Monday, 18 March 2019
Thursday, 14 March 2019
Thinking activity on Sense of Ending
It1) How do you understand memory and history with reference to your reading of this novel.
At the end we come to know that memory has record something which is good or which we think it's a good and its preserved by us and when we think it's good about us then we preserve but one more thing is that memory is not perfect memory is in perfect so we cannot rely on some of the thing is perfectly clear in our mind in our memory also but something is not clear and after letter on its mixing so we cannot rely that what exactly happened in past
Same way we find in history that history is written by historian and its base on the someone's memory and its deal with the evidence but we can find that history is always problematic just because whenever that accident or event happened at that time how we remember then give interpretation or language used its depend upon that if that accident or event is good for us then we preserve different way but when that event or accident husband memory then we will do different kind of interpretation.
Example :- " Robson " suicide
:- " Adrian" suicide
Now how we remember this 2 suicide that's depend upon us this 2 is event and how we need them and how we remember that's become a history.
2) How do you understand the concept of suicide with reference to your reading of literature ranging from Renaissance play Hamlet, 20th cen Existentialist philosophy and this 21st cen novel The Sense of an Ending?
If we go with the religion then suicide is Immoral thing and if someone has done then that person not get some spiritual ceremony at the end of his life that's why that suicide is very bad corruption practice which has not play on religion base it's a crime.
Talking about Renaissance time play "Hamlet " 'the Prince Hamlet' never think about to die he survive just because you want to Saravan that's why and Hamlet also want to win Throne that's why maybe his " EROS" are so powerful that man has server.
Albert Camus (1913–1960) began his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus with the famous line "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide"
In the novel we find it to suicide was attempt , when robson and committed suicide, at that time people started knowing that that one person committed suicide and all the narration going with him after getting suicide till then no one knows him after that everyone know him so it's better than committed suicide and there is not a single connection with morality that concept has changed.
When "ADRIAN" committed suicide at that time Tony and his friend talking " that he was first in everything"
We can say that suicide is not cup of tea for people just because that's need more courage that's why.
Maybe we can say that suicide is final art and how we create that art is more important like we see in Adrian suicide that he make clear cut that after cutting his hand he made not server but death. So in that way we can say that if our all thing is completed there is nothing to you desire or wishes are full free then we can committed suicide it's our gift which we get accidentally and we can end this life and we give back to the nature now no need for this body and our life.
"Some example of suicide".
At the end we come to know that memory has record something which is good or which we think it's a good and its preserved by us and when we think it's good about us then we preserve but one more thing is that memory is not perfect memory is in perfect so we cannot rely on some of the thing is perfectly clear in our mind in our memory also but something is not clear and after letter on its mixing so we cannot rely that what exactly happened in past
Same way we find in history that history is written by historian and its base on the someone's memory and its deal with the evidence but we can find that history is always problematic just because whenever that accident or event happened at that time how we remember then give interpretation or language used its depend upon that if that accident or event is good for us then we preserve different way but when that event or accident husband memory then we will do different kind of interpretation.
Example :- " Robson " suicide
:- " Adrian" suicide
Now how we remember this 2 suicide that's depend upon us this 2 is event and how we need them and how we remember that's become a history.
2) How do you understand the concept of suicide with reference to your reading of literature ranging from Renaissance play Hamlet, 20th cen Existentialist philosophy and this 21st cen novel The Sense of an Ending?
If we go with the religion then suicide is Immoral thing and if someone has done then that person not get some spiritual ceremony at the end of his life that's why that suicide is very bad corruption practice which has not play on religion base it's a crime.
Talking about Renaissance time play "Hamlet " 'the Prince Hamlet' never think about to die he survive just because you want to Saravan that's why and Hamlet also want to win Throne that's why maybe his " EROS" are so powerful that man has server.
Albert Camus (1913–1960) began his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus with the famous line "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide"
In the novel we find it to suicide was attempt , when robson and committed suicide, at that time people started knowing that that one person committed suicide and all the narration going with him after getting suicide till then no one knows him after that everyone know him so it's better than committed suicide and there is not a single connection with morality that concept has changed.
When "ADRIAN" committed suicide at that time Tony and his friend talking " that he was first in everything"
We can say that suicide is not cup of tea for people just because that's need more courage that's why.
Maybe we can say that suicide is final art and how we create that art is more important like we see in Adrian suicide that he make clear cut that after cutting his hand he made not server but death. So in that way we can say that if our all thing is completed there is nothing to you desire or wishes are full free then we can committed suicide it's our gift which we get accidentally and we can end this life and we give back to the nature now no need for this body and our life.
"Some example of suicide".
Monday, 4 March 2019
Friday, 22 February 2019
Thinking activity on The Da Vinci Code
1)Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, though he is on a 'constant spiritual journey' himself, and says that his book The Da Vinci Code is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."
--> main median brown was right about his work that it's just work of literature .
Maybe Da Vinci talk about some of the darker side of Christianity but ,if you see novel try to explore the Christianity and related myth, as we all know that mythical story are never true it's just human beings imagination so maybe we can except that this work Da Vinci Code maybe just try to explore the darker side of Christianity and there is nothing wrong just because it's a literature. It's depend upon us that how we see and how we interpreter the work if we find some of the meaning then there is meaning if we think that it's the same work then there is no problem.
2) “Although it is obvious that much of what Brown presented in his novel as absolutely true and accurate is neither of those, some of that material is of course essential to the intrigue, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has retained the novel's core, the Grail-related material: the sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene's marriage, the Priory of Sion, certain aspects of Leonardo's art, and so on[1].” How far do you agree with this observation of Norris J. Lacy?
If we see biblical reference then we come to know that 4 out of only one gospel was talking about Meri McDonald's marriage, so that's why we have no historical proof and if there is written that it's in biblical reference but not yet any Emperor proof we find so it is difficult to believe.
The secretary meaning
If we see that sometime separate family and represent to the pagan religion note in Christianity we find it just because as other religion are also believe in patriarchy and Christianity also believe in patriarchy so there is a doubtful on Shepherd feminine just because sometime we believe that purity come with the man but we forget that woman has home that only has power to give a life in this universe that's why the sacred feminine is more powerful than other.
Priory of Sion
Some of the historian and some of the Ancient people tell that Priory of Sion is a secret committee whom save or preserve some of the secret related to Christianity and they are built for preserve Second form related to Jesus Christ after death of Jesus Christ there reserve some of the cigarette which may not remain for the normal human beings.
That secret who was the Holy Grail and the Merry McDonald's dead body these two things they are hiding.
Leonardo da Vinci and his art
Might be possible that leonardo-da-vinci also one of the member of Priory of Sion and he was try to keep some of the secret from other people or they are against to the church and now they are blackmailing to judge just because they know some of the secret which can destroy basic foundation of Christianity is religion and as some of the historian says that Da Vinci was one of the best painter and he tried to secret something from world and in his painting we find some of the secret that is the interpretation which we give on his painting.
Some other people says that may be on some of the conspiracy theory tell that Da Vinci was facing some of the medical illness that's why when he was your life it's become difficult to read that's why if other person have to read Da Vinci's work then that person needs Mirror to read that all things.
3) (If)You have studied ‘Genesis’ (The Bible), ‘The Paradise Lost’ (John Milton) and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (Dan Brown). Which of the narrative/s seem/s to be truthful? Whose narrative is convincing to the contemporary young mind?
Start with geniuses some of the chapter we have study or read but not perfectly we have study or read geniuses so it is difficult to give comment on that.
Show with paradise lost and we find that when you believe in patriarchy then that work is perfect just because it in the whole lost of the Paradise by a woman so if you believe in patriarchal then Paradise Lost is perfect but it's not convincible too young generation this because nowadays the women and men both become equal then there is nothing differentiate between them so if we do deeply reading of paradise lost then we find that maybe it's a writer personal life be described in his work and also one more thing was that the paradise lost maybe not convince to other people just because paradise lost as reference with biblical that's why it is more difficult to understand.
If we go with Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code then we can find people easily connect with novel and might be accept just because we can find that there are normal human beings they are in problem and they try to come out of this situation and finally they are getting some of the questions answer and which connected with history and some of the meat and it's becoming a reality and also the one more thing which is not found in Genesis and also in paradise lost that was suspense thriller which we not find in other work that's why that normal people can convince by Dan Brown's work The Da Vinci Code if people seeing movie then also they are convince.
4) What harm has been done to humanity by the biblical narration or that of Milton’s in The Paradise Lose? What sort of damage does narrative like ‘The Vinci Code’ do to humanity?
If we go in history then we can find that in Christianity is rise then we find that The Lost of Constantinople then Rome become powerful and after that we see that pop become more powerful than King and suddenly we find that pop become more rigid region and also the church are become more powerful by wealth and other way to become a puppet of pop and one more thing was that pop very great life and they started new way to kill people and that new weapon was religion and rule and regulation by that they have kill lots of poor people and also a woman the call women as a witch and they burn in public place and in the dark ages Christianity has sorrel Crusade will happen that's why they have lost so many people normal people are also kill on the name of religion.
In Brown's novel we find that one of the character who is historian and he spend his whole life to know the secret of holy grill and he want to explore the darker side of Christianity and he want to destroy the power of church and you want to explore that how charge has done bad thing with humanity that's why he want to preserve humanity.
5) What difference do you see in the portrayal of 'Ophelia' (Kate Winslet) in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, 'Elizabeth' (Helena Bonham Carter) in Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or 'Hester Prynne' (Demi Moore) in Roland Joffé's The Scarlet Letter' or David Yates's 'Harmione Granger' (Emma Watson) in last four Harry Potter films - and 'Sophie Neuve' (Audrey Tautau) in Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code? How would justify your answer?
If you see in Hamlet and Frankenstein and Scarlet Letter director has move camera all over the women's body part which is not important but still camera has roll over to the women's body part that is not good sign if we see the original work there is not a single dimensional what we see in the movie that is the differentiate between the original work and which we see in the movie and one more thing was that it's not a camera which moves on the woman's body but it's a representation of Mens eyes which move on the women's body that is the very bad thing which train in movie but if you see Da Vinci Code movie in then you can find that are not a single kissing scene of some of the new DP is not receive present just because in this full movie we can find that how the intellectuality of women is represent not the woman's body is important as we can see it or we can feel it or it's our interpretation , Sophie was very intellectual more than doctor London
So we can say that whole movie based on the intellectual it not based on the woman's figure or woman body so in this whole movie we find that the women represent as a intellectual but not as a thing.
6) Do novel / film lead us into critical (deconstructive) thinking about your religion? Can we think of such conspiracy theory about Hindu religious symbols / myths?
Yes it is by watching movie or reading novel we can come to know that how religion has destroyed so many things lots of poor people and women by religion. Yes we can find it just because of lots of darker side in Hinduism we can find it and which was hidden by our religion gurus or many other people hiding the truth what exactly Godse they make that type of statement that which help them not help to other people if we see in Hindu religion we find that if you belong to the upper status then your life is too good you get a chance everywhere any religious ritual you want to do in your home people are love you it's become a celebration when you doing so in that way we can say that in Hindu religions so many evilness are there which was hidden still not reveal maybe nowadays in modern time it is there but we have changed the design we have modernize religion that's why we cannot identify but still they are there and still they are attacking to to the humanity.
7) Have you come across any similar book/movie, which tries to deconstruct accepted notions about Hindu religion or culture and by dismantling it, attempts to reconstruct another possible interpretation of truth?
1) MOHALLA ASSI
[ NOT :- use headphone if you watching the video ]
8) When we do traditional reading of the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology, Harvard University emerges as protagonist and Sir Leigh Teabing, a British Historian as antagonist. Who will claim the position of protagonist if we do atheist reading of the novel?
On my point of view Sir Leigh Teabing, was the protagonist of this movie just because he want to reveal The Secret that's why he was doing for humanity not for on his self just because he want to save humanity and he want to expose the Church has the destroyed humanity and the poor people and woman that's why he was protagonist.
On my point of view Robert Langdon was not protagonist of this movie.
9) Explain Ann Gray’s three propositions on ‘knowability’ with illustrations from the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
a. 1) Identifying what is knowable
b. 2) identifying and acknowledging the relationship of the knower and the known
c. 3) What is the procedure for ‘knowing’?
--> main median brown was right about his work that it's just work of literature .
Maybe Da Vinci talk about some of the darker side of Christianity but ,if you see novel try to explore the Christianity and related myth, as we all know that mythical story are never true it's just human beings imagination so maybe we can except that this work Da Vinci Code maybe just try to explore the darker side of Christianity and there is nothing wrong just because it's a literature. It's depend upon us that how we see and how we interpreter the work if we find some of the meaning then there is meaning if we think that it's the same work then there is no problem.
2) “Although it is obvious that much of what Brown presented in his novel as absolutely true and accurate is neither of those, some of that material is of course essential to the intrigue, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has retained the novel's core, the Grail-related material: the sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene's marriage, the Priory of Sion, certain aspects of Leonardo's art, and so on[1].” How far do you agree with this observation of Norris J. Lacy?
If we see biblical reference then we come to know that 4 out of only one gospel was talking about Meri McDonald's marriage, so that's why we have no historical proof and if there is written that it's in biblical reference but not yet any Emperor proof we find so it is difficult to believe.
The secretary meaning
If we see that sometime separate family and represent to the pagan religion note in Christianity we find it just because as other religion are also believe in patriarchy and Christianity also believe in patriarchy so there is a doubtful on Shepherd feminine just because sometime we believe that purity come with the man but we forget that woman has home that only has power to give a life in this universe that's why the sacred feminine is more powerful than other.
Priory of Sion
Some of the historian and some of the Ancient people tell that Priory of Sion is a secret committee whom save or preserve some of the secret related to Christianity and they are built for preserve Second form related to Jesus Christ after death of Jesus Christ there reserve some of the cigarette which may not remain for the normal human beings.
That secret who was the Holy Grail and the Merry McDonald's dead body these two things they are hiding.
Leonardo da Vinci and his art
Might be possible that leonardo-da-vinci also one of the member of Priory of Sion and he was try to keep some of the secret from other people or they are against to the church and now they are blackmailing to judge just because they know some of the secret which can destroy basic foundation of Christianity is religion and as some of the historian says that Da Vinci was one of the best painter and he tried to secret something from world and in his painting we find some of the secret that is the interpretation which we give on his painting.
Some other people says that may be on some of the conspiracy theory tell that Da Vinci was facing some of the medical illness that's why when he was your life it's become difficult to read that's why if other person have to read Da Vinci's work then that person needs Mirror to read that all things.
3) (If)You have studied ‘Genesis’ (The Bible), ‘The Paradise Lost’ (John Milton) and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (Dan Brown). Which of the narrative/s seem/s to be truthful? Whose narrative is convincing to the contemporary young mind?
Start with geniuses some of the chapter we have study or read but not perfectly we have study or read geniuses so it is difficult to give comment on that.
Show with paradise lost and we find that when you believe in patriarchy then that work is perfect just because it in the whole lost of the Paradise by a woman so if you believe in patriarchal then Paradise Lost is perfect but it's not convincible too young generation this because nowadays the women and men both become equal then there is nothing differentiate between them so if we do deeply reading of paradise lost then we find that maybe it's a writer personal life be described in his work and also one more thing was that the paradise lost maybe not convince to other people just because paradise lost as reference with biblical that's why it is more difficult to understand.
If we go with Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code then we can find people easily connect with novel and might be accept just because we can find that there are normal human beings they are in problem and they try to come out of this situation and finally they are getting some of the questions answer and which connected with history and some of the meat and it's becoming a reality and also the one more thing which is not found in Genesis and also in paradise lost that was suspense thriller which we not find in other work that's why that normal people can convince by Dan Brown's work The Da Vinci Code if people seeing movie then also they are convince.
4) What harm has been done to humanity by the biblical narration or that of Milton’s in The Paradise Lose? What sort of damage does narrative like ‘The Vinci Code’ do to humanity?
If we go in history then we can find that in Christianity is rise then we find that The Lost of Constantinople then Rome become powerful and after that we see that pop become more powerful than King and suddenly we find that pop become more rigid region and also the church are become more powerful by wealth and other way to become a puppet of pop and one more thing was that pop very great life and they started new way to kill people and that new weapon was religion and rule and regulation by that they have kill lots of poor people and also a woman the call women as a witch and they burn in public place and in the dark ages Christianity has sorrel Crusade will happen that's why they have lost so many people normal people are also kill on the name of religion.
In Brown's novel we find that one of the character who is historian and he spend his whole life to know the secret of holy grill and he want to explore the darker side of Christianity and he want to destroy the power of church and you want to explore that how charge has done bad thing with humanity that's why he want to preserve humanity.
5) What difference do you see in the portrayal of 'Ophelia' (Kate Winslet) in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, 'Elizabeth' (Helena Bonham Carter) in Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or 'Hester Prynne' (Demi Moore) in Roland Joffé's The Scarlet Letter' or David Yates's 'Harmione Granger' (Emma Watson) in last four Harry Potter films - and 'Sophie Neuve' (Audrey Tautau) in Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code? How would justify your answer?
If you see in Hamlet and Frankenstein and Scarlet Letter director has move camera all over the women's body part which is not important but still camera has roll over to the women's body part that is not good sign if we see the original work there is not a single dimensional what we see in the movie that is the differentiate between the original work and which we see in the movie and one more thing was that it's not a camera which moves on the woman's body but it's a representation of Mens eyes which move on the women's body that is the very bad thing which train in movie but if you see Da Vinci Code movie in then you can find that are not a single kissing scene of some of the new DP is not receive present just because in this full movie we can find that how the intellectuality of women is represent not the woman's body is important as we can see it or we can feel it or it's our interpretation , Sophie was very intellectual more than doctor London
So we can say that whole movie based on the intellectual it not based on the woman's figure or woman body so in this whole movie we find that the women represent as a intellectual but not as a thing.
6) Do novel / film lead us into critical (deconstructive) thinking about your religion? Can we think of such conspiracy theory about Hindu religious symbols / myths?
Yes it is by watching movie or reading novel we can come to know that how religion has destroyed so many things lots of poor people and women by religion. Yes we can find it just because of lots of darker side in Hinduism we can find it and which was hidden by our religion gurus or many other people hiding the truth what exactly Godse they make that type of statement that which help them not help to other people if we see in Hindu religion we find that if you belong to the upper status then your life is too good you get a chance everywhere any religious ritual you want to do in your home people are love you it's become a celebration when you doing so in that way we can say that in Hindu religions so many evilness are there which was hidden still not reveal maybe nowadays in modern time it is there but we have changed the design we have modernize religion that's why we cannot identify but still they are there and still they are attacking to to the humanity.
7) Have you come across any similar book/movie, which tries to deconstruct accepted notions about Hindu religion or culture and by dismantling it, attempts to reconstruct another possible interpretation of truth?
1) MOHALLA ASSI
[ NOT :- use headphone if you watching the video ]
8) When we do traditional reading of the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology, Harvard University emerges as protagonist and Sir Leigh Teabing, a British Historian as antagonist. Who will claim the position of protagonist if we do atheist reading of the novel?
On my point of view Sir Leigh Teabing, was the protagonist of this movie just because he want to reveal The Secret that's why he was doing for humanity not for on his self just because he want to save humanity and he want to expose the Church has the destroyed humanity and the poor people and woman that's why he was protagonist.
On my point of view Robert Langdon was not protagonist of this movie.
9) Explain Ann Gray’s three propositions on ‘knowability’ with illustrations from the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
a. 1) Identifying what is knowable
b. 2) identifying and acknowledging the relationship of the knower and the known
c. 3) What is the procedure for ‘knowing’?
Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Man Booker prizes and India
This are the work which are win or Shortlisted for the man Booker prizes ( 1969 to 2018 )
This are Novel where India used as a story moving plot.
1) In a free state - V.S. Naipaul. [ 1971 ]
2) The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G.Farrell [ 1973 ]
3) Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawaer Jhabvala [ 1975 ]
4) Staying on - Paul Scott [ 1977 ]
5) A Bed in the River - V.S.Naipaul [ 1979 ]
6) Clear Light of Day - Anita Desai [ 1980 ]
7) Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie [ 1981]
8) In Custody -Anita Deasi [ 1984 ]
9) The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie [ 1988 ]
10) Such a Long Journey - Rohinton Mistry [ 1991 ]
11) The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie [ 1995 ]
12) A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry[ 1996 ]
13) The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy [ 1997 ]
14) Fasting Feasting -Anita Deasi [ 1999 ]
15) Life of pi - Yann Martel [ 2002]
16) Family matters - Rohinton Mistry [ 2002]
17) Arthur George - Julian Barnes [ 2005 ]
18) The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desi [ 2006 ]
19) Animal's people - Indra Sinha [ 2007 ]
20) sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh [ 2008]
21) The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga[ 2008 ]
22) Narcopolis- Jeet Thajil [ 2012 ]
23 ) The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri [ 2013 ]
24) The Lives of Others - Neel Mukherjee[ 2014]
25) The Year of the Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota [ 2015 ]
This are Novel where India used as a story moving plot.
1) In a free state - V.S. Naipaul. [ 1971 ]
2) The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G.Farrell [ 1973 ]
3) Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawaer Jhabvala [ 1975 ]
4) Staying on - Paul Scott [ 1977 ]
5) A Bed in the River - V.S.Naipaul [ 1979 ]
6) Clear Light of Day - Anita Desai [ 1980 ]
7) Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie [ 1981]
8) In Custody -Anita Deasi [ 1984 ]
9) The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie [ 1988 ]
10) Such a Long Journey - Rohinton Mistry [ 1991 ]
11) The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie [ 1995 ]
12) A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry[ 1996 ]
13) The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy [ 1997 ]
14) Fasting Feasting -Anita Deasi [ 1999 ]
15) Life of pi - Yann Martel [ 2002]
16) Family matters - Rohinton Mistry [ 2002]
17) Arthur George - Julian Barnes [ 2005 ]
18) The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desi [ 2006 ]
19) Animal's people - Indra Sinha [ 2007 ]
20) sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh [ 2008]
21) The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga[ 2008 ]
22) Narcopolis- Jeet Thajil [ 2012 ]
23 ) The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri [ 2013 ]
24) The Lives of Others - Neel Mukherjee[ 2014]
25) The Year of the Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota [ 2015 ]
Friday, 1 February 2019
Thinking Activity on The White Tiger
About Novel :-
The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year.The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram's journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India Ultimately, Balram transcends his sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi service. In a nation proudly shedding a history of poverty and underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, "tomorrow."
About Film :-
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup, telling the story of Jamal Malik, age 18, from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel as Jamal, and filmed in India, the film was directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director.
As a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Jamal Malik surprises everyone by being able to answer every question correctly. Accused of cheating, Jamal recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he is able to answer each question correctly.
After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival,Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in India on 22 January 2009,[10] and in the United States on 23 January 2009.
Regarded as a sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed, being praised for its plot, soundtrack, direction, and performances, especially Patel's. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight—the most for any 2008 film—including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, five Critics' Choice Awards and four Golden Globes. However it was also the subject of controversy, especially in India, due to its portrayal of Indian society, the use of the word "slumdog" in the title and perceived exploitation of some of the younger actors.
1. Narrative structure - Wanted Poster # KBC show.
In the novel white tiger we can see that beginning of the novel start with most wanted criminal with red bag , police are looking towards this guy and narrator or speaker like Balram Halwai he himself describe how government ( police ) make mistake to writing about him , making Sachin mistakes he gives justification or try to breakdown what police has explain in that wanted poster line by line he try to break it.
In film the beginning with scene of interrogation by police to protagonist in that way the movie start.
And main centre of the film is one reality show where protagonist go and give correct answer and he achieve money but the host of the reality show didn't like that so call the police and the protagonist was integrated by police men.
2. Indianness
In the novel white tiger we see that :-
1) Train
2) Cricket
3) Caste system
4) Class system
5) Believe in religion
6) Darker side of India
7) Lighter side in India
8) Corruption in election
9) How politician are corrupt
10) Very bad condition of education
11) Marriage
12) Powerful corporate world
13 ) Very Vital role play by police
14) Darker side represent in village
15) Comparison between Chinese people and naxalite.
16) call centre
17) globalisation
18) child working in tea shop
In the film we can see that :-
1) train
2) poverty
3) communal riots
4) real estate
5) reality show
6) child trafficking
7) portrait of Indian darker side
8) representation of poverty like Dharavi
9) using landmark to represent Indian image in different way
10) cricket
11) call centre
12) protagonist working as a pune in call centre
3. List of questions asked in the film. If you have to replace or add a few questions, which questions would you like to add. Remember, questions shall be in-tune with the screenplay of the film .
In this movie the all question are related with protagonist life,so that's why I don't think that any question want to change. All question are apt and, there is no need to change for any questions.
4. On what grounds can u deconstruct the film with reference to post colonial tools / theories.
1) Representing potty
2) Using the landmark in different contacts
3) Train represent as a symbol ( imperialism )
4) call centre
5) Huge building represent the difference between rich people
And poor people.
6) Underworld people are controlling the business of real estate
7) how toilet also is a problem
5. Compare with Texture and Treatment of subject content in film and novel.
1) in film and novel we see that there is a darker India and lighter India are represent but major let's focus on darker side more than lighter.
These are the things which is common in film and novel
1) Light and darkness
2) caste and class conflict
3) richness and poor
4) corrupt police
5) The protagonist are uneducated
These are the differentiate which we find in film and novels
1) in film the protagonist deal with reality show,
In the novel we see that product honest deal with the Chinese premier.
2) In film we can see that religion is in centre,
In the novell we see that caste and religion is important
3) In film there is nothing outsider but it's become a globe globalised,
But in novel protagonist was focus on those who are outsider and who is insider
4) In film we see that protagonist is get success by his observation skill, and also by knowledge just because he never get a chance to educate him.
But in the novel we see that protagonist want to educate but the circumstances and not in favour that's why he leave the school and started earning money and finally by killing someone get success.
5) in film maybe we can say that there is a some kind of poetic justice,
But in novel we cannot find any kind of poetic justice.
Same of the Hindi Film example :-
1) Bajrangi Bhaijan
2) Munna Bhai MBBS
3) Vaastav
4) Krantiveer
About Film :-
After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival,Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in India on 22 January 2009,[10] and in the United States on 23 January 2009.
Regarded as a sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed, being praised for its plot, soundtrack, direction, and performances, especially Patel's. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight—the most for any 2008 film—including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, five Critics' Choice Awards and four Golden Globes. However it was also the subject of controversy, especially in India, due to its portrayal of Indian society, the use of the word "slumdog" in the title and perceived exploitation of some of the younger actors.
1. Narrative structure - Wanted Poster # KBC show.
In the novel white tiger we can see that beginning of the novel start with most wanted criminal with red bag , police are looking towards this guy and narrator or speaker like Balram Halwai he himself describe how government ( police ) make mistake to writing about him , making Sachin mistakes he gives justification or try to breakdown what police has explain in that wanted poster line by line he try to break it.
In film the beginning with scene of interrogation by police to protagonist in that way the movie start.
And main centre of the film is one reality show where protagonist go and give correct answer and he achieve money but the host of the reality show didn't like that so call the police and the protagonist was integrated by police men.
2. Indianness
In the novel white tiger we see that :-
1) Train
2) Cricket
3) Caste system
4) Class system
5) Believe in religion
6) Darker side of India
7) Lighter side in India
8) Corruption in election
9) How politician are corrupt
10) Very bad condition of education
11) Marriage
12) Powerful corporate world
13 ) Very Vital role play by police
14) Darker side represent in village
15) Comparison between Chinese people and naxalite.
16) call centre
17) globalisation
18) child working in tea shop
In the film we can see that :-
1) train
2) poverty
3) communal riots
4) real estate
5) reality show
6) child trafficking
7) portrait of Indian darker side
8) representation of poverty like Dharavi
9) using landmark to represent Indian image in different way
10) cricket
11) call centre
12) protagonist working as a pune in call centre
3. List of questions asked in the film. If you have to replace or add a few questions, which questions would you like to add. Remember, questions shall be in-tune with the screenplay of the film .
In this movie the all question are related with protagonist life,so that's why I don't think that any question want to change. All question are apt and, there is no need to change for any questions.
4. On what grounds can u deconstruct the film with reference to post colonial tools / theories.
1) Representing potty
2) Using the landmark in different contacts
3) Train represent as a symbol ( imperialism )
4) call centre
5) Huge building represent the difference between rich people
And poor people.
6) Underworld people are controlling the business of real estate
7) how toilet also is a problem
5. Compare with Texture and Treatment of subject content in film and novel.
1) in film and novel we see that there is a darker India and lighter India are represent but major let's focus on darker side more than lighter.
These are the things which is common in film and novel
1) Light and darkness
2) caste and class conflict
3) richness and poor
4) corrupt police
5) The protagonist are uneducated
These are the differentiate which we find in film and novels
1) in film the protagonist deal with reality show,
In the novel we see that product honest deal with the Chinese premier.
2) In film we can see that religion is in centre,
In the novell we see that caste and religion is important
3) In film there is nothing outsider but it's become a globe globalised,
But in novel protagonist was focus on those who are outsider and who is insider
4) In film we see that protagonist is get success by his observation skill, and also by knowledge just because he never get a chance to educate him.
But in the novel we see that protagonist want to educate but the circumstances and not in favour that's why he leave the school and started earning money and finally by killing someone get success.
5) in film maybe we can say that there is a some kind of poetic justice,
But in novel we cannot find any kind of poetic justice.
Same of the Hindi Film example :-
1) Bajrangi Bhaijan
2) Munna Bhai MBBS
3) Vaastav
4) Krantiveer
Worksite :-
https://youtu.be/AIzbwV7on6Q
https://youtu.be/HJRzk2WfOAo
https://youtu.be/s4tAPvWVorY
https://youtu.be/TPbaQWkLqAk
https://youtu.be/Sc0iLemxRnQ
https://youtu.be/vyX4toD395U
https://youtu.be/6lCGvu-hwX4
1)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire
2)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Tiger
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
The Book Thief
The Book Thief is a 2005 historical novel by Australian author Markus Zusak and is his most popular work.
After the death of Liesel's younger brother on a train to Molching, Liesel arrives at the home of her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, distraught and withdrawn. During her time there, she is exposed to the horrors of the Nazi regime, caught between the innocence of childhood and the maturity demanded by her destructive surroundings. As the political situation in Germany deteriorates, her foster parents conceal a Jewish fist fighter named Max Vandenburg. Hans, who has developed a close relationship with Liesel, teaches her to read, first in her bedroom, then in the basement. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel not only begins to steal books that the Nazi party is looking to destroy, but also writes her own story, and shares the power of language with Max.
Film adaptation
The Book Thief premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 3, 2013, and was released for general distribution in the United States on November 8, 2013. The film received mixed reviews upon its theatrical release with some reviewers praising its "fresher perspective on the war" and its focus on the "consistent thread of humanity" in the story, with other critics faulting the film's "wishful narrative". With a budget of $19 million, the film was successful at the box office, earning over $76 million.
The Book Thief received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for its score. For her performance in the film, Sophie Nélisse won the Hollywood Film Festival Spotlight Award, the Satellite Newcomer Award, and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role – Female. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 11, 2014.
How Film ending.
Film focus on this three things :-
1) Hitler youth move ment
2) Kristallncaht
3) Nazi book burning
Work cited
1) https://youtu.be/1HfpQ-K0gnU
2)https://youtu.be/yHzM1gXaiVo
3)https://youtu.be/-y0uwd9QAYE
4)https://youtu.be/92EBSmxinus
5)https://youtu.be/DES7fmumwZg
6)https://youtu.be/CXvs1vwiD0M
7)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief
8) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief_(film)
After the death of Liesel's younger brother on a train to Molching, Liesel arrives at the home of her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, distraught and withdrawn. During her time there, she is exposed to the horrors of the Nazi regime, caught between the innocence of childhood and the maturity demanded by her destructive surroundings. As the political situation in Germany deteriorates, her foster parents conceal a Jewish fist fighter named Max Vandenburg. Hans, who has developed a close relationship with Liesel, teaches her to read, first in her bedroom, then in the basement. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel not only begins to steal books that the Nazi party is looking to destroy, but also writes her own story, and shares the power of language with Max.
Film adaptation
The Book Thief premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 3, 2013, and was released for general distribution in the United States on November 8, 2013. The film received mixed reviews upon its theatrical release with some reviewers praising its "fresher perspective on the war" and its focus on the "consistent thread of humanity" in the story, with other critics faulting the film's "wishful narrative". With a budget of $19 million, the film was successful at the box office, earning over $76 million.
The Book Thief received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for its score. For her performance in the film, Sophie Nélisse won the Hollywood Film Festival Spotlight Award, the Satellite Newcomer Award, and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role – Female. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 11, 2014.
How Film ending.
Film focus on this three things :-
1) Hitler youth move ment
2) Kristallncaht
3) Nazi book burning
Example.
May be we can comparison between Liesel and malala.
Work cited
1) https://youtu.be/1HfpQ-K0gnU
2)https://youtu.be/yHzM1gXaiVo
3)https://youtu.be/-y0uwd9QAYE
4)https://youtu.be/92EBSmxinus
5)https://youtu.be/DES7fmumwZg
6)https://youtu.be/CXvs1vwiD0M
7)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief
8) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief_(film)
Sunday, 27 January 2019
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury's early life witnessed the Golden Age of Radio, while the transition to the Golden Age of Television began right around the time he started to work on the stories that would eventually lead to Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury saw these forms of media as a threat to the reading of books, indeed as a threat to society, as he believed they could act as a distraction from important affairs. This contempt for mass media and technology would express itself through Mildred and her friends and is an important theme in the book.
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in 1953. It is regarded as one of his best works. The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title: "Fahrenheit 451 – the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns..." The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
The novel has been the subject of interpretations focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas. In a 1956 radio interview,Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature.
Maybe this book deal with some kind of a dystopian fiction or literature but, when we see historical then this novel deal with Second World War time and also focus on cold world war.
First thing that Fireman r appointed to save humanity but in this novel we find that the protagonist of the novel was save to people bye not reading any literature ebooks and ending kind of save or protect literatura material in their home or maybe not preserve any kind of literature work not found at home that is the duty of this Fireman in this novel.
And one day when you are doing duty key findings one lady has preserve some of the Literature river and that men's duty was to burn that all literature rework but he has not done he stolen one book and that book was Bible.
After few day is Chief Officer come to know that this fire man has some preserve literary work then all fire staff come at home and they tell him that destroy your home with on your hand, finally at the end of the novel that firemen go to the countryside where you find some of the people who preserve the literature Re that try to understand what was in past and they are also reading poems and many other literature your butt it's a nut technological time show that one and house meant was held that within a few minutes that fire men will be catch by police and that was happened all countryside will destroy but few people still save.
That was the Historical interpretation of the story or reason or metaphor :-
Later, as a teenager, Bradbury was horrified by the Nazi book burnings and later by Joseph Stalin's campaign of political repression, the "Great Purge", in which writers and poets, among many others, were arrested and often executed.
Shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the conclusion of World War II, the United States focused its concern on the Soviet atomic bomb project and the expansion of communism. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), formed in 1938 to investigate American citizens and organizations suspected of having communist ties, held hearings in 1947 to investigate alleged communist influence in Hollywood movie-making. These hearings resulted in the blacklisting of the so-called "Hollywood Ten", a group of influential screenwriters and directors. This governmental interference in the affairs of artists and creative types greatly angered Bradbury. Bradbury was bitter and concerned about the workings of his government, and a late 1949 nighttime encounter with an overzealous police officer would inspire Bradbury to write "The Pedestrian", a short story which would go on to become "The Fireman" and then Fahrenheit 451. The rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy's hearings hostile to accused communists, beginning in 1950, deepened Bradbury's contempt for government overreach.
The year HUAC began investigating Hollywood is often considered the beginning of the Cold War, as in March 1947, the Truman Doctrine was announced. By about 1950, the Cold War was in full swing, and the American public's fear of nuclear warfare and communist influence was at a feverish level. The stage was set for Bradbury to write the dramatic nuclear holocaust ending of Fahrenheit 451, exemplifying the type of scenario feared by many Americans of the time.
The year HUAC began investigating Hollywood is often considered the beginning of the Cold War, as in March 1947, the Truman Doctrine was announced. By about 1950, the Cold War was in full swing, and the American public's fear of nuclear warfare and communist influence was at a feverish level. The stage was set for Bradbury to write the dramatic nuclear holocaust ending of Fahrenheit 451, exemplifying the type of scenario feared by many Americans of the time.
Worksite :-
1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451
2) https://sites.google.com/a/bay.k12.fl.us/history-matters/reading-and-writing/fahrenheit-451
Saturday, 26 January 2019
દયા હિન મિત્ર ને એક સલામ.
દયા હિન મિત્ર ને એક સલામ.
હું દોસ્તી માં વિચાર તો હતો કે રૂપ નથી જોવા તુ.
પન હું ખોટો હતો , મિત્ર તા પન રૂપ જોઈ ન કરાય છે.
લોકો ભૂલી જાય છે, કરે લા ઉપ કાર એ માનવ કે વા.
હું તો માનતો હતો કે મિત્રતા મા રૂપ નથી જોતા.
પણ હું ખોટો હતો ને ,ખોટો પુરાવાર પણ થયો.
મિત્રતા પણ રૂપ જોય થાવા લાગી , સાહેબ.
એ મિત્ર જે તમારો સાથ આપે જે દિ આખો સમાજ (પ્રમિ) છોડી ચાલો જાય,
તો પન એ મિત્ર જે તમારી સાથે ઉભા હોય એ મિત્ર.
મિત્રો શું માગે બસ તમારી પાસે માંન, પાન.
પન જો તમે એ પણ ન આપી સકો તો .
તમે મીત્ર નો ફરજ નથી બજાવી રહી યાં.
જો તમે તમારા પ્રેમી સાથી રહી સક તા હો,
સાહેબ તો તમે તમારા મીત્રો સાથે પન સમય બિતા વો.
જો તમે તમારા પ્રેમી ની બાહો માં રહી સકો છો,
તો પછી તમે તમારા મિત્રો ને સાથે પન રહી જ સકો.
જો તમને તમારા પ્રેમી સાથે ફરવા મા કોઈ મુશિ બત ન હોય તો ,
તમે તમારા મિત્રો સાથે બોલવા માં શું પરેશાની,
બસ આજ સવાલ છે મારો ,શું છે એનો જવાબ?
કોને ખબર આ નો શું જવાબ હસે .
પન કોક દિ આ નો પન જવાબ મલ્સે આવી મ ને આશા છે.
જો લોકો એ ના પ્રમી સાથે ફરી શકે છે, એ પન નિર્ભય થઈ ને તો,
કેમ એ એના મિત્રો સાથે લોકો ની સામે બોલા વામા સમાજ આડો આવે છે?
કેમ આવું થાતુ હસે ખબર નઈ, પન એ નો પન જવાબ આપ જો.
જો તમે તમારા પ્રેમી ની સાથે ફરી સકો છો ,તો તમે તમારા મિત્રો ને પન બોલાવી સકો છો.
બસ માહી પૂછે છે સવાલ એ ના મિત્ર ને દોસ્ત તું કમ
ભૂલી જા છો મારી મિત્ર તા ? શું મારી દોસ્તો એટલે હલકી છે કે,
તારી મોહો બત સામે મારી મિત્રતા જીવી પન સકતી નાતી ?
બસ એજ સવાલ મારા મિત્ર ન ??? તો તારી નીયાત મા ખોટ છે .
શું હું ખાલી હું તારા માટે એક વસ્તુ જ છું ????
હું દોસ્તી માં વિચાર તો હતો કે રૂપ નથી જોવા તુ.
પન હું ખોટો હતો , મિત્ર તા પન રૂપ જોઈ ન કરાય છે.
લોકો ભૂલી જાય છે, કરે લા ઉપ કાર એ માનવ કે વા.
હું તો માનતો હતો કે મિત્રતા મા રૂપ નથી જોતા.
પણ હું ખોટો હતો ને ,ખોટો પુરાવાર પણ થયો.
મિત્રતા પણ રૂપ જોય થાવા લાગી , સાહેબ.
એ મિત્ર જે તમારો સાથ આપે જે દિ આખો સમાજ (પ્રમિ) છોડી ચાલો જાય,
તો પન એ મિત્ર જે તમારી સાથે ઉભા હોય એ મિત્ર.
મિત્રો શું માગે બસ તમારી પાસે માંન, પાન.
પન જો તમે એ પણ ન આપી સકો તો .
તમે મીત્ર નો ફરજ નથી બજાવી રહી યાં.
જો તમે તમારા પ્રેમી સાથી રહી સક તા હો,
સાહેબ તો તમે તમારા મીત્રો સાથે પન સમય બિતા વો.
જો તમે તમારા પ્રેમી ની બાહો માં રહી સકો છો,
તો પછી તમે તમારા મિત્રો ને સાથે પન રહી જ સકો.
જો તમને તમારા પ્રેમી સાથે ફરવા મા કોઈ મુશિ બત ન હોય તો ,
તમે તમારા મિત્રો સાથે બોલવા માં શું પરેશાની,
બસ આજ સવાલ છે મારો ,શું છે એનો જવાબ?
કોને ખબર આ નો શું જવાબ હસે .
પન કોક દિ આ નો પન જવાબ મલ્સે આવી મ ને આશા છે.
જો લોકો એ ના પ્રમી સાથે ફરી શકે છે, એ પન નિર્ભય થઈ ને તો,
કેમ એ એના મિત્રો સાથે લોકો ની સામે બોલા વામા સમાજ આડો આવે છે?
કેમ આવું થાતુ હસે ખબર નઈ, પન એ નો પન જવાબ આપ જો.
જો તમે તમારા પ્રેમી ની સાથે ફરી સકો છો ,તો તમે તમારા મિત્રો ને પન બોલાવી સકો છો.
બસ માહી પૂછે છે સવાલ એ ના મિત્ર ને દોસ્ત તું કમ
ભૂલી જા છો મારી મિત્ર તા ? શું મારી દોસ્તો એટલે હલકી છે કે,
તારી મોહો બત સામે મારી મિત્રતા જીવી પન સકતી નાતી ?
બસ એજ સવાલ મારા મિત્ર ન ??? તો તારી નીયાત મા ખોટ છે .
શું હું ખાલી હું તારા માટે એક વસ્તુ જ છું ????
Friday, 11 January 2019
हुसने शहार
हुसने शहार
में वेसे शहार आया जह हूसन का सौदा होता है।
पहले बात दील से दिल की हुई थी।
न जाने क्यूं ये दिल से हुसन का है गाय।
कहा तो यह था कि इस शहार में
मोहोबत होती हैं पर न जाने क्यूं अब जिस्मबजी हो रही है।
में पागल अंधिरे नगरी में उजाला ठूड रहा था।
हुसन के बाजार में ,में दिल का सौदा कर रहा था।
ये हुसन - ए - सहर में सब कुछ बिकता है जनाब,
यहां जिस्म बिकता है , ईमान बिकता है।
मुजे लगा दिल से दिल का सौदा होगा।
पर येतो हुसन से हुसन का घाटेका का सौदा हो गया।
जहा मोहोबात ढूड रहा था, यहां हुस्न ठूडा जा रहा था।
आख़िर कार मेंभी दिल से दिल का सौदा कर आया।
पर यह सौदा किसी शिस्ट समाज या खानदानी जगह पे नही हुआ,
पर यह सौदा मेरे दिल और उन अंधेरी रातो की गली यो में ,
बज रहे धुधरू ओ के साथ हुआ।
हा मूजे पता है ये शिस्ट समाज का कोय सौदा नथा पर यसी अंधरी सहर में ,
लाल मधियं रोशनी में मुजे दिल से दिल का सौदा मिला।
सायद ये किसी शिस्ट समाज के लिऐ ये गेर - जमानती था ,या वाजिब सौद न था ,
पर मेरे लिए सचा सौदा था।
इसी लिए माही के गए करे दिल से दिल का सौदा, तो मुनाफा होई।
जो करे सौदा जिसम का तो ठाई सब्दो का क्या मोल र जयी।
में वेसे शहार आया जह हूसन का सौदा होता है।
पहले बात दील से दिल की हुई थी।
न जाने क्यूं ये दिल से हुसन का है गाय।
कहा तो यह था कि इस शहार में
मोहोबत होती हैं पर न जाने क्यूं अब जिस्मबजी हो रही है।
में पागल अंधिरे नगरी में उजाला ठूड रहा था।
हुसन के बाजार में ,में दिल का सौदा कर रहा था।
ये हुसन - ए - सहर में सब कुछ बिकता है जनाब,
यहां जिस्म बिकता है , ईमान बिकता है।
मुजे लगा दिल से दिल का सौदा होगा।
पर येतो हुसन से हुसन का घाटेका का सौदा हो गया।
जहा मोहोबात ढूड रहा था, यहां हुस्न ठूडा जा रहा था।
आख़िर कार मेंभी दिल से दिल का सौदा कर आया।
पर यह सौदा किसी शिस्ट समाज या खानदानी जगह पे नही हुआ,
पर यह सौदा मेरे दिल और उन अंधेरी रातो की गली यो में ,
बज रहे धुधरू ओ के साथ हुआ।
हा मूजे पता है ये शिस्ट समाज का कोय सौदा नथा पर यसी अंधरी सहर में ,
लाल मधियं रोशनी में मुजे दिल से दिल का सौदा मिला।
सायद ये किसी शिस्ट समाज के लिऐ ये गेर - जमानती था ,या वाजिब सौद न था ,
पर मेरे लिए सचा सौदा था।
इसी लिए माही के गए करे दिल से दिल का सौदा, तो मुनाफा होई।
जो करे सौदा जिसम का तो ठाई सब्दो का क्या मोल र जयी।
Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Mahir pari's assignment on Edgar Allan Poe’s working style
Name : Goswami mahir pari c.
Sem : 3
Roll no. : 21
Email Id : goswamimahirpari786@gmail.com
Enrollment no : 20691084201180021
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic : Edgar Allan Poe’s working style
To evaluate my assignment click here
There may be no more a macabrely misogynistic sentence in English literature than Edgar Allan Poe’s contention that “the death… of a beautiful woman” is “unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.” (His perhaps ironic observation prompted Sylvia Plath to write, over a hundred years later, “The woman is perfected / Her dead / Body wears the smile of accomplishment.”) The sentence comes from Poe’s 1846 essay “The Philosophy of Composition,” and if this work were only known for its literary fetishization of what Elisabeth Bronfen calls “an aesthetically pleasing corpse"—marking deep anxieties about both “female sexuality and decay”—then it would indeed still be of interest to feminists and academics, though not perhaps to the average reader.
But Poe has much more to say that does not involve a romance with dead women. The essay delivers on its title’s promise. It is here that we find Poe’s famous theory of what good literature is and does, achieving what he calls “unity of effect.” This literary “totality” results from a collection of essential elements that the author deems indispensable in “constructing a story," whether in poetry or prose, that produces a “vivid effect.”
To illustrate what he means, Poe walks us through an analysis of his own work, “The Raven.” We are to take for granted as readers that “The Raven” achieves its desired effect. Poe has no misgivings about that. But how does it do so? Against commonplace ideas that writers “compose by a species of fine frenzy—an ecstatic intuition,” Poe has not “the least difficulty in recalling to mind the progressive steps of any of my compositions”---steps he considers almost "mathematical." Nor does he consider it a “breach of decorum” to pull aside the curtain and reveal his tricks. Below, in condensed form, we have listed the major points of Poe’s essay, covering the elements he considers most necessary to “effective” literary composition.
Know the ending in advance, before you begin writing.
“Nothing is more clear,” writes Poe, “than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before any thing be attempted with the pen.” Once writing commences, the author must keep the ending “constantly in view” in order to “give a plot its indispensable air of consequence” and inevitability.
Keep it short---the "single sitting" rule.
Poe contends that “if any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression.” Force the reader to take a break, and “the affairs of the world interfere” and break the spell. This “limit of a single sitting” admits of exceptions, of course. It must—or the novel would be disqualified as literature. Poe cites Robinson Crusoe as one example of a work of art “demanding of no unity.” But the single sitting rule applies to all poems, and for this reason, he writes, Milton’s Paradise Lost fails to achieve a sustained effect.
Decide on the desired effect.
The author must decide in advance “the choice of impression” he or she wishes to leave on the reader. Poe assumes here a tremendous amount about the ability of authors to manipulate readers’ emotions. He even has the audacity to claim that the design of the “The Raven” rendered the work “universally appreciable.” It may be so, but perhaps it does not universally inspire an appreciation of Beauty that “excites the sensitive soul to tears”—Poe’s desired effect for the poem.
Choose the tone of the work.
Poe claims the highest ground for his work, though it is debatable whether he was entirely serious. As “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem” in general, and “The Raven” in particular, “Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all poetical tones.” Whatever tone one chooses, however, the technique Poe employs, and recommends, likely applies. It is that of the “refrain”—a repeated “key-note” in word, phrase, or image that sustains the mood. In “The Raven,” the word “Nevermore” performs this function, a word Poe chose for its phonetic as much as for its conceptual qualities.
Poe claims that his choice of the Raven to deliver this refrain arose from a desire to reconcile the unthinking “monotony of the exercise” with the reasoning capabilities of a human character. He at first considered putting the word in the beak of a parrot, then settled on a Raven—“the bird of ill omen”—in keeping with the melancholy tone.
Determine the theme and characterization of the work.
Here Poe makes his claim about “the death of a beautiful woman,” and adds, “the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.” He chooses these particulars to represent his theme---“the most melancholy,” Death. Contrary to the methods of many a writer, Poe moves from the abstract to the concrete, choosing characters as mouthpieces of ideas.
Establish the climax.
In “The Raven,” Poe says, he “had now to combine the two ideas, of a lover lamenting his deceased mistress and a Raven continuously repeating the word ‘Nevermore.’” In bringing them together, he composed the third-to-last stanza first, allowing it to determine the “rhythm, the metre, and the length and general arrangement” of the remainder of the poem. As in the planning stage, Poe recommends that the writing “have its beginning—at the end.”
Determine the setting.
Though this aspect of any work seems the obvious place to start, Poe holds it to the end, after he has already decided why he wants to place certain characters in place, saying certain things. Only when he has clarified his purpose and broadly sketched in advance how he intends to acheive it does he decide “to place the lover in his chamber… richly furnished.” Arriving at these details last does not mean, however, that they are afterthoughts, but that they are suggested—or inevitably follow from—the work that comes before. In the case of "The Raven," Poe tells us that in order to carry out his literary scheme, “a close circumscription of space is absolutely necessary to the effect of insulated incident.”
Throughout his analysis, Poe continues to stress—with the high degree of repetition he favors in all of his writing—that he keeps “originality always in view.” But originality, for Poe, is not “a matter, as some suppose, of impulse or intuition.” Instead, he writes, it “demands in its attainment less of invention than negation.” In other words, Poe recommends that the writer make full use of familiar conventions and forms, but varying, combining, and adapting them to suit the purpose of the work and make them his or her own.
Though some of Poe’s discussion of technique relates specifically to poetry, as his own prose fiction testifies, these steps can equally apply to the art of the short story. And though he insists that depictions of Beauty and Death---or the melancholy beauty of death---mark the highest of literary aims, one could certainly adapt his formula to less obsessively morbid themes as well.
Sem : 3
Roll no. : 21
Email Id : goswamimahirpari786@gmail.com
Enrollment no : 20691084201180021
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic : Edgar Allan Poe’s working style
To evaluate my assignment click here
There may be no more a macabrely misogynistic sentence in English literature than Edgar Allan Poe’s contention that “the death… of a beautiful woman” is “unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.” (His perhaps ironic observation prompted Sylvia Plath to write, over a hundred years later, “The woman is perfected / Her dead / Body wears the smile of accomplishment.”) The sentence comes from Poe’s 1846 essay “The Philosophy of Composition,” and if this work were only known for its literary fetishization of what Elisabeth Bronfen calls “an aesthetically pleasing corpse"—marking deep anxieties about both “female sexuality and decay”—then it would indeed still be of interest to feminists and academics, though not perhaps to the average reader.
But Poe has much more to say that does not involve a romance with dead women. The essay delivers on its title’s promise. It is here that we find Poe’s famous theory of what good literature is and does, achieving what he calls “unity of effect.” This literary “totality” results from a collection of essential elements that the author deems indispensable in “constructing a story," whether in poetry or prose, that produces a “vivid effect.”
To illustrate what he means, Poe walks us through an analysis of his own work, “The Raven.” We are to take for granted as readers that “The Raven” achieves its desired effect. Poe has no misgivings about that. But how does it do so? Against commonplace ideas that writers “compose by a species of fine frenzy—an ecstatic intuition,” Poe has not “the least difficulty in recalling to mind the progressive steps of any of my compositions”---steps he considers almost "mathematical." Nor does he consider it a “breach of decorum” to pull aside the curtain and reveal his tricks. Below, in condensed form, we have listed the major points of Poe’s essay, covering the elements he considers most necessary to “effective” literary composition.
Know the ending in advance, before you begin writing.
“Nothing is more clear,” writes Poe, “than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before any thing be attempted with the pen.” Once writing commences, the author must keep the ending “constantly in view” in order to “give a plot its indispensable air of consequence” and inevitability.
Keep it short---the "single sitting" rule.
Poe contends that “if any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression.” Force the reader to take a break, and “the affairs of the world interfere” and break the spell. This “limit of a single sitting” admits of exceptions, of course. It must—or the novel would be disqualified as literature. Poe cites Robinson Crusoe as one example of a work of art “demanding of no unity.” But the single sitting rule applies to all poems, and for this reason, he writes, Milton’s Paradise Lost fails to achieve a sustained effect.
Decide on the desired effect.
The author must decide in advance “the choice of impression” he or she wishes to leave on the reader. Poe assumes here a tremendous amount about the ability of authors to manipulate readers’ emotions. He even has the audacity to claim that the design of the “The Raven” rendered the work “universally appreciable.” It may be so, but perhaps it does not universally inspire an appreciation of Beauty that “excites the sensitive soul to tears”—Poe’s desired effect for the poem.
Choose the tone of the work.
Poe claims the highest ground for his work, though it is debatable whether he was entirely serious. As “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem” in general, and “The Raven” in particular, “Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all poetical tones.” Whatever tone one chooses, however, the technique Poe employs, and recommends, likely applies. It is that of the “refrain”—a repeated “key-note” in word, phrase, or image that sustains the mood. In “The Raven,” the word “Nevermore” performs this function, a word Poe chose for its phonetic as much as for its conceptual qualities.
Poe claims that his choice of the Raven to deliver this refrain arose from a desire to reconcile the unthinking “monotony of the exercise” with the reasoning capabilities of a human character. He at first considered putting the word in the beak of a parrot, then settled on a Raven—“the bird of ill omen”—in keeping with the melancholy tone.
Determine the theme and characterization of the work.
Here Poe makes his claim about “the death of a beautiful woman,” and adds, “the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.” He chooses these particulars to represent his theme---“the most melancholy,” Death. Contrary to the methods of many a writer, Poe moves from the abstract to the concrete, choosing characters as mouthpieces of ideas.
Establish the climax.
In “The Raven,” Poe says, he “had now to combine the two ideas, of a lover lamenting his deceased mistress and a Raven continuously repeating the word ‘Nevermore.’” In bringing them together, he composed the third-to-last stanza first, allowing it to determine the “rhythm, the metre, and the length and general arrangement” of the remainder of the poem. As in the planning stage, Poe recommends that the writing “have its beginning—at the end.”
Determine the setting.
Though this aspect of any work seems the obvious place to start, Poe holds it to the end, after he has already decided why he wants to place certain characters in place, saying certain things. Only when he has clarified his purpose and broadly sketched in advance how he intends to acheive it does he decide “to place the lover in his chamber… richly furnished.” Arriving at these details last does not mean, however, that they are afterthoughts, but that they are suggested—or inevitably follow from—the work that comes before. In the case of "The Raven," Poe tells us that in order to carry out his literary scheme, “a close circumscription of space is absolutely necessary to the effect of insulated incident.”
Throughout his analysis, Poe continues to stress—with the high degree of repetition he favors in all of his writing—that he keeps “originality always in view.” But originality, for Poe, is not “a matter, as some suppose, of impulse or intuition.” Instead, he writes, it “demands in its attainment less of invention than negation.” In other words, Poe recommends that the writer make full use of familiar conventions and forms, but varying, combining, and adapting them to suit the purpose of the work and make them his or her own.
Though some of Poe’s discussion of technique relates specifically to poetry, as his own prose fiction testifies, these steps can equally apply to the art of the short story. And though he insists that depictions of Beauty and Death---or the melancholy beauty of death---mark the highest of literary aims, one could certainly adapt his formula to less obsessively morbid themes as well.
Mahir pari's assignment on Cultural imperialism
Name : Goswami mahir pari c.
Sem : 3
Roll no. : 21
Email Id :goswamimahirpari786@gmail.com
Enrollment no : 20691084201180021
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic : Cultural imperialism
To evaluate my assignment click here
Cultural imperialism comprises the cultural aspects of imperialism. Imperialism here refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations, favoring the more powerful civilization. Thus, cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting and imposing a culture, usually that of a politically powerful nation, over a less powerful society; in other words, the cultural hegemony of industrialized or economically influential countries which determine general cultural values and standardize civilizations throughout the world. The term is employed especially in the fields of history, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory. It is usually used in a pejorative sense, often in conjunction with calls to reject such influence. Cultural imperialism can take various forms, such as an attitude, a formal policy, or military action, insofar as it reinforces cultural hegemony.
Background and definitions
Although the Oxford English Dictionary has a 1921 reference to the "cultural imperialism of the Russians", John Tomlinson, in his book on the subject, writes that the term emerged in the 1960s and has been a focus of research since at least the 1970s. Terms such as "media imperialism", "structural imperialism", "cultural dependency and domination", "cultural synchronization", "electronic colonialism", "ideological imperialism", and "economic imperialism" have all been used to describe the same basic notion of cultural imperialism.
Various academics give various definitions of the term. American media critic Herbert Schiller wrote: "The concept of cultural imperialism today [1975] best describes the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system and how its dominating stratum is attracted, pressured, forced, and sometimes bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even promote, the values and structures of the dominating centre of the system. The public media are the foremost example of operating enterprises that are used in the penetrative process. For penetration on a significant scale the media themselves must be captured by the dominating/penetrating power. This occurs largely through the commercialization of broadcasting."
Tom McPhail defined "Electronic colonialism as the dependency relationship established by the importation of communication hardware, foreign-produced software, along with engineers, technicians, and related information protocols, that vicariously establish a set of foreign norms, values, and expectations which, in varying degrees, may alter the domestic cultures and socialization processes." Sui-Nam Lee observed that "communication imperialism can be defined as the process in which the ownership and control over the hardware and software of mass media as well as other major forms of communication in one country are singly or together subjugated to the domination of another country with deleterious effects on the indigenous values, norms and culture."Ogan saw "media imperialism often described as a process whereby the United States and Western Europe produce most of the media products, make the first profits from domestic sales, and then market the products in Third World countries at costs considerably lower than those the countries would have to bear to produce similar products at home."
Downing and Sreberny-Mohammadi state: "Imperialism is the conquest and control of one country by a more powerful one. Cultural imperialism signifies the dimensions of the process that go beyond economic exploitation or military force. In the history of colonialism, (i.e., the form of imperialism in which the government of the colony is run directly by foreigners), the educational and media systems of many Third World countries have been set up as replicas of those in Britain, France, or the United States and carry their values. Western advertising has made further inroads, as have architectural and fashion styles. Subtly but powerfully, the message has often been insinuated that Western cultures are superior to the cultures of the Third World."Needless to say, all these authors agree that cultural imperialism promotes the interests of certain circles within the imperial powers, often to the detriment of the target societies.
The issue of cultural imperialism emerged largely from communication studies.However, cultural imperialism has been used as a framework by scholars to explain phenomena in the areas of international relations, anthropology, education, science, history, literature, and sports.
In history
Although the term was popularized in the 1960s, and was used by its original proponents to refer to cultural hegemonies in a post-colonial world, cultural imperialism has also been used to refer to times further in the past.
Ancient Rome
The Roman Empire has been seen as an early example of cultural imperialism.
Early Rome, in its conquest of Italy, assimilated the people of Etruria by replacing the Etruscan language with Latin, which led to the demise of that language and many aspects of Etruscan civilization.
Cultural Romanization was imposed on many parts of Rome's empire by "many regions receiving Roman culture unwillingly, as a form of cultural imperialism." For example, when Greece was conquered by the Roman armies, Rome set about altering the culture of Greece to conform with Roman ideals. For instance, the Greek habit of stripping naked, in public, for exercise, was looked on askance by Roman writers, who considered the practice to be a cause of the Greeks' effeminacy and enslavement. The Roman example has been linked to modern instances of European imperialism in African countries, bridging the two instances with Slavoj Zizek's discussions of 'empty signifiers'
The Pax Romana was secured in the empire, in part, by the "forced acculturation of the culturally diverse populations that Rome had conquered."
British Empire
British worldwide expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries was an economic and political phenomenon. However, "there was also a strong social and cultural dimension to it, which Rudyard Kipling termed the 'white man's burden'." One of the ways this was carried out was by religious proselytising, by, amongst others, the London Missionary Society, which was "an agent of British cultural imperialism." Another way, was by the imposition of educational material on the colonies for an "imperial curriculum". Morag Bell writes, "The promotion of empire through books, illustrative materials, and educational syllabuses was widespread, part of an education policy geared to cultural imperialism". This was also true of science and technology in the empire. Douglas M. Peers and Nandini Gooptu note that "Most scholars of colonial science in India now prefer to stress the ways in which science and technology worked in the service of colonialism, as both a 'tool of empire' in the practical sense and as a vehicle for cultural imperialism. In other words, science developed in India in ways that reflected colonial priorities, tending to benefit Europeans at the expense of Indians, while remaining dependent on and subservient to scientific authorities in the colonial metropolis."
The analysis of cultural imperialism carried out by Edward Said drew principally from a study of the British Empire. According to Danilo Raponi, the cultural imperialism of the British in the 19th century had a much wider effect than only in the British Empire. He writes, "To paraphrase Said, I see cultural imperialism as a complex cultural hegemony of a country, Great Britain, that in the 19th century had no rivals in terms of its ability to project its power across the world and to influence the cultural, political and commercial affairs of most countries. It is the 'cultural hegemony' of a country whose power to export the most fundamental ideas and concepts at the basis of its understanding of 'civilisation' knew practically no bounds." In this, for example, Raponi includes Italy.
Other pre-Second World War examples
The New Cambridge Modern History writes about the cultural imperialism of Napoleonic France. Napoleon used the Institut de France "as an instrument for transmuting French universalism into cultural imperialism." Members of the Institute (who included Napoleon), descended upon Egypt in 1798. "Upon arrival they organised themselves into an Institute of Cairo. The Rosetta Stone is their most famous find. The science of Egyptology is their legacy."
After the First World War, Germans were worried about the extent of French influence in the annexed Rhineland, with the French occupation of the Ruhr Valley in 1923. An early use of the term appeared in an essay by Paul Ruhlmann (as "Peter Hartmann") at that date, entitled French Cultural Imperialism on the Rhine.
Nazi colonialism Edit
Cultural imperialism has also been used in connection with the expansion of German influence under the Nazis in the middle of the twentieth century. Alan Steinweis and Daniel Rogers note that even before the Nazis came to power, "Already in the Weimar Republic, German academic specialists on eastern Europe had contributed through their publications and teaching to the legitimization Of German territorial revanchism and cultural imperialism. These scholars operated primarily in the disciplines Of history, economics, geography, and literature."
In the area of music, Michael Kater writes that during the WWII German occupation of France, Hans Rosbaud, a German conductor based by the Nazi regime in Strasbourg, became "at least nominally, a servant of Nazi cultural imperialism directed against the French."
In Italy during the war, Germany pursued "a European cultural front that gravitates around German culture". The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels set up the European Union of Writers, "one of Goebbels's most ambitious projects for Nazi cultural hegemony. Presumably a means of gathering authors from Germany, Italy, and the occupied countries to plan the literary life of the new Europe, the union soon emerged as a vehicle of German cultural imperialism.
For other parts of Europe, Robert Gerwarth, writing about cultural imperialism and Reinhard Heydrich, states that the "Nazis' Germanization project was based on a historically unprecedented programme of racial stock-taking, theft, expulsion and murder." Also, "The full integration of the [Czech] Protectorate into this New Order required the complete Germanization of the Protectorate's cultural life and the eradication of indigenous Czech and Jewish culture."
The actions by Nazi Germany reflect on the notion of race and culture playing a significant role in imperialism. The idea that there is a distinction between the Germans and the Jews has created the illusion of Germans believing they were superior to the Jewish inferiors, the notion of us/them and self/others.
U.S cultural imperialism has two major goals, one economic and the other political: to capture markets for its cultural commodities and to establish hegemony by shaping popular consciousness. The export of entertainment is one of the most important sources of capital accumulation and global profits displacing manufacturing exports. In the political sphere, cultural imperialism plays a major role in dissociating people from their cultural roots and traditions of solidarity, replacing them with media created needs which change with every publicity campaign. The political effect in to alienate people from traditional class and community bonds, atomizing and separating individuals from each other.
Cultural imperialism emphasizes the segmentation of the working class: stable workers are encouraged to dissociate themselves from temporary workers, who in turn separate themselves from the unemployed, who are further segmented among themselves within the 'underground economy'. Cultural imperialism encourage working people to think of themselves as part of a hierarchy emphasizing minute differences in life style, in race and gander, with those below them rather than the vast inequalities that separate them from those above.
The principle target of cultural imperialism is the political and economic exploitation of youth. Imperial entertainment and advertisement target young people who are most vulnerable to U.S. commercial propaganda. The message is simple and direct: 'modernity' in associated with consuming U.S. media products. Youth represent a major market for U.S. cultural export and they are most susceptible to the consumerist-individualist propaganda. The mass media manipulates adolescent rebelliousness by appropriating the language of the left and channeling discontent into consumer extravagances. Cultural imperialism focuses on youth not only as a market but also for political reasons: to undercut a political threat in which personal rebellion could become political revolt against economic as well as cultural forms of control.
Over the past decade progressive movements confront a paradox: while the great majority of the people in the Third World experience deteriorating living standards, growing social and personal insecurity and decay in public services (while affluent minorities prosper as never before) the subjective response to these conditions has been sporadic revolts, sustained, but local activities and large scale protests of short duration. In a word, there is a profound gap between the growing inequalities and socio-economic conditions on the one hand and the weaknesses of revolutionary or radical subjective responses. The maturing 'objective conditions' in the Third World have not been accompanied by the growth of subjective forces capable of transforming the state or society. It is clear that there is no 'automatic- relationship between socio-economic regression and socio-political transformation. Cultural intervention (in the broadest sense including ideology, consciousness, social action) is the crucial link converting objective conditions into conscious political intervention. Paradoxically, imperial policy-makers seem to have understood the importance of cultural dimensions of political practice far better than their adversaries.
Cultural Domination and Global Exploitation
Imperialism cannot be understood merely as an economic-military system of control and exploitation. Cultural domination is an integral dimension to any sustained system of global exploitation.
In relation to the Third World, cultural imperialism can be defined as the systematic penetration and domination of the cultural life of the popular classes by the ruling class of the West in order to reorder the values, behavior, institutions and identity of the oppressed peoples to conform with the interests of the imperial classes. Cultural imperialism has taken both 'traditional' and modern forms. In past centuries, the Church, educational system, and public authorities played a major role in inculcating native peoples with ideas of submission and loyalty in the name of divine or absolutist principles. While these 'traditional' mechanisms of cultural imperialism still operate, new modern instrumentalities rooted in contemporary institutions have become increasingly central to imperial domination.
The mass media, publicity, advertisement and secular entertainers and intellectuals play a major role today. In the contemporary world, Hollywood, CNN and Disneyland are more influential than the Vatican, the Bible or the public relations rhetoric of political figures. Cultural penetration is closely linked to politico-military domination and economic exploitation. U.S. military interventions in support of the genocidal regimes in Central America which protect its economic interests are accompanied by intense cultural penetration. U.S. financed evangelicals invade Indian villages to inculcate messages of submission among the peasant-Indian victims. International conferences are sponsored for domesticated intellectuals to discuss 'democracy and market'. Escapist television programs sow illusions from "another world". Cultural penetration is the extension of counter-insurgency warfare by non-military means.
New Features of Cultural Colonialism
Contemporary cultural colonialism [CCC] is distinct from past practices in several senses:
(1) It is oriented toward capturing mass audiences, not just converting elites.
(2) The mass media, particularly television, invade the household and function from the 'inside' and 'below' as well as from 'outside' and above.
(3) CCC is global in scope and homogenizing in its impact: the pretense of universalism serves to mystify the symbols, goals and interests of the imperial power.
(4) The mass media as instruments of cultural imperialism today are 'private' only in the formal sense: the absence of formal state ties provides a legitimate cover for the private media projecting imperial state interests as 'news' or 'entertainment'.
(5) Under contemporary imperialism, political interests are projected through non-imperial subjects. -News reports' focus on the personal biographies of mercenary peasant-soldiers in Central America and smiling working class U.S. blacks in the Gulf War.
(6) Because of the increasing gap between the promise of peace and prosperity under unregulated capital and the reality of increasing misery and violence, the mass media have narrowed even further the possibilities of alternative perspectives in their programs. Total cultural control is the counterpart of the total separation between the brutality of real-existing capitalism and the illusory promises of the free market.
(7) To paralyze collective responses, cultural colonialism seeks to destroy national identities or empty them of substantive socio-economic content. To rupture the solidarity of communities, cultural imperialism promotes the cult of 'modernity' as conformity with external symbols. In the name of 'individuality', social bonds are attacked and personalities are reshaped according to the dictates of media messages. While imperial arms disarticulate civil society, and banks pillage the economy, the imperial media provide individuals with escapist identities.
Cultural imperialism provides devastating demonological caricatures of revolutionary adversaries, while encouraging collective amnesia of the massive violence of pro-Western countries. The Western mass media never remind their audience of the murder by anti-communist pro-U.S. regimes of 100,000 Indiana in Guatemala, 75,000 working people in El Salvador, 50,000 victims in Nicaragua. The mass media, cover up the great disasters resulting from the introduction of the market in Eastern Europe and the ex-U.S.S.R., leaving hundreds of millions Impoverished.
Mass Media: Propaganda and Capital Accumulation
The mass media is one of the principal sources of wealth and power for U.S. capital as it extends its communication networks throughout the world. An increasing percentage of the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media. Among the 400 wealthiest Americans the percentage deriving their wealth from the mass media increased from 9.5 percent in 1982 to 18 percent in 1989. Today almost one out of five of the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media. Cultural capitalism has displaced manufacturing as a source of wealth and influence in the U.S.
The mass media have become an integral part of the U.S. system of global political and social control, as well as a major source of super profits. As the levels of exploitation, inequality and poverty increase in the Third World, Western controlled mass communications operate to convert a critical public into a passive mass. Western media celebrities and mass entertainment have become important ingredients in deflecting potential political unrest. The Reagan presidency highlighted the centrality of media manipulation through highly visible but politically reactionary entertainers, a phenomena which has spread to Latin American and Asia.
There is a direct relation between the increase in the number of television sets in Latin America, the decline of income and the decrease in mass struggle. In Latin America between 1980, and 1990, the number of television sets per inhabitant increased 40 percent,, while the real average income declined 40 percent, and a host of neo-liberal political candidates heavily dependent on television images won the presidency. The increasing penetration of the mass media among the poor, the growing investments and profits by U.S. corporations in the sale of cultural commodities and the saturation of mass audiences with messages that provide the poor with vicarious experiences of individual consumption and adventure defines the current challenge of cultural colonialism.
U.S. media messages are alienating to Third World people in a double sense. They create illusions of 'international' and 'cross class' bonds. Through television images a false intimacy and an imaginary link is established between the successful subjects of the media and the impoverished spectators in the 'barrios'. These linkages provide a channel through which the discourse of individual solutions for private problems is propagated. The message is clear. The victims are blamed for their own poverty, success depends on individual efforts. Major TV satellites, U.S. and European mass media outlets in Latin America avoid any critique of the politico-economic origins and consequences of the new cultural imperialism that has temporarily disoriented and immobilized millions of impoverished Latin Americans. Imperialism and the Politics of Language Cultural imperialism has developed a dual strategy to counter the Left and establishing hegemony. On the one hand, it seeks to corrupt the political language of the left; on the other it acts to desensitize the general public to the atrocities committed by Western powers.
During the 1980's the western mass media systematically appropriated basic ideas of the left, emptied them of their original content and refilled them with a reactionary message. For example, the mass media described politicians intent in restoring capitalism and stimulating inequalities as "reformers" or "revolutionaries", while their opponents were labeled "conservatives". Cultural imperialism sought to promote ideological confusion and political disorientation by reversing the meaning of political language. Many progressive individuals became disoriented by this ideological manipulation. As a result, they were vulnerable to the claims of imperial ideologues who argue that the terms "Right" and "Left" lacked any meaning, that the distinctions have lost significance, that ideologies no longer have meaning. By corrupting the language of the Left and distorting the content of the Left and Right, cultural imperialists hope to undermine the political appeals and political practices of the anti-imperialist movements.
The second strategy of cultural imperialism was to de-sensitize the public; to make mass murder by the Western states routine, acceptable activities. Mass bombings in Iraq were presented in the form of video games. By trivializing crimes against humanity, the public is desensitized from its traditional belief that human suffering is wrong. By emphasizing the modernity of new techniques of warfare, the mass media glorify existing elite power - the techno-warfare of the West. Cultural imperialism today includes "news" reports in which the weapons of mass destruction are presented with human attributes while the victims in the Third World are faceless "aggressors- terrorists".
Global cultural manipulation is sustained by the corruption of the language of politics. In Eastern Europe, speculators and mafioso seizing land, enterprises and wealth are described as "reformers". Contrabandists are described as "innovating entrepreneurs". In the West the concentration of absolute power to hire and fire in the hands of management and the increased vulnerability and insecurity of labor is called "labor flexibility". In the Third World the selling of national public enterprise to giant multi-national monopolies is described as "breaking-up monopolies". "Reconversion" is the euphemism for reversion to 19th century condition of labor stripped of all social benefits. "Restructuring" is the return to specialization in raw materials or the transfer of income from production to speculation. "Deregulation" is the shift in power to regulate the economy from the national welfare state to the international banking, multi-national power elite. "Structural adjustments" in Latin America mean transferring resources to investors and lowering payments to labor. The concepts of the left (reform, agrarian reform, structural changes) were originally oriented toward redistributing income. These concepts have been coopted and turned into symbols for reconcentrating wealth, income and power into the hands of Western elites. And of course all the private cultural institutions of imperialism amplify and propagate this Orwellian disinformation. Contemporary cultural imperialism has debased the language of liberation, converting it into symbols of reaction.
Cultural Terrorism: The Tyranny of Liberalism
Just as western state terrorism attempts to destroy social movements, revolutionary governments and disarticulate civil society, economic terrorism as practiced by the IMF and private bank consortia, destroy local industries, erode public ownership and savages wage and salaried household. Cultural terrorism is responsible for the physical displacement of local cultural activities and artists. Cultural terrorism by preying on the psychological weaknesses and deep anxieties of vulnerable Third World peoples, particularly their sense of being "backward", "traditional" and oppressed, projects new images of "mobility" and "free expression", destroying old bonds to family and community, while fastening new chains of arbitrary authority linked to corporate power and commercial markets.
The attacks on traditional restraints and obligations is a mechanism by which the capitalist market and state becomes the ultimate center of exclusive power. Cultural imperialism in the name of "self expression" tyrannizes Third World people fearful of being labeled "traditional", seducing and manipulating them by the phony images of classless "modernity". Cultural imperialism questions all pre-existing relations that are obstacles to the one and only sacred modern deity: the market. Third World peoples are entertained, coerced, titillated to be modern', to submit to the demands of capitalist market to discard comfortable, traditional, loose fitting clothes for ill fitting unsuitable tight blue jeans.
Cultural imperialism functions best through colonized intermediaries, cultural collaborators. The prototype imperial collaborators are the upwardly mobile Third World professionals who imitate the style of their patrons. These collaborators are servile to the West and arrogant to their people, prototypical authoritarian personalities. Backed by the banks and multinationals, they wield immense power through the state and local mass media. Imitative of the West, they are rigid in their conformity to the rules of unequal competition, opening their country and peoples to savage exploitation in the name of free trade. Among the prominent cultural collaborators are the institutional intellectuals who deny class domination and imperial class warfare behind the jargon of objective social science. They fetishize the market as the absolute arbiter of good and evil. Behind the rhetoric of 'regional cooperation", the conformist intellectuals attack working class and national institutions which constrain capital movements -- their supporters isolated and marginalized.
Today throughout the Third World, Western funded Third World intellectuals have embraced the ideology of concertation (class collaboration). The notion of interdependence has replaced imperialism. And the unregulated world market is presented as the only alternative for development. The irony is that today as never before the "market" has been least favorable to the Third World. Never have the U.S., Europe and Japan been so aggressive in exploiting the Third World. The cultural alienation of the institutional intellectuals from the global realities is a byproduct of the ascendancy of Western cultural imperialism. For those critical intellectuals who refuse to join the celebration of the market, who are outside of the official conference circuits, the challenge is to once again return to the class and anti-imperialist struggle.
North Americanization and the Myth of an International Culture
One of the great deceptions of our times is the notion of 'internationalization' of ideas, markets and movements. It has become fashionable to evoke terms like "globalization" or "internationalization" to justify attacks on any or all forms of solidarity, community, and/or social values. Under the guise of "internationalism", Europe and the U.S. have become dominant exporters of cultural forms most conducive to depoliticizing and trivializing everyday existence. The images of individual mobility, the "self-make person", the emphasis on "self-centered existence" (mass produced and distributed by the U.S. mass media industry) now have become major instruments in dominating the Third World.
Neo-liberalism continues to thrive not because it solves problems, but because it serves the interest of the wealthy and powerful and resonates among some sectors of the impoverished self-employed who crowd the streets of the Third World. The North Americanization of Third World cultures takes place with the blessing and support of the national ruling classes because it contributes to stabilize their rule. The new cultural norms -- the private over the public, the individual over social, the sensational and violent over everyday struggles and social realities -- all contribute to inculcating precisely the egocentric values that undermine collective action. The culture of images, of transitory experiences, of sexual conquest, works against reflection, commitment and shared feelings of affection and solidarity. The North Americanization of culture means focusing popular attention on celebrities, personalities and private gossip -- not on social depth, economic substance and the human condition. Cultural imperialism distracts from power relation and erodes collective forms of social action.
The media culture that glorifies the 'provisional' reflects the rootlessness of U.S. capitalism -- its power to hire and fire, to move capital without regard for communities. The myth of "freedom of mobility" reflects the incapacity of people to establish and consolidate community roots in the face of the shifting demands of capital. North American culture glorifies transient, impersonal relations as "freedom" when in fact these conditions reflect the anomie and bureaucratic subordination of a mass of individuals to the power of corporate capital. North Americanization involves a wholesale assault on traditions of solidarity in the name of modernity, attacks on class loyalties in the name of individualism, the debasement of democracy through massive media campaigns focusing on personalities.
The new cultural tyranny is rooted in the omnipresent repetitive singular discourse of the market, of a homogenized culture of consumption, of a debased electoral system. The new media tyranny stands alongside the hierarchical state and economic institutions that reach from the board roams of the international banks to the villages in the Andes. The secret of the success of North American cultural penetration of the Third World is its capacity to fashion fantasies to escape from misery, that the very system of economic and military domination generates. The essential ingredients of the new cultural imperialism is the fusion of commercialism-sexuality-conservatism each presented as idealized expressions of private needs, of individual self-realization. To some Third World people immersed in everyday dead end jobs, struggles for everyday survival, in the midst of squalor and degradation, the fantasies of North American media, like the evangelist, portray "something better", a hope in a future better life -- or at least the vicarious pleasure of watching others enjoying it.
Impact of Cultural Imperialism
If we want to understand the absence of revolutionary transformation, despite the maturing of revolutionary conditions, we must reconsider the profound psychological impact of state violence, political terror and the deep penetration of cultural/ideological values propagated by the imperial countries and internalized by the oppressed peoples. The state violence of the 1970's and early 1980's created long term, large scale psychic damage -- fear of radical initiatives, distrust of collectivities, a sense of impotence before established authorities -- even as the same authorities are hated. Terror turned "people inward" toward private domains.
Subsequently, neo-liberal policies, a form of "economic terrorism", resulted in the closing of factories, the abolition of legal protection of labor, the growth of temporary work, the multiplication of low paid individual enterprises. These policies further fragmented working class and urban communities. In this context of fragmentation, distrust and privatization, the cultural message of imperialism found fertile fields to exploit vulnerable peoples' sensibilities, encouraging and deepening personal alienation, self-centered pursuits and individual competition over ever scarce resources.
Cultural imperialism and the values it promotes has played a major role in preventing exploited individuals from responding collectively to their deteriorating conditions. The symbols, images and ideologies that have spread to the Third World are major obstacles to the conversion of class exploitation and growing immiseration into class conscious bases for collective action. The great victory of imperialism is not only the material profits, but its conquest of the inner space of consciousness of the oppressed directly through the mass media and indirectly through the capture (or surrender) of its intellectual and political class. Insofar as a revival of mass revolutionary politics is possible, it must begin with open warfare not only with the conditions of exploitation but with culture that subjects its victims.
Limits of Cultural Imperialism
Against the pressures of cultural colonialism is the reality principle: the personal experience of misery and exploitation imposed by Western multinational banks, the police/military repression enforced by U.S. supplied arms. Everyday realities which the escapist media can never change. Within the consciousness of the Third World peoples there is a constant struggle between the demon of individual escape (cultivated by the mass media) and the intuitive knowledge that collective action and responsibility is the only practical response. In times of ascending social mobilizations, the virtue of solidarity takes precedence; in times of defeat and decline, the demons of individual rapacity are given license.
There are absolute limits in the capacity of cultural imperialism to distract and mystify people beyond which popular rejection sets in. The TV "table of plenty" contrasts with the experience of the empty kitchen; the amorous escapades of media personalities crash against a houseful of crawling, crying hungry children. In the street confrontations, Coca Cola becomes a Molotov cocktail. The promise of affluence becomes an affront to those who are perpetually denied. Prolonged impoverishment and widespread decay erode the glamour and appeal of the fantasies of the mass media. The false promises of cultural imperialism become the objects of bitter jokes relegated to another time and place.
The appeals of cultural imperialism are limited by the enduring ties of collectivities -- local and regional -- which have their own values and practices. Where class, racial, gender and ethnic bonds endure and practices of collective action are strong, the influence of the mass media are limited or rejected.
To the extent that preexisting cultures and traditions exist, they form a "closed circle" which integrates social and cultural practices that look inward and downward, not upward and outward. In many communities there is a clear rejection of the "modernist" developmental- individualist discourse associated with the supremacy of the market. The historical roots for sustained solidarity and anti-imperial movements are found in cohesive ethnic and occupational communities; mining towns, fishing and forestry villages, industrial concentrations in urban centers. Where work, community and class converge with collective cultural traditions and practices, cultural imperialism retreats. The effectiveness of cultural imperialism does not depend merely on its technical skills of manipulation, but on the capacity for the state to brutalize and atomize the populace, to deprive it of its hopes and collective faith in egalitarian societies.
Cultural liberation involves not merely "empowering" individuals or classes, but is dependent on the development of a socio-political force capable of confronting the state terror that precedes cultural conquest. Cultural autonomy depends on social power and social power is perceived by the ruling classes as a threat to economic and state power. Just as cultural struggle is rooted in values of autonomy, community and solidarity which are necessary to create the consciousness for social transformations, political and military power is necessary to sustain the cultural bases for class and national identities. Most important, the Left must recreate a faith and vision of a new society built around spiritual as well as material values: values of beauty and not only work. Solidarity linked to generosity and dignity. Where modes of production are subordinated to efforts to strengthen and deepen longstanding personal bonds and friendship.
Socialism must recognize the longings to be alone to be intimate as well as to be social and collective. Above all, the new vision must inspire people because it resonates with their desire not only to be free from domination but free to create a meaningful personal life informed by affective non-instrumental relations that transcend everyday work even as it inspires people to continue to struggle. Cultural imperialism thrives as much on novelty, transitory relations and personal manipulation, but never on a vision of authentic, intimate ties based on personal honesty, gender equality and social solidarity. Personal images mask mass state killings, just as technocratic rhetoric rationalize weapons of mass destruction ('intelligent bombs'). Cultural imperialism in the era of 'democracy' must falsify reality in the imperial country to justify aggression -- by converting victims into aggressors and aggressors into victims.
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Cultural imperialism comprises the cultural aspects of imperialism. Imperialism here refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations, favoring the more powerful civilization. Thus, cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting and imposing a culture, usually that of a politically powerful nation, over a less powerful society; in other words, the cultural hegemony of industrialized or economically influential countries which determine general cultural values and standardize civilizations throughout the world. The term is employed especially in the fields of history, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory. It is usually used in a pejorative sense, often in conjunction with calls to reject such influence. Cultural imperialism can take various forms, such as an attitude, a formal policy, or military action, insofar as it reinforces cultural hegemony.
Background and definitions
Although the Oxford English Dictionary has a 1921 reference to the "cultural imperialism of the Russians", John Tomlinson, in his book on the subject, writes that the term emerged in the 1960s and has been a focus of research since at least the 1970s. Terms such as "media imperialism", "structural imperialism", "cultural dependency and domination", "cultural synchronization", "electronic colonialism", "ideological imperialism", and "economic imperialism" have all been used to describe the same basic notion of cultural imperialism.
Various academics give various definitions of the term. American media critic Herbert Schiller wrote: "The concept of cultural imperialism today [1975] best describes the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system and how its dominating stratum is attracted, pressured, forced, and sometimes bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even promote, the values and structures of the dominating centre of the system. The public media are the foremost example of operating enterprises that are used in the penetrative process. For penetration on a significant scale the media themselves must be captured by the dominating/penetrating power. This occurs largely through the commercialization of broadcasting."
Tom McPhail defined "Electronic colonialism as the dependency relationship established by the importation of communication hardware, foreign-produced software, along with engineers, technicians, and related information protocols, that vicariously establish a set of foreign norms, values, and expectations which, in varying degrees, may alter the domestic cultures and socialization processes." Sui-Nam Lee observed that "communication imperialism can be defined as the process in which the ownership and control over the hardware and software of mass media as well as other major forms of communication in one country are singly or together subjugated to the domination of another country with deleterious effects on the indigenous values, norms and culture."Ogan saw "media imperialism often described as a process whereby the United States and Western Europe produce most of the media products, make the first profits from domestic sales, and then market the products in Third World countries at costs considerably lower than those the countries would have to bear to produce similar products at home."
Downing and Sreberny-Mohammadi state: "Imperialism is the conquest and control of one country by a more powerful one. Cultural imperialism signifies the dimensions of the process that go beyond economic exploitation or military force. In the history of colonialism, (i.e., the form of imperialism in which the government of the colony is run directly by foreigners), the educational and media systems of many Third World countries have been set up as replicas of those in Britain, France, or the United States and carry their values. Western advertising has made further inroads, as have architectural and fashion styles. Subtly but powerfully, the message has often been insinuated that Western cultures are superior to the cultures of the Third World."Needless to say, all these authors agree that cultural imperialism promotes the interests of certain circles within the imperial powers, often to the detriment of the target societies.
The issue of cultural imperialism emerged largely from communication studies.However, cultural imperialism has been used as a framework by scholars to explain phenomena in the areas of international relations, anthropology, education, science, history, literature, and sports.
In history
Although the term was popularized in the 1960s, and was used by its original proponents to refer to cultural hegemonies in a post-colonial world, cultural imperialism has also been used to refer to times further in the past.
Ancient Rome
The Roman Empire has been seen as an early example of cultural imperialism.
Early Rome, in its conquest of Italy, assimilated the people of Etruria by replacing the Etruscan language with Latin, which led to the demise of that language and many aspects of Etruscan civilization.
Cultural Romanization was imposed on many parts of Rome's empire by "many regions receiving Roman culture unwillingly, as a form of cultural imperialism." For example, when Greece was conquered by the Roman armies, Rome set about altering the culture of Greece to conform with Roman ideals. For instance, the Greek habit of stripping naked, in public, for exercise, was looked on askance by Roman writers, who considered the practice to be a cause of the Greeks' effeminacy and enslavement. The Roman example has been linked to modern instances of European imperialism in African countries, bridging the two instances with Slavoj Zizek's discussions of 'empty signifiers'
The Pax Romana was secured in the empire, in part, by the "forced acculturation of the culturally diverse populations that Rome had conquered."
British Empire
British worldwide expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries was an economic and political phenomenon. However, "there was also a strong social and cultural dimension to it, which Rudyard Kipling termed the 'white man's burden'." One of the ways this was carried out was by religious proselytising, by, amongst others, the London Missionary Society, which was "an agent of British cultural imperialism." Another way, was by the imposition of educational material on the colonies for an "imperial curriculum". Morag Bell writes, "The promotion of empire through books, illustrative materials, and educational syllabuses was widespread, part of an education policy geared to cultural imperialism". This was also true of science and technology in the empire. Douglas M. Peers and Nandini Gooptu note that "Most scholars of colonial science in India now prefer to stress the ways in which science and technology worked in the service of colonialism, as both a 'tool of empire' in the practical sense and as a vehicle for cultural imperialism. In other words, science developed in India in ways that reflected colonial priorities, tending to benefit Europeans at the expense of Indians, while remaining dependent on and subservient to scientific authorities in the colonial metropolis."
The analysis of cultural imperialism carried out by Edward Said drew principally from a study of the British Empire. According to Danilo Raponi, the cultural imperialism of the British in the 19th century had a much wider effect than only in the British Empire. He writes, "To paraphrase Said, I see cultural imperialism as a complex cultural hegemony of a country, Great Britain, that in the 19th century had no rivals in terms of its ability to project its power across the world and to influence the cultural, political and commercial affairs of most countries. It is the 'cultural hegemony' of a country whose power to export the most fundamental ideas and concepts at the basis of its understanding of 'civilisation' knew practically no bounds." In this, for example, Raponi includes Italy.
Other pre-Second World War examples
The New Cambridge Modern History writes about the cultural imperialism of Napoleonic France. Napoleon used the Institut de France "as an instrument for transmuting French universalism into cultural imperialism." Members of the Institute (who included Napoleon), descended upon Egypt in 1798. "Upon arrival they organised themselves into an Institute of Cairo. The Rosetta Stone is their most famous find. The science of Egyptology is their legacy."
After the First World War, Germans were worried about the extent of French influence in the annexed Rhineland, with the French occupation of the Ruhr Valley in 1923. An early use of the term appeared in an essay by Paul Ruhlmann (as "Peter Hartmann") at that date, entitled French Cultural Imperialism on the Rhine.
Nazi colonialism Edit
Cultural imperialism has also been used in connection with the expansion of German influence under the Nazis in the middle of the twentieth century. Alan Steinweis and Daniel Rogers note that even before the Nazis came to power, "Already in the Weimar Republic, German academic specialists on eastern Europe had contributed through their publications and teaching to the legitimization Of German territorial revanchism and cultural imperialism. These scholars operated primarily in the disciplines Of history, economics, geography, and literature."
In the area of music, Michael Kater writes that during the WWII German occupation of France, Hans Rosbaud, a German conductor based by the Nazi regime in Strasbourg, became "at least nominally, a servant of Nazi cultural imperialism directed against the French."
In Italy during the war, Germany pursued "a European cultural front that gravitates around German culture". The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels set up the European Union of Writers, "one of Goebbels's most ambitious projects for Nazi cultural hegemony. Presumably a means of gathering authors from Germany, Italy, and the occupied countries to plan the literary life of the new Europe, the union soon emerged as a vehicle of German cultural imperialism.
For other parts of Europe, Robert Gerwarth, writing about cultural imperialism and Reinhard Heydrich, states that the "Nazis' Germanization project was based on a historically unprecedented programme of racial stock-taking, theft, expulsion and murder." Also, "The full integration of the [Czech] Protectorate into this New Order required the complete Germanization of the Protectorate's cultural life and the eradication of indigenous Czech and Jewish culture."
The actions by Nazi Germany reflect on the notion of race and culture playing a significant role in imperialism. The idea that there is a distinction between the Germans and the Jews has created the illusion of Germans believing they were superior to the Jewish inferiors, the notion of us/them and self/others.
U.S cultural imperialism has two major goals, one economic and the other political: to capture markets for its cultural commodities and to establish hegemony by shaping popular consciousness. The export of entertainment is one of the most important sources of capital accumulation and global profits displacing manufacturing exports. In the political sphere, cultural imperialism plays a major role in dissociating people from their cultural roots and traditions of solidarity, replacing them with media created needs which change with every publicity campaign. The political effect in to alienate people from traditional class and community bonds, atomizing and separating individuals from each other.
Cultural imperialism emphasizes the segmentation of the working class: stable workers are encouraged to dissociate themselves from temporary workers, who in turn separate themselves from the unemployed, who are further segmented among themselves within the 'underground economy'. Cultural imperialism encourage working people to think of themselves as part of a hierarchy emphasizing minute differences in life style, in race and gander, with those below them rather than the vast inequalities that separate them from those above.
The principle target of cultural imperialism is the political and economic exploitation of youth. Imperial entertainment and advertisement target young people who are most vulnerable to U.S. commercial propaganda. The message is simple and direct: 'modernity' in associated with consuming U.S. media products. Youth represent a major market for U.S. cultural export and they are most susceptible to the consumerist-individualist propaganda. The mass media manipulates adolescent rebelliousness by appropriating the language of the left and channeling discontent into consumer extravagances. Cultural imperialism focuses on youth not only as a market but also for political reasons: to undercut a political threat in which personal rebellion could become political revolt against economic as well as cultural forms of control.
Over the past decade progressive movements confront a paradox: while the great majority of the people in the Third World experience deteriorating living standards, growing social and personal insecurity and decay in public services (while affluent minorities prosper as never before) the subjective response to these conditions has been sporadic revolts, sustained, but local activities and large scale protests of short duration. In a word, there is a profound gap between the growing inequalities and socio-economic conditions on the one hand and the weaknesses of revolutionary or radical subjective responses. The maturing 'objective conditions' in the Third World have not been accompanied by the growth of subjective forces capable of transforming the state or society. It is clear that there is no 'automatic- relationship between socio-economic regression and socio-political transformation. Cultural intervention (in the broadest sense including ideology, consciousness, social action) is the crucial link converting objective conditions into conscious political intervention. Paradoxically, imperial policy-makers seem to have understood the importance of cultural dimensions of political practice far better than their adversaries.
Cultural Domination and Global Exploitation
Imperialism cannot be understood merely as an economic-military system of control and exploitation. Cultural domination is an integral dimension to any sustained system of global exploitation.
In relation to the Third World, cultural imperialism can be defined as the systematic penetration and domination of the cultural life of the popular classes by the ruling class of the West in order to reorder the values, behavior, institutions and identity of the oppressed peoples to conform with the interests of the imperial classes. Cultural imperialism has taken both 'traditional' and modern forms. In past centuries, the Church, educational system, and public authorities played a major role in inculcating native peoples with ideas of submission and loyalty in the name of divine or absolutist principles. While these 'traditional' mechanisms of cultural imperialism still operate, new modern instrumentalities rooted in contemporary institutions have become increasingly central to imperial domination.
The mass media, publicity, advertisement and secular entertainers and intellectuals play a major role today. In the contemporary world, Hollywood, CNN and Disneyland are more influential than the Vatican, the Bible or the public relations rhetoric of political figures. Cultural penetration is closely linked to politico-military domination and economic exploitation. U.S. military interventions in support of the genocidal regimes in Central America which protect its economic interests are accompanied by intense cultural penetration. U.S. financed evangelicals invade Indian villages to inculcate messages of submission among the peasant-Indian victims. International conferences are sponsored for domesticated intellectuals to discuss 'democracy and market'. Escapist television programs sow illusions from "another world". Cultural penetration is the extension of counter-insurgency warfare by non-military means.
New Features of Cultural Colonialism
Contemporary cultural colonialism [CCC] is distinct from past practices in several senses:
(1) It is oriented toward capturing mass audiences, not just converting elites.
(2) The mass media, particularly television, invade the household and function from the 'inside' and 'below' as well as from 'outside' and above.
(3) CCC is global in scope and homogenizing in its impact: the pretense of universalism serves to mystify the symbols, goals and interests of the imperial power.
(4) The mass media as instruments of cultural imperialism today are 'private' only in the formal sense: the absence of formal state ties provides a legitimate cover for the private media projecting imperial state interests as 'news' or 'entertainment'.
(5) Under contemporary imperialism, political interests are projected through non-imperial subjects. -News reports' focus on the personal biographies of mercenary peasant-soldiers in Central America and smiling working class U.S. blacks in the Gulf War.
(6) Because of the increasing gap between the promise of peace and prosperity under unregulated capital and the reality of increasing misery and violence, the mass media have narrowed even further the possibilities of alternative perspectives in their programs. Total cultural control is the counterpart of the total separation between the brutality of real-existing capitalism and the illusory promises of the free market.
(7) To paralyze collective responses, cultural colonialism seeks to destroy national identities or empty them of substantive socio-economic content. To rupture the solidarity of communities, cultural imperialism promotes the cult of 'modernity' as conformity with external symbols. In the name of 'individuality', social bonds are attacked and personalities are reshaped according to the dictates of media messages. While imperial arms disarticulate civil society, and banks pillage the economy, the imperial media provide individuals with escapist identities.
Cultural imperialism provides devastating demonological caricatures of revolutionary adversaries, while encouraging collective amnesia of the massive violence of pro-Western countries. The Western mass media never remind their audience of the murder by anti-communist pro-U.S. regimes of 100,000 Indiana in Guatemala, 75,000 working people in El Salvador, 50,000 victims in Nicaragua. The mass media, cover up the great disasters resulting from the introduction of the market in Eastern Europe and the ex-U.S.S.R., leaving hundreds of millions Impoverished.
Mass Media: Propaganda and Capital Accumulation
The mass media is one of the principal sources of wealth and power for U.S. capital as it extends its communication networks throughout the world. An increasing percentage of the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media. Among the 400 wealthiest Americans the percentage deriving their wealth from the mass media increased from 9.5 percent in 1982 to 18 percent in 1989. Today almost one out of five of the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media. Cultural capitalism has displaced manufacturing as a source of wealth and influence in the U.S.
The mass media have become an integral part of the U.S. system of global political and social control, as well as a major source of super profits. As the levels of exploitation, inequality and poverty increase in the Third World, Western controlled mass communications operate to convert a critical public into a passive mass. Western media celebrities and mass entertainment have become important ingredients in deflecting potential political unrest. The Reagan presidency highlighted the centrality of media manipulation through highly visible but politically reactionary entertainers, a phenomena which has spread to Latin American and Asia.
There is a direct relation between the increase in the number of television sets in Latin America, the decline of income and the decrease in mass struggle. In Latin America between 1980, and 1990, the number of television sets per inhabitant increased 40 percent,, while the real average income declined 40 percent, and a host of neo-liberal political candidates heavily dependent on television images won the presidency. The increasing penetration of the mass media among the poor, the growing investments and profits by U.S. corporations in the sale of cultural commodities and the saturation of mass audiences with messages that provide the poor with vicarious experiences of individual consumption and adventure defines the current challenge of cultural colonialism.
U.S. media messages are alienating to Third World people in a double sense. They create illusions of 'international' and 'cross class' bonds. Through television images a false intimacy and an imaginary link is established between the successful subjects of the media and the impoverished spectators in the 'barrios'. These linkages provide a channel through which the discourse of individual solutions for private problems is propagated. The message is clear. The victims are blamed for their own poverty, success depends on individual efforts. Major TV satellites, U.S. and European mass media outlets in Latin America avoid any critique of the politico-economic origins and consequences of the new cultural imperialism that has temporarily disoriented and immobilized millions of impoverished Latin Americans. Imperialism and the Politics of Language Cultural imperialism has developed a dual strategy to counter the Left and establishing hegemony. On the one hand, it seeks to corrupt the political language of the left; on the other it acts to desensitize the general public to the atrocities committed by Western powers.
During the 1980's the western mass media systematically appropriated basic ideas of the left, emptied them of their original content and refilled them with a reactionary message. For example, the mass media described politicians intent in restoring capitalism and stimulating inequalities as "reformers" or "revolutionaries", while their opponents were labeled "conservatives". Cultural imperialism sought to promote ideological confusion and political disorientation by reversing the meaning of political language. Many progressive individuals became disoriented by this ideological manipulation. As a result, they were vulnerable to the claims of imperial ideologues who argue that the terms "Right" and "Left" lacked any meaning, that the distinctions have lost significance, that ideologies no longer have meaning. By corrupting the language of the Left and distorting the content of the Left and Right, cultural imperialists hope to undermine the political appeals and political practices of the anti-imperialist movements.
The second strategy of cultural imperialism was to de-sensitize the public; to make mass murder by the Western states routine, acceptable activities. Mass bombings in Iraq were presented in the form of video games. By trivializing crimes against humanity, the public is desensitized from its traditional belief that human suffering is wrong. By emphasizing the modernity of new techniques of warfare, the mass media glorify existing elite power - the techno-warfare of the West. Cultural imperialism today includes "news" reports in which the weapons of mass destruction are presented with human attributes while the victims in the Third World are faceless "aggressors- terrorists".
Global cultural manipulation is sustained by the corruption of the language of politics. In Eastern Europe, speculators and mafioso seizing land, enterprises and wealth are described as "reformers". Contrabandists are described as "innovating entrepreneurs". In the West the concentration of absolute power to hire and fire in the hands of management and the increased vulnerability and insecurity of labor is called "labor flexibility". In the Third World the selling of national public enterprise to giant multi-national monopolies is described as "breaking-up monopolies". "Reconversion" is the euphemism for reversion to 19th century condition of labor stripped of all social benefits. "Restructuring" is the return to specialization in raw materials or the transfer of income from production to speculation. "Deregulation" is the shift in power to regulate the economy from the national welfare state to the international banking, multi-national power elite. "Structural adjustments" in Latin America mean transferring resources to investors and lowering payments to labor. The concepts of the left (reform, agrarian reform, structural changes) were originally oriented toward redistributing income. These concepts have been coopted and turned into symbols for reconcentrating wealth, income and power into the hands of Western elites. And of course all the private cultural institutions of imperialism amplify and propagate this Orwellian disinformation. Contemporary cultural imperialism has debased the language of liberation, converting it into symbols of reaction.
Cultural Terrorism: The Tyranny of Liberalism
Just as western state terrorism attempts to destroy social movements, revolutionary governments and disarticulate civil society, economic terrorism as practiced by the IMF and private bank consortia, destroy local industries, erode public ownership and savages wage and salaried household. Cultural terrorism is responsible for the physical displacement of local cultural activities and artists. Cultural terrorism by preying on the psychological weaknesses and deep anxieties of vulnerable Third World peoples, particularly their sense of being "backward", "traditional" and oppressed, projects new images of "mobility" and "free expression", destroying old bonds to family and community, while fastening new chains of arbitrary authority linked to corporate power and commercial markets.
The attacks on traditional restraints and obligations is a mechanism by which the capitalist market and state becomes the ultimate center of exclusive power. Cultural imperialism in the name of "self expression" tyrannizes Third World people fearful of being labeled "traditional", seducing and manipulating them by the phony images of classless "modernity". Cultural imperialism questions all pre-existing relations that are obstacles to the one and only sacred modern deity: the market. Third World peoples are entertained, coerced, titillated to be modern', to submit to the demands of capitalist market to discard comfortable, traditional, loose fitting clothes for ill fitting unsuitable tight blue jeans.
Cultural imperialism functions best through colonized intermediaries, cultural collaborators. The prototype imperial collaborators are the upwardly mobile Third World professionals who imitate the style of their patrons. These collaborators are servile to the West and arrogant to their people, prototypical authoritarian personalities. Backed by the banks and multinationals, they wield immense power through the state and local mass media. Imitative of the West, they are rigid in their conformity to the rules of unequal competition, opening their country and peoples to savage exploitation in the name of free trade. Among the prominent cultural collaborators are the institutional intellectuals who deny class domination and imperial class warfare behind the jargon of objective social science. They fetishize the market as the absolute arbiter of good and evil. Behind the rhetoric of 'regional cooperation", the conformist intellectuals attack working class and national institutions which constrain capital movements -- their supporters isolated and marginalized.
Today throughout the Third World, Western funded Third World intellectuals have embraced the ideology of concertation (class collaboration). The notion of interdependence has replaced imperialism. And the unregulated world market is presented as the only alternative for development. The irony is that today as never before the "market" has been least favorable to the Third World. Never have the U.S., Europe and Japan been so aggressive in exploiting the Third World. The cultural alienation of the institutional intellectuals from the global realities is a byproduct of the ascendancy of Western cultural imperialism. For those critical intellectuals who refuse to join the celebration of the market, who are outside of the official conference circuits, the challenge is to once again return to the class and anti-imperialist struggle.
North Americanization and the Myth of an International Culture
One of the great deceptions of our times is the notion of 'internationalization' of ideas, markets and movements. It has become fashionable to evoke terms like "globalization" or "internationalization" to justify attacks on any or all forms of solidarity, community, and/or social values. Under the guise of "internationalism", Europe and the U.S. have become dominant exporters of cultural forms most conducive to depoliticizing and trivializing everyday existence. The images of individual mobility, the "self-make person", the emphasis on "self-centered existence" (mass produced and distributed by the U.S. mass media industry) now have become major instruments in dominating the Third World.
Neo-liberalism continues to thrive not because it solves problems, but because it serves the interest of the wealthy and powerful and resonates among some sectors of the impoverished self-employed who crowd the streets of the Third World. The North Americanization of Third World cultures takes place with the blessing and support of the national ruling classes because it contributes to stabilize their rule. The new cultural norms -- the private over the public, the individual over social, the sensational and violent over everyday struggles and social realities -- all contribute to inculcating precisely the egocentric values that undermine collective action. The culture of images, of transitory experiences, of sexual conquest, works against reflection, commitment and shared feelings of affection and solidarity. The North Americanization of culture means focusing popular attention on celebrities, personalities and private gossip -- not on social depth, economic substance and the human condition. Cultural imperialism distracts from power relation and erodes collective forms of social action.
The media culture that glorifies the 'provisional' reflects the rootlessness of U.S. capitalism -- its power to hire and fire, to move capital without regard for communities. The myth of "freedom of mobility" reflects the incapacity of people to establish and consolidate community roots in the face of the shifting demands of capital. North American culture glorifies transient, impersonal relations as "freedom" when in fact these conditions reflect the anomie and bureaucratic subordination of a mass of individuals to the power of corporate capital. North Americanization involves a wholesale assault on traditions of solidarity in the name of modernity, attacks on class loyalties in the name of individualism, the debasement of democracy through massive media campaigns focusing on personalities.
The new cultural tyranny is rooted in the omnipresent repetitive singular discourse of the market, of a homogenized culture of consumption, of a debased electoral system. The new media tyranny stands alongside the hierarchical state and economic institutions that reach from the board roams of the international banks to the villages in the Andes. The secret of the success of North American cultural penetration of the Third World is its capacity to fashion fantasies to escape from misery, that the very system of economic and military domination generates. The essential ingredients of the new cultural imperialism is the fusion of commercialism-sexuality-conservatism each presented as idealized expressions of private needs, of individual self-realization. To some Third World people immersed in everyday dead end jobs, struggles for everyday survival, in the midst of squalor and degradation, the fantasies of North American media, like the evangelist, portray "something better", a hope in a future better life -- or at least the vicarious pleasure of watching others enjoying it.
Impact of Cultural Imperialism
If we want to understand the absence of revolutionary transformation, despite the maturing of revolutionary conditions, we must reconsider the profound psychological impact of state violence, political terror and the deep penetration of cultural/ideological values propagated by the imperial countries and internalized by the oppressed peoples. The state violence of the 1970's and early 1980's created long term, large scale psychic damage -- fear of radical initiatives, distrust of collectivities, a sense of impotence before established authorities -- even as the same authorities are hated. Terror turned "people inward" toward private domains.
Subsequently, neo-liberal policies, a form of "economic terrorism", resulted in the closing of factories, the abolition of legal protection of labor, the growth of temporary work, the multiplication of low paid individual enterprises. These policies further fragmented working class and urban communities. In this context of fragmentation, distrust and privatization, the cultural message of imperialism found fertile fields to exploit vulnerable peoples' sensibilities, encouraging and deepening personal alienation, self-centered pursuits and individual competition over ever scarce resources.
Cultural imperialism and the values it promotes has played a major role in preventing exploited individuals from responding collectively to their deteriorating conditions. The symbols, images and ideologies that have spread to the Third World are major obstacles to the conversion of class exploitation and growing immiseration into class conscious bases for collective action. The great victory of imperialism is not only the material profits, but its conquest of the inner space of consciousness of the oppressed directly through the mass media and indirectly through the capture (or surrender) of its intellectual and political class. Insofar as a revival of mass revolutionary politics is possible, it must begin with open warfare not only with the conditions of exploitation but with culture that subjects its victims.
Limits of Cultural Imperialism
Against the pressures of cultural colonialism is the reality principle: the personal experience of misery and exploitation imposed by Western multinational banks, the police/military repression enforced by U.S. supplied arms. Everyday realities which the escapist media can never change. Within the consciousness of the Third World peoples there is a constant struggle between the demon of individual escape (cultivated by the mass media) and the intuitive knowledge that collective action and responsibility is the only practical response. In times of ascending social mobilizations, the virtue of solidarity takes precedence; in times of defeat and decline, the demons of individual rapacity are given license.
There are absolute limits in the capacity of cultural imperialism to distract and mystify people beyond which popular rejection sets in. The TV "table of plenty" contrasts with the experience of the empty kitchen; the amorous escapades of media personalities crash against a houseful of crawling, crying hungry children. In the street confrontations, Coca Cola becomes a Molotov cocktail. The promise of affluence becomes an affront to those who are perpetually denied. Prolonged impoverishment and widespread decay erode the glamour and appeal of the fantasies of the mass media. The false promises of cultural imperialism become the objects of bitter jokes relegated to another time and place.
The appeals of cultural imperialism are limited by the enduring ties of collectivities -- local and regional -- which have their own values and practices. Where class, racial, gender and ethnic bonds endure and practices of collective action are strong, the influence of the mass media are limited or rejected.
To the extent that preexisting cultures and traditions exist, they form a "closed circle" which integrates social and cultural practices that look inward and downward, not upward and outward. In many communities there is a clear rejection of the "modernist" developmental- individualist discourse associated with the supremacy of the market. The historical roots for sustained solidarity and anti-imperial movements are found in cohesive ethnic and occupational communities; mining towns, fishing and forestry villages, industrial concentrations in urban centers. Where work, community and class converge with collective cultural traditions and practices, cultural imperialism retreats. The effectiveness of cultural imperialism does not depend merely on its technical skills of manipulation, but on the capacity for the state to brutalize and atomize the populace, to deprive it of its hopes and collective faith in egalitarian societies.
Cultural liberation involves not merely "empowering" individuals or classes, but is dependent on the development of a socio-political force capable of confronting the state terror that precedes cultural conquest. Cultural autonomy depends on social power and social power is perceived by the ruling classes as a threat to economic and state power. Just as cultural struggle is rooted in values of autonomy, community and solidarity which are necessary to create the consciousness for social transformations, political and military power is necessary to sustain the cultural bases for class and national identities. Most important, the Left must recreate a faith and vision of a new society built around spiritual as well as material values: values of beauty and not only work. Solidarity linked to generosity and dignity. Where modes of production are subordinated to efforts to strengthen and deepen longstanding personal bonds and friendship.
Socialism must recognize the longings to be alone to be intimate as well as to be social and collective. Above all, the new vision must inspire people because it resonates with their desire not only to be free from domination but free to create a meaningful personal life informed by affective non-instrumental relations that transcend everyday work even as it inspires people to continue to struggle. Cultural imperialism thrives as much on novelty, transitory relations and personal manipulation, but never on a vision of authentic, intimate ties based on personal honesty, gender equality and social solidarity. Personal images mask mass state killings, just as technocratic rhetoric rationalize weapons of mass destruction ('intelligent bombs'). Cultural imperialism in the era of 'democracy' must falsify reality in the imperial country to justify aggression -- by converting victims into aggressors and aggressors into victims.
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