or an active, formal and deliberate policy, including
military action. Economic or technological factors may also play
a key role. Increasingly the major media players are
multinational companies with interests across the globe.

This has an important implication for the way Western

television and ilm companies can have an impact on the
cultures of developing countries. The media also constitute a
potential tool for control by dominant Western cultures over
those of developing countries. The Western way of life and its
economic and political systems can be imposed on other
societies as its lifestyles are sold through media products such
as ilms and television.

Hollywood is a good example of cultural imperialism to the

extent that even developed countries like France and the UK go to
great lengths to ensure their own ilm industries remain strong.
In fact, cultural imperialism is a very old phenomenon. For
centuries, countries imposed their cultural values on other
nations. Today, as a global economic and political power, the
United States is inevitably intruding into the cultures of other
countries of the world. Some believe that the American spread of
culture is bene icial to the entire planet, while others consider
this cultural imperialism a threat.
Celebrity Culture:

The celebrity culture refers to the culture of popularizing certain

people who have certain attributes that society deem
exceptional. That is, celebrity culture is a symbiotic business
relationship from which performers obtain wealth, honors and
social power in exchange for selling a sense of intimacy to
audiences.

A few hundred years ago there would only be a handful of

people that the general public would recognize. Jesus, Cleopatra,
Hercules, Alexander the Great and Captain Cook would have been
the rare few that were glori ied for their virtues, talents or royal
lineage. The modern celebrity culture was created in the 1920s
when socialites, athletes, singers and movie stars began to
dominate our cultural landscape.

As they are constantly in the media, they have become role

models for adolescents and teenagers. Interest in celebrities
makes for a multibillion dollar business in celeb sites. This has
raised a number of issues, many of them controversial and
causes major debates concerning the in luence of these famed
people.

Celebrity Culture- Film Industry:

The Indian movie industry is based two major cities Mumbai

and Chennai, popularly known as ‘Bollywood’ and ‘Kollywood’,
has in luenced daily life and culture in India for
decades now. In fact, movies are the mainstay of entertainment
and almost a religion in the nation.

Indian cinema has for long used a deep in luence on popular

Indian fashion. Any out it adorned by an actor or actress in a hit
movie immediately becomes a prime trend for tailors to
reproduce. The ready-made industry manufactures these clothes
in bulk and the designs are named after the character or movie.

Indian ilm musicals are full of song and dance and Indian ilm
dancing is very popular among girls in India who are keen to
learn this art more than any classical dance. In India, movie
actors have fans that form clubs in their honor, imitate their
looks and style, and are not shy to loosen their purse to buy
products their favorite star endorses.

Celebrity Culture- Personality:

Entertainment and sports celebrities in luence the business and

culture in many ways and a celebrity’s image no doubt helps to
enhance the commercial value of commodities with which he or
she is associated. However, commercial exploitation of the
image without the subject’s permission can lead to
misappropriation of a celebrity’s personality and commercially
valuable reputation.

The concept of publicity rights is based on the idea that every

individual should have control over the commercialization of
his or her personality. It is generally accepted that celebrities
 invest a great deal of hard work in acquiring their status and are
entitled to harvest the rewards. On the other hand, a free press
must be able to publish pictures of and information about
celebrities.

Celebrity Culture- Brand Management:

Celebrity endorsement is a big market in India and continues to

grow bigger. However, in spite of prevalent use of celebrities for
endorsement, not all celebrity endorsements have been
successful. Endorsement by celebrities is not a new
phenomenon, however today celebrity endorsement has become
one of the most popular forms of advertising including in the
non-pro it sector.

The current popularity of celebrity endorsements can be

attributed to the numerous bene its companies have seen by
utilizing this form of advertisement. In today’s media cluttered
environment where it is dif icult to grab consumer’s attention,
marketing managers are looking for celebrities to gather
attention and mileage, giving companies a better chance of
communicating their message to consumers.

While the use of celebrities in advertising is a global

phenomenon, its high incidence in India can have explanations
emanating from the power distance dimension of culture. A
culture of high power distance signi ies inequality in the society.
The existence of class and caste manifests the inequalities in
this dimension. Often this larger than life status leads the
celebrities to hold command over not only their area
of expertise but over a range of other areas as well. As a result,
the celebrity is not seen as an expert in one area only but one
can associate these celebrities with multiple domains.

Celebrity Culture- Hero worship:

India has the habit of idolizing people. This comes from the
ancient times which made common people into ‘devas’ or gods,
be it Rama or Krishna. Since childhood, Indians were taught
about Rama, Krishna and then about Gandhiji, Nehru and then
we saw Sachin, Salman khan, etc. and now have Modi. The
festivals, the actions, the habits are all woven around a set of
heroes.

Children are compared with heroes like ‘you look like Shahrukh’,
‘you catch the bat like Sachin’, etc. Even the children are asked to
de ine their future in terms of heroes. Indians have a habit of
living life through stories be it the two great epics or the latest
movies. Thus Indians are indirectly socialized to worship the
heroes. Though this habit is found in all societies to some
degree, the Indians try to overdo it.

For the often uneducated and isolated masses anyone who

brings them joy and a sense of wonder are revered as gods
themselves, popular examples being Sachin Tendulkar,
Rajnikanth and even Narendra Modi. The problem with hero
worship is that it usually translates to having blind faith in a
person and treating them as a superior being. This attitude is
regressive, as it discriminates between people and renders the
majority less important and hopeless.

Film, Television & Visual Culture

The Visual Analysis of the Film We can see that the invention of
photography as the irst wave of visual culture is also the basis and direct
cause of ilm production. It is regarded as the second wave of modern visual
culture. The tide logo is directly the ilm itself; the real sense of the rise of
the visual culture era and the ilm is also based on the emergence of
high-tech computer digital technology. Therefore, the two are generated in
the time dimension and are basically the same, there is a development in
the development of the relationship between each other. The development
of the ilm enriched the visual culture research, and the rise of the visual
culture also had a profound impact on the ilm. On the other hand, the
visualization of contemporary society has shown a trend of intensi ication.
The advent of the "reading time", the all-pervasive culture, the super-scale
development of the network culture, and even the aesthetic enjoyment of
daily life, this era is already a real visual society. Among them, the "image"
as the core of the ilm and television art has replaced the novel and other
literary form of art as the current visual culture era of decent art, its appeal
to the public more than any 'language' as the center of the art

Question Bank
Popular Culture
Part A:

1. Culture
2. Ethnic Culture
Part B
3. Social Culture
4. Group Culture
5. High Culture
6. Subculture
 9. Celebrity Culture
7. Global Culture 10. Hero worship
8. Cultural Imperialism 11. Fans Club
12. Celebrity endorsement

1. Explain culture and its types with examples.

2. Discuss the role of media in building popular culture.
3. Give a detailed note on media discrimination in popular culture.
4. Discuss the role of politics in popular culture.
5. Explain the process of acquisition and transformation of
popular culture.
6. Discuss the role of the media in cultural imperialism.
7. Write a note on the impact of celebrity culture in the ilm
industry.
8. Discuss the importance of personality in celebrity culture.
9. Discuss the brand management involved in celebrity culture.
10. Give a detailed note on hero worship in India with examples.

******
 UNIT- IV:
Psychoanalysis- de inition & concept; psychoanalytic techniques;
Psychoanalytic process; Feminism- de inition & concept; historical
& Characteristics of Feminism; Modernism- de inition & concept;
Modern & Modernity; Historical & Characteristics of Modernism;
Modernism Vs Postmodernism; Marxism- de inition & concept;
history of Marx’s theory; Criticisms of Marx’s Theory; Marx’s
Understanding of Globalization.

Media Text:

Most people experience the media as consumers, solely through

various forms of output, the end result of media production.
That is, reading newspapers, magazines and comics, watching
ilms and TV shows, listening to the radio and music, as well as
using the internet and playing computer games. At the same
time, one experience a range of media products in a variety of
places like a pop song can appear on the radio, as a soundtrack
to a ilm or in the background of a TV show can distinguish
between ways of labeling media output, by considering the
following three-tiered structure:
● First, the output of the media has a physical form as an
artifact. Media artifacts include DVD discs, tabloid sized
newspapers, reels of celluloid ilm, hard copy photographs
or even the digital signals that comprise a downloadable
song by any music band. These are all physical forms.
● Secondly, there is the economic value embodied in media
output, in terms of commodity status. Here referred to the
cost and price that is put on media production and
 media products like the cost of a cinema ticket, which adds
to the revenue of a ilm alongside DVD rentals and sales, for
example.
● Thirdly, can consider media output as a site for the
generation of meaning value: what media output says and
how it says it, and what meanings it has for the individuals
and social beings. Meaning here refers to the ways in which
are affected psychologically, emotionally, culturally,
physically and intellectually by media output; the way in
which it entertains, stimulates, informs or gives pleasure,
shock or food for thought.

Media Interpretation:

When studying texts, I am interested in asking questions about

meaning rather than the physical results of production,
distribution and consumption or the way that output is
produced, marketed and sold as a commodity de ined by its
economic status.

Here, the use of the term ‘text’, as distinct from ‘artifact’ and
‘commodity’, displays the debt owed by the ield of media
studies to English literature. In literary studies, texts are books,
poems or plays, which are read and analyzed in terms of the
meanings derived from the selection and deployment of words
alone. Typeface, cover images, quality of paper, publisher and
price are rarely, if ever, invoked as having any pertinence to the
thrust of a narrative, meter or structure in the act of
interpretation.
 Making sense of textual meaning appears to be a very simple
matter to understand the meaning of media output as text.

Psychoanalysis:

Psychoanalysis is a study of mental analysis, which deals with

special devices. That is, the study of normal and abnormal
activities through speci ic methods like the study of dreams,
psychopathological actions, illusion, imagination and
supernatural attacks in the abnormal area.

Sociological:

Sociology is the study of human social relationships and

institutions. Sociology’s subject matter is diverse, ranging from
crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the divisions
of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common
culture and from social stability to radical change in whole
societies. Unifying the study of these diverse subjects is
sociology’s purpose of understanding how human action and
consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding
cultural and social structures.

Feminism:

Feminism is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality

and equity based on gender, gender expression, gender identity,
sex and sexuality as understood through social theories and
political activism. Historically, feminism
 has evolved from the critical examination of inequality between
the sexes to a more nuanced focus on the social and
performative constructions of gender and sexuality.

Marxism:

Marxism is an economic and social system based upon the

political and economic theories of Karl Marx. Marxism is the
antithesis of capitalism which is de ined as an economic system
based on the private ownership of the means of production and
distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive
market and motivation by pro it. Marxism is the system of
socialism of which the dominant feature is public ownership of
the means of production, distribution and exchange.

Modernism:

Modernism is notoriously dif icult to de ine clearly because the

term encompasses a variety of speci ic artistic and
philosophical movements including symbolism, futurism,
surrealism, expressionism and others. The dates of the
Modernist movement are sometimes dif icult to determine. The
beginning of the 20th century is an extremely convenient
starting point.

Aesthetics:

Aesthetics may be de ined narrowly as the theory of beauty or

more broadly as that together with the philosophy of art.
Traditionally, the philosophy of art concentrated on its
de inition, but recently this has not been the focus, with careful
analysis of aspects of art largely replacing it. Philosophical
aesthetics is here considered to center on these latter-day
developments.

Psychoanalysis:

Psychoanalysis is a study of mental analysis, which deals with

special devices. That is, the study of normal and abnormal
activities through speci ic methods like the study of dreams,
psychopathological actions, illusion, imagination and
supernatural attacks in the abnormal area.

Psychoanalysis was originally developed by Sigmund Freud,

who studied the average cases of mental diseases.
Psychoanalysis assigns three basic concepts.
● The central concept is that of the unconscious (unaware),
storage within one’s mental state which contains elements
and experiences of his unawareness, which may be brought
into preconscious and conscious awareness of behavior.
● The second basic concept is that of resistance (con lict), a
process by which unconscious elements are effectively kept
out of the conscious awareness by an active controlling
force.
● Third basic concept is known as transference
(transmission), which was worked on by Freud. He
transferred his patients with their past relationships with
 others so that their relationship with Freud was shaded with
previous feelings.

Psychoanalytic Techniques:

Psychoanalysis is involved in discovery of the unconscious

mind in order to cure. In this respect, it applies speci ic
techniques or methods, which were developed by Sigmund
Freud, who is also called as ‘the father of psychoanalysis’.
● Anamnesis: Anamnesis (medical history) is similar to the
practice of general medicine. The interpretation of the
biographic events during the psychoanalytical cure may
settle the neurotic frame of the individual's
psychopathology.
● Free Associations Method: Free association is a technique
used in both psychoanalysis and
psychotherapy, which was devised by Sigmund Freud as an
alternative to hypnosis. This method is believed in helping
to face the stored thoughts and feelings so that the patient
can combine and work through them in their day-to-day life.
● Freudian Slips and Mistakes: This is a remarkable
contribution of Freud to the discovery of the unconscious. A
Freudian slip is a verbal or memory mistake that is believed
to be linked to the unconscious mind. Common examples
include an individual calling his or her spouse by an ex’s
name, saying the wrong word or even misinterpreting a
written or spoken word. Freud is the irst scientist to
identify the importance of faulty acts (out
 of order acts), starting from the basis of all our psychic
processes.
● Analysis/Interpretation of Dreams: By the most
important psychoanalytic technique, dream understanding
is considered by Freud as a unique way to access the
unconscious.
● Analysis/Interpretation of Symbols: Symbols occur in
dreams, fantasies, fairy tales and other products, and may
be understood in the same way as dreams. Freud claims
that most of such symbols are sexual.

Psychoanalytic Process:

Psychoanalysis is a unique and serious form of psychotherapy

(mind treatment) that supports personal development and helps
in relieving from unsatisfying or painful forms of living.

In achieving this, the individual under study (treatment) and the

psychiatrist must work together in close collaboration, who
gives careful attention to the unity between the personal and
interpersonal experience of past and present of body and mind,
which are used to study the in-depth action of personal
transformation.
● The process of psychoanalysis depends on the
establishment of a safe, con idential relationship with the
psychiatrist. Patients and psychiatrists work together to
grab the meaning of the patient’s experience through
emotional reactions, thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams,
images and feelings.
 ● People look to psychoanalysis for many reasons, few
people expect for self-understanding and achievement in
their personal lives, some may feel the painful patterns that
prevent them from happy feeling, connecting with others or
inding meaning in their lives, and others want help from
speci ic emotional dif iculties like depression.
● Psychoanalysts are generally certi ied mental health
professionals such as psychologists, social workers or
psychiatrists. These professionals have training and
experience as therapists before beginning their
psychoanalytic training.
● Psychoanalysis is not only a form of individual therapy
(treatment); it is a system of theories and method for
learning about the human mind, for example, child
development like child abuse, violence, drug abuse and
social separation.

Feminism:

The term ‘feminism’ has many different uses and its meanings
are repeatedly challenged. For example, few writers use the term
‘feminism’ as a political movement in the US and Europe; others
refer to injustices against women, where there is no exact record
of these injustices.

Historical Context of Feminism:

In the mid of 1800’s the term ‘feminism’ was used to refer ‘the
qualities of females’, until the First International Women’s
 Conference held at Paris in 1892. Feminism is a French term
féministe, used to support equal rights for women based on the
idea of equality among the sexes.

Some feminists trace the origin of the term ‘feminism’ as the

movement in Europe and the US beginning with the draft for
‘right to vote’ during the late 19th century, which is referred to as
the ‘First Wave’ feminism movement.

History often shows that the feminist movement which was

weakened during the two world wars and was revived during the
1960s was marked as ‘Second Wave’ feminism movement. The
recent transformation of feminism is referred to as the ‘Third
Wave’ feminism movement.

However, most feminist scholars identify that particular

moments of political activism that darkened women rights and
disagreement to male domination is considered ‘feminist’.
Although feminists would likely agree with the sense of ‘rights’,
most argue that achieving equal rights for women is not
suf icient for the success of feminism. This is because women’s
suppression under male domination restricts women from
political and legal ‘rights’ that extends into the structure of our
society, content of our culture and saturates our consciousness.

Characteristics of Feminism:

In an attempt to suggest an explanation for feminism, the

characteristics are as follows:
● Feminism is ixed with a belief that women are exploited by
comparison with men and their domination is illegal or
unjusti ied.
● Feminists are those who believe that women are entitled to
equal rights or equal respect and one is not required to
believe that women are currently being treated partially.
● The term ‘feminism’ would lose connection when the
commitments extend beyond their moral beliefs to their
social understanding and political relation.
● Feminists are not simply those who are committed in
principle to justice for women; feminists take themselves to
have reasons to bring about social change on women’s
behalf.
● Taking ‘feminism’ demand on normative and practical
guarantee helps to make some useful sense in the term
‘feminism’ in recent discussion. In everyday conversation it
is not uncommon to ind both men and women pre ixing a
comment they might make about women with the
quali ication.
● As mentioned above, there is considerable debate within
feminism concerning the normative question: what would
count as justice for women? What is the nature of the wrong
that feminism seeks to address? Example is it wrong that
women have been deprived of equal rights? Is it that women
have been denied equal respect for their differences? Is it
that women's experiences have been ignored and devalued?
Is it all of the above and more? What framework should we
employ to identify and address the issues?
 ● However by phrasing the task as one of identifying the
wrongs women suffer, there is an implicit suggestion that
women as a group can be usefully compared against men as
a group with respect to their standing or position in society;
and this seems to suggest that women as a group are treated
in the same way, or that they all suffer the same injustices,
and men as a group all reap the same advantages.
● Women as a group experience many different forms of
injustice, and the sexism they encounter interacts in
complex ways with other systems of oppression. In
contemporary terms, this is known as the problem of
inter-sectionalist.

Modernism:

Modernism approaches the aesthetic movement and generally

mentions ‘modernism’. This movement is roughly associated
with twentieth century Western ideas about art. Modernism
probably knows, is the movement in visual arts, music,
literature and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards
of how art should be made, consumed and what it should mean.

History of Modernity:

The period of modernity started in the sixteenth century, the

time of the Renaissance and the emergence of capitalism. The
world of scienti ic discoveries and commerce slowly took over
 the world from the past. The philosophical movement of
modernism arose in the time of the Enlightenment where the
belief in universal human progress and the power of scienti ic
reasoning became important.

The philosophers were claimed to be rational and were

searching for universal laws. The modern way of thinking
developed during the industrial revolution. At the end of the
industrial revolution the modern way of thinking was widely
accepted.

Characteristics of Modernism:

From a literary perspective, the main characteristics of

modernism include:
1. An emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing,
and in visual arts as well. An emphasis on ‘how’ seeing or
reading takes place, rather than on ‘what’ is perceived.
2. A movement away from the clear objectivity provided by
omniscient third-person narrators, ixed narrative points of
view, and clear-cut moral positions.
3. A blurring of distinctions between genres, so that poetry
seems more documentaries and prose seems more poetic.
4. An emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous
narratives, and random-seeming collages of different
materials.
5. A tendency toward re lexivity, or self-consciousness, about
the production of the work of art, so that each piece
 calls attention to its own status as a production, as
something constructed and consumed in particular ways.
6. A rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favor of simple
designs and a rejection, in large part, of formal aesthetic
theories, in favor of naturalness and discovery in creation.
7. A rejection of the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ or
popular culture, both in choice of materials used to produce
art and in methods of displaying, distributing, and
consuming art.

Modern & Modernity:

● Modern: Modern derived from the Latin word ‘modo’

means ‘of today or what is current’. As expected it has
always been used to differentiate the contemporary from the
past. Modern societies rely on frequently establishing a
dual opposition between ‘order’ and ‘disorder’, so that they
can claim the superiority of ‘order’.
● Modernity: Modernity refers to the new civilization
developed in Europe and North America several centuries
before but fully noticed during the twentieth century.
Modernity is fundamentally about rationality or
rationalization created out of confusion.

Modernism Vs Postmodernism:

There are many differences between the modern and the

postmodern way of thinking. The important differences are:
● In modernism the past is seen as something to forget. It is
behind us and now we must look forward and make
progress. A post-modernist sees the past as a multiple of
events which can’t be seen as one, because every event isn’t
the same as the other and these events also happened in
another time where the world was different.
● In modernism there wasn't a place for cultural diversity.
There is only one best culture and other cultures are
accepted, but are seen as low-grade. According to
postmodernists there isn’t a universal best culture, but there
is a best culture for each individual. Difference and
diversity are very important to postmodernists.
● Creativity, which is important for modernism won’t be
developed with the ixed patterns and structures modernists
are searching for. Postmodernists tend not to use these ixed
patterns and structures.
● Modernists see novelty and progress as a goal or objective,
what must be achieved. Postmodernists don’t see that as the
most important thing to reach.
● The modern way of thinking only consists of binary
categories. Postmodernists don’t think that there are only
two ways of thinking, for instance city and village. With
each dichotomy you can add another dimension. This is a
dimension of how a person sees the connection of the
dichotomy. Someone can think that there’s more between
the city and the village.
● The way of reading and understanding a text isn’t the same
as in modernism. In that way of thinking the interpretation
of a text is ixed. Every reader interprets a
 text the same, which means that every single word in a text
can have a thousand different meanings. Everyone has his
own interpretation of a word.

Marxism:

Marxism can be offered through two sets of ideas. They are:-

1. Marxism gives the theory of society that is an explanation of
how society works and describes what is going on in the
world (especially capitalism).
2. Marxism is also about political goals and action via violent
revolution and the establishment of a communist society
(extremely unsatisfactory against capitalism).

History of Marx’s theory:

In any historical era like feudalism, the inbuilt challenges or

class con licts come to a head in some sort of revolution and are
resolved when a new social order stabilizes.

History is therefore a function of material or economic

conditions. The relation between the types of productive
technology in use and the social relations or organization and
control of those forms of production is what has determined the
nature of primitive, slave, feudal and capitalist society, and what
has moved society from one to the other.

Marx thought his theory of history was a major achievement and

one of the two insights which established Marxism as a science.
However, this repeating cycle will come to an end.
 The thesis of capitalism and the antithesis of the proletariat will
issue into a synthesis which will eventually see the achievement
of a classless society.

Criticisms of Marx’s Theory:

Following are criticisms that are commonly made on Marx’s

theory:
● Too much importance is given to the economic factor in
explaining social order and change. Culture seemed to be
explained only as derived from the economic ‘substructure’.
However it has a degree of ‘autonomy’, for example it is
dif icult to explain the advent of gay liberation in terms of
productive or economic relations.
● Even if we get rid of capitalism we might still have huge
problems of con lict and domination in society. State
bureaucracies as well as capitalists can dominate.
● Marx’s theory of history is challenged by the fact that
industrialized countries have not moved closer to
revolution. The recent revolutions have been in peasant
societies, such as China.
● Many would say there are no laws of history and that Marx
was mistaken in thinking he had discovered the laws of
history, and in thinking that his theory was scienti ic.
● Marxists are willing to use the dictatorial state to run
society after the revolution and to be ruthless in this. This
is extremely dangerous; those in control can’t be trusted
 and are very likely to become an entrenched dictatorship,
for example Stalinism.
● Many rebels would also reject Marx’s theory of how
capitalism can or will be replaced, which involves tackling
capitalism, class con lict, seizing the state and taking power
from the capitalist class, and destroying capitalism, a
process which will probably involve violence.
● Marxist ideas on how to change society are also strongly
criticized by the revolutionists. Marxists thought capitalism
must be fought and overthrown through violent revolution,
because the capitalist classes will never voluntarily give up
any of its privileges.

Marx’s Understand of Globalization:

The development of the world economy in the last 20 years

would seem to further illustrate the value of the Marxist
approach to analyzing society. Around 1970 capitalists
experienced great dif iculty inding pro itable investment outlets
for all the capital they are constantly accumulating. This has
increased the huge push for globalization that is the move
towards a uni ied global economy in which there is great
freedom for market forces, because this gives capitalists more
opportunities for pro itable investment.

The big corporations and banks have much more freedom than
before to go where they wish and trade, invest and develop as
they wish. Previously there were many laws and regulations
restricting the entry of foreign investors, the
capacity of corporations to trade and the right of inancial
institutions to lend and move money around.

Globalization also involves privatization, that is governments

transferring public enterprises to corporations, thereby
increasing the amount of business for corporations to do.
Globalization makes clear the great con lict of interest between
capitalists and the rest. Globalization must be analyzed in terms
of winners and losers. The capitalist class has enjoyed
triumphant success; it is rapidly becoming richer and is
dramatically restructuring the world in its interests.

Question Bank

Part A:
10. Anamnesis
1. Media Text 11. Free Associations Method
3. Media Interpretation 12. Freudian Slips & Mistakes
4. Psychoanalysis 13. Interpretation of Dreams
5. Sociology 14. Interpretation of Symbols
6. Feminism 15. Modern
7. Marxism 16. Modernity
8. Modernism
9. Aesthetics

Part B

1. Give a detailed note on media text and media interpretation

with examples.
2. Discuss psychoanalysis and its techniques with examples.
3. List out the psychoanalytic process in detail with examples.
4. De ine feminism and trace the historical context of feminism.
5. List out the characteristics of feminism with examples.
6. Discuss modernity and its characteristics with examples.
7. Differentiate modernism and postmodernism with examples.
8. Discuss Marx’s theory and its criticisms with examples.
9. Give a detailed note on Marx’s understanding of
globalization with examples.

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