New
Trends in Literature
Post
Colonialism
Postcolonialism or postcolonial
studies is an academic discipline that analyzes, explains, and
responds to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism.
Postcolonialism speaks about the human consequences of external control and
economic exploitation of native people and their lands. Drawing
from postmodern schools of thought, postcolonial studies analyze the
politics of knowledge (creation, control, and distribution) by examining the
functional relations of social and political power that sustain
colonialism and neocolonialism—the imperial regime's depictions (social,
political, cultural) of the colonizer and of the colonized.
Important Points
1. As a genre of contemporary history,
post colonialism questions and reinvents the manner in which a culture is being
viewed, challenging the narratives expounded during the colonial era.
2. Anthropologically, it records human
relations between the colonists and the peoples under colonial rule, seeking to
build an understanding of the nature and practice of colonial rule.
3. As a critical theory, it presents,
explains, and illustrates the ideology and practice of neocolonialism with
examples drawn from history, political
science, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and human
geography.
4. It examines the effects of colonial rule
on the cultural aspects of the colony and its treatment of
women, language, literature, Christian thought, and humanity.
Notable Names
1. In The Wretched of
the Earth (1961), the psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz
Fanon analyzed and medically described the nature of colonialism as
essentially destructive. Its societal effects—the imposition of a subjugating
colonial identity—are harmful to the mental health of the native peoples who
were subjugated into colonies.
2. To describe the
us-and-them "binary social relation" with which Western Europe
intellectually divided the world—into the "Occident" and the
"Orient"—the cultural critic Edward Said developed the
denotations and connotations of the term Orientalism (an
art-history term for Western depictions and the study of the Orient). This is
the concept that the cultural representations generated with the us-and-them
binary relation are social constructs, which are mutually constitutive and
cannot exist independent of each other, because each exists on account of and
for the other.
3. In establishing the
Postcolonial definition of the term subaltern, the philosopher and
theoretician Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak cautioned against assigning
an over-broad connotation.
4.In The Location of
Culture (1994), the theoretician Homi K. Bhabha argued that
viewing the human world as composed of separate and unequal cultures, rather
than as an integral human world, perpetuates
the belief in the existence of imaginary peoples and
places—"Christendom" and "The Islamic World", "The
First World", "The Second World", and "The Third
World".
Expected
Questions on Post Colonialism
1. What is the concept of
negritude?
a)
It seeks to study the experiences of blacks in colonial powers.
b) It
linked black people across Africa, the Caribbean and the USA around a set of
humanist values that were supposedly held by blacks the world over.
c) It
was introduced to post colonial studies by Franz Fanon.
d) It
was introduced to post colonial studies by Edward Said.
Ans:
b
Explanation:
The concept of
negritude was introduced by Leopold Sedar
Senghor. It linked black people across Africa, the Caribbean, and the USA
around a set of humanist values that were supposedly held by blacks the world
over.
2.
Franz Fanon's works include which of the following titles?
a) Black
Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
b) Power,
Power, Power (1951) and How Colonisation Happened (1960)
c) The
Way to Prosperity (1955) and The Colonised (1975)
d) Colonies
(1980) and Post-Colonial Theory (1990)
Ans:
a
Explanation: Franz Fanon wrote some of the most crucial
post-colonial texts including Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched
of the Earth (1961).
3.
Graeme Turner argues that novels are of specific value to post-colonial
studies. What is the rationale he offers for this argument?
a) That
there have been too many political science theories based purely on the works
of academics.
b) That
because stories and novels are generated by culture they therefore produce
meanings and significances that are indicative of that culture.
c) Novels
and stories are more enjoyable to read than works of theory so post-colonial
studies will garner more followers using this method.
d) Turner
didn't have access to academic works when he was writing.
Ans:
b
Explanation: Graeme Turner argues that because human stories
and novels are generated by culture they produce meanings and significances
that are indicative of that culture.
4. World-traveling is a post-colonial methodology associated
with which group?
a) African,
male scholars who were educated in the United States
b) Indian
scholars who had spent years abroad studying the cultures of those in other countries
c) Feminist
scholars with Latin American backgrounds
d) Academics
who had been to more than twenty countries.
Ans:
c
Explanation: World-traveling is a post-colonial methodology
associated with feminist scholars particularly from a Latin American
background.
5.
Why does post-colonial scholar Homi Bhaba argue that colonial discourse was
ambivalent about the colonised?
a) Portrayal
of the colonised errs towards either a passive and conquerable subject or an
irrational, untamed barbarian. This means that the colonial subject becomes
consistently stereotyped.
b) Scholars
did not travel to colonies and therefore could not establish an accurate
picture of colonised peoples.
c) Post-colonial
scholars were too focused on the colonising power rather than the colonised
peoples.
d) The
colonised did not make enough effort to have their voices heard.
Ans:
a
Explanation: Homi Bhaba argues that portrayal of the
colonised errs towards either a passive and conquerable subject or an
irrational, untamed barbarian. This means that the colonial subject becomes
consistently stereotyped and colonial discourse was ambivalent about the
stereotyped.
6.
The social-cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai writes about five types of
cultural flows of imagination. What are they?
a) Ethnoscapes,
mediascapes, technoscapes, financscapes and ideoscapes.
b) Ethnoscapes,
econoscapes, culturescapes, financscapes and ideoscapes.
c) Geographical
flows, cultural flows, ideas-flows, technological flows, ethnicity flows
d) Liberal
flows, realist flows, post colonial flows and post structuralist flows.
Ans:
a
Explanation: Arjun Appadurai describes ethnoscapes,
technoscapes, financescapes and ideoscapes as being the five types of cultural
flows of imagination.
7.
'Postcolonialism' - spelled without the hypen - is used to suggest what?
a) That
the entire world is now in the post-colonial era .
b) That
the global south alone is now in the post-colonial era
c) That
post-colonialism, spelled with a hyphen, is a concept only applicable to those
countries that experienced colonialism.
d) That
there was a grammatical error in the earlier spelling.
Ans:
a
Explanation: Some scholars use the phrase 'postcolonial'
rather than 'post-colonial' to express the idea that the entire world is now in
the post-colonial era.
8.
Criticisms levelled at post-colonial studies include which of the following?
a) That
the theory entered international relations too recently to be considered an
academic theory.
b) That
it is too similar to realism and so serves no function.
c) That
it is not sophisticated enough to be an academic theory.
d) That
the field focuses so heavily on identity and language that it ignores the
urgent question of whether those in the global south can eat, leaving this
problem up to Western agencies to sort out.
Ans:
d
Explanation: Criticisms levelled at the study of post
colonialism include, but are not limited to, that the field focuses so heavily
on identity and language that it ignores the urgent question of whether those
in the global south can eat, leaving this problem up to Western agencies to
sort out.
9. In his renowned work Orientalism Edward Said argues that 'the orient'
as portrayed in Western novels, media and artwork is what?
a) A
place prone to liberal democracy and revolutionary feminism.
b) An
accurate depiction of the modern day Middle East and Asia, meaning that
scholars and academics can rely solely on these ancient works.
c) Lost
in the past, prone to despotic rule and plagued by 'odd' cultural traditions.
d) Too
focused on historical facts and accurately portraying the experience of life in
the region.
Ans:
c
Explanation: Edward Said's Orientalism is an infamous but often misunderstood and
misinterpreted work. In it Said argued that 'the orient' as portrayed in
Western novels, media and artwork is lost in the past, prone to despotic rule
and plagued by 'odd' cultural traditions.
10.
When do disseminations occur?
a) When
people with hybrid identities and cultures become diasporic, travelling
physically from South to North to live.
b) When
people from different nations come together in a new country.
c) When
people from one nation immigrate en masse to another country
d) When
people with hybrid identities and cultures become diasporic travelling
physically from North to South to live.
Ans:
a
Explanation: When people of hybrid identities and cultures
form diasporas by travelling physically from the Global South to the Global
North to live these diasporas are termed, by some post colonial scholars, as
'disseminations.'
Ecocriticism
Ecocriticism
is a term coined out of the combination of two familiar terms – “criticism” and
“ecology”. Ecocriticism refers to the critical writings that investigate the
relation between literature and environment taking into account the destruction
caused to the biological or physical surrounding by the mankind. Ecocriticism
is a broad approach that is known by a number of other designations, including
“Green Studies”, “Ecopoetics”, and “Environmental Literary Criticism”. Just as
Feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender-conscious
perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production
and economic class to its reading of texts; in the same manner, Ecocriticism,
according to Cheryll Glotfelty, takes an earth-centered approach to literary
studies. It is supposed that ecocriticism was officially heralded by the
publication of two seminal works : The Ecocriticism Reader, edited by Cheryll
Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, and The Environmental Imagination by Lawrence
Buell.
Important Points
1. The new ecological movement maintains that the ancient
conception of “anthropocentrism” need to be replaced by ecocentrism : the view
that all creations of God are in no way less than or inferior to the human
species.
2.
Evaluation
of binaries is another important feature of Ecocriticism. These binaries such
as man/nature or culture/nature, instead of considering them as exclusive
oppositions, are, in fact, considered as having interconnections and interdependence.
3.
Ecocriticism strongly recommends the extension of “green reading” to all
literary forms including the writings of the natural and social sciences.
4. The analysis of the differences in
attitudes towards the environment that are attributable to a writer’s race,
ethnicity, social class and gender is one more striking feature of
ecocriticism.
5. Ecocriticism believes that the natural
world is a living, sacred thing in which each individual feels closely attached
to a particular physical place; and where every human being lives in
interdependence and reciprocity with every other living thing.
Notable Names
1. Two influential books of the period – Aldo Leopold’s A
Sand County Almanac (1949) and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) created sensations.
2.
Joseph Meeker’s The Comedy of Survival (1974)
proposed a version of an argument which later dominated the ecocritical theory.
According to Meeker, the chief cause of environmental crisis is the cultural
tradition of the West, that is, the separation of culture from nature.
3. The working definition of “ecocriticism”,
according to Glotfelty given in The Ecocriticism Reader is that “ecocriticism
is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical
environment”.
4. Lawrence Buell defines “ecocriticism, as a
study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a
spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis”.
5. It was inaugurated in England by Gilbert
White’s Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789). It contains minute
and keen observations of the English wild life and natural surroundings of
rural areas.
6. It was William Bertram’s Travels published
in 1791 which popularized this genre in America. Henry David Thoreau’s
masterpiece Walden (1854) is considered as the classic of this genre.
Expected questions on Ecocriticism
1. The “pastoral” form
of literature was initiated in the third century B.C by ___________ of Greece.
a) Virgil
b) Theocritus
c) Thoreau
d) Wordsworth
Ans: b
Explanation: The “pastoral” form of literature which was initiated
in the third century B.C by Theocritus of Greece reflected the serene rural
life full of simplicity and harmony.
2. _________________ became the first person
to hold an academic position as a professor of Literature and the Environment
at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1990.
a)
M.H. Abrams
b) Harold Fromm.
c) Cheryll Glotfelty
d) Joseph Meeker
Ans: c.
Explanation: The working
definition of “ecocriticism”, according to Glotfelty given in The Ecocriticism
Reader is that “ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between
literature and the physical environment”.
3. New ecological movement maintains that the
ancient conception of “anthropocentrism” need to be replaced by ______________.
a) ecocriticism
b) ecofeminism
c) environmentalism
d) ecocentrism
Ans: d
Explanation: The new ecological
movement maintains that the ancient conception of “anthropocentrism” need to be
replaced by ecocentrism : the view that all creations of God are in no way less
than or inferior to the human species. The stress on need of ecocentrism is one
of the chief concerns of the ecocrtic.
4. The working definition of
“ecocriticism”, according to Glotfelty is that “ecocriticism is the study of
the relationship between literature and the ___________ environment”.
a) physical
b) social
c) psychological
d) moral
Ans: a
Explanation: In the view of
Cheryll Glotfelty, ecocriticism is a worthy enterprise because it directs our
attention to matters about which we need to be thinking and worrying.
Ecocritics encourage others to think seriously about the relationship between
humans and nature, and about the ethical and aesthetic dilemmas posed by the
environmental crisis.
5. ___________________ writings gave momentum
to a phenomenon called ecofeminism.
a) Elaine Showalter’s
b) Annette Kolodny’s
c) Simone de Beauvoir’s
d) Virginia Woolf’s
Ans: b
Explanation: Annette Kolodny’s
writings gave momentum to a phenomenon called ecofeminism. Ecofeminism deals
with the analysis of the role ascribed to women in fantasies of the natural
surroundings by male writers as well as the study of specifically feminine
notions of the environment in the neglected nature writings of female authors.
6. Who wrote the seminal work ‘The Lay of the
Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters (1975)’?
a) Elaine Showalter’s
b) Annette Kolodny’s
c) Simone de Beauvoir’s
d) Virginia Woolf’s
Ans: b
Explanation: It points out the
inclination, in the male-authored literature, of gendering the land as female;
and accordingly the dominant tendency of resorting to nature for relaxation,
delight and recovery. She has also proposed equivalence between the domination
and suppression of women and the exploitation of the land.
7. What
prominent aspect of nature is depicted in the works of James Cooper, Herman
Melville and Mark Twain?
a)
Wilderness romance
b)
Turbulence in the wilderness
c)
Nature as destroyer
d)
Nature as nurse
Ans: a
Explanation:
“the wilderness romance”, one of
the prominent forms of American literature, presents specifically male
imaginings of escape to a virgin natural environment, free of women’s
dominance, in which the protagonist undergoes a test of his character and
virility.
8. What
forms of animistic religions do an ecocritic shows interest in?
a)
Judaism
b)
Christianity
c)
Hinduism and Buddhism
d)
Islam
Ans: c
Explanation:
Ecocriticism has created a
growing interest in the animistic religions of so-called primitive cultures,
especially Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions that do not believe in the
Western understanding of dominion of man over non-human world.
9. Who
said that, the first law of ecology is that “Everything is connected to
everything else.”?
a)
Barry Commoner
b) Wordsworth
c)
Elaine Showalter
d) Coleridge
Ans: a
Explanation:
Ecocriticism expands the idea of the “world” to incorporate the entire
ecosphere.
10. Who
wrote ‘Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and the Environmental Tradition’?
a)
Coleridge
b)
Jonathan Bate
c)
Barry Commoner
d)
Shelly
Ans: b
Explanation:
Jonathan Bate in his Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and the Environmental
Tradition published in 1991, speaks of the ecological and environmental
consciousness of Wordsworth.
Queer Theory
Queer theory as an academic tool came about in part from
gender and sexuality studies that in turn had their origins from lesbians and
gay studies and feminist theory. It is a much newer theory, in that it was
established in the 1990s, and contests many of the set ideas of the more
established fields it comes from by challenging the notion of defined and
finite identity categories, as well as the norms that create a binary of
good versus bad sexualities. Queer theorists contention is that there is no set
normal, only changing norms that people may or may not fit into, making
queer theorists’ main challenge to disrupt binaries in hopes that this will
destroy difference as well as inequality. The term “queer theory” itself
came from Teresa de Lauretis’ 1991 work in the feminist cultural studies
journal differences titled “Queer
Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities.”
Important Points
1. It refuses
heterosexuality as the benchmark for sexual formations.
2. A challenge to the belief
that lesbian and gay studies is one single entity.
3. A strong focus on the
multiple ways that race shapes sexual bias.
4. Queer
theory expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity
that falls into normative and deviant categories.
5. It "focuses on
mismatches between sex, gender and desire"
Popular names
1. Foucault
refuses to accept that sexuality can be clearly defined, and instead
focuses on the expansive production of sexuality within governments of power
and knowledge.
2. Gayle Rubin’s essay
“Thinking Sex” is often identified as one of the fundamental texts, and it
continues Foucault’s rejection of biological explanations of sexuality. She
demonstrates in her essay the way that certain sexual expressions are made more
valuable than others, and by doing that, allowing those who are outside of
these parameters to be oppressed.
3. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s pioneering book Epistemology
of the Closet. In this book, she
argues that the homo-hetero difference in the modern sexual definition is
vitally disjointed for two reasons: that homosexuality is thought to be part of
a minority group, and how homosexuality is gendered to be either masculine or
feminine.
4. The theorist most commonly identified with studying
the prevailing understandings of gender and sex is Judith Butler, who
draws much from Foucault’s ideas but with a focus on
gender. She argues in her book Gender Trouble that
gender, like sexuality, is not an essential truth obtained from one’s body
but something that is acted out and portrayed as “reality”.
Expected Questions
1. Chodorow (1978) argued that gender socialization occurred
through:
a) both
boys and girls being closely attached to their mothers, but then boys breaking
away
b) girls
being attached to their mothers but then breaking away
c) boys
being attached to their fathers and girls to their mothers
d) both
boys and girls being closely attached to their fathers, but girls breaking away
Ans: a
Explanation: Gender
socialization is the process by which people learn how to play the gender roles
expected of them in a particular culture. Nancy Chodorow was a psychoanalyst
who said that this process began in infancy: all children begin with a close,
intimate bond with their mothers as the main care-giver, but this develops in
different ways. While girls identify with their mothers and learn 'feminine'
ways of behaving, boys have to break the attachment and associate with men in
order to learn how to be 'masculine'.
2.
Marxist feminists explain patriarchy in terms of:
a) a
lack of equal rights and opportunities for men and women
b) sex
classes, through which men oppress women economically, politically and sexually
c) women's
domestic labour being exploited by the capitalist economy
d) the
dual systems of capitalism and male domination
Ans: c
Explanation: Like all feminists,
Marxist feminists study the differences and divisions between men and women in
society. However, this perspective focuses on the relations between patriarchy
and capitalism. It is argued that women's unpaid domestic labour supports the
capitalist economy, by providing a home, food, and love that sustains male
workers and by producing the next generation.
3. Judith Butler (1999) suggested that:
a) sexual
characteristics are the biological determinants of gender
b) heterosexuality
and homosexuality are essential, opposing identities
c) the
'two-sex' model replaced the 'one-sex' model in the eighteenth century
d) gender
is performed through bodily gestures and styles to create 'sex'
Ans:
d.
Explanation: Butler was critical of the idea that biological
sex 'causes' a person's gender, and that men and women are essentially
different. She suggested that gender is merely a performance of actions that
usually reflect scripts, or discourses, of expected behaviour, but which could
also subvert them. Butler pointed to practices like drag and transvestism as
examples of the way in which, regardless of biological make up, we can perform
any gender identity.
4. Women have been excluded from the public sphere because:
a) industrial
capitalism separated the middle class home from the workplace
b) those
who enter paid employment have been 'sidelined' into particular fields
c) it
is difficult to succeed in 'malestream' politics without compromising their
femininity
d) all
of the above
Ans: d.
Explanation: There are numerous
explanations for the gender divisions that shape each society, and they fit
together well. Historically, the rise of industrial capitalism led to a
division between home and work life, creating what Walby calls 'private' and
'public' patriarchy. More women are entering paid employment, but often in
lower paid positions or only in certain fields. Meanwhile, politics can be seen
as a very exclusive, male domain, with its long working hours that conflict
with some women's childcare responsibilities.
5. The 'two-sex' model that Laqueur (1990) identified:
a) contrasted
homosexuality with heterosexuality
b) distinguished
between male and females as separate sexes
c) represented
women's genitalia as underdeveloped versions of men's
d) argued
for male superiority over women
Ans:
b.
Explanation: Laqueur argued that men
and women were not thought of as two separate sexes until the eighteenth
century, following changes in social and political attitudes. Whereas the 'one
sex' model focused on the similarities between male and female organs, the 'two
sex' model focused on differences. This view was strengthened by the rise of
scientific theories and biomedicine in the nineteenth century.
6.
In the nineteenth century, homosexuality was understood as:
a) a
positive identity in which gay people could take pride
b) an
absolute taboo, which meant that all homosexuals were isolated
c) a
subordinate form of masculinity that threatened 'compulsory heterosexuality'
d) confirmation
of the two-sex model
Ans:
c.
Explanation: Attitudes to
homosexuality have changed dramatically over time. With the rise of the 'two
sex' model in the eighteenth century, physical intimacy between two men or
women became recognised as a new problem. By the nineteenth century, there was
a real stigma attached to homosexual identities, insofar as they posed a threat
to the 'traditional' role expectations of men. The term 'homosexual' came to
mean a distinct group of men rather than the activities in which they engaged.
7.
The deviant subculture of homosexuals who met in seventeenth and eighteenth
century London was called the:
a) pollies
b) mollies
c) dollies
d) lollies
Ans:
b.
Explanation: The term 'mollies' was
used in a derogatory way to refer to men who engaged in homosexual acts with
each other in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It suggested that such
men were behaving more like women, and carried a heavy stigma. This can be
understood as a precursor to (stereotypical) ideas about 'effeminate' behaviour
in gay people today.
8.
The 'new man' of the 1980s was alleged to be:
a) sensitive,
caring, and emotional
b) laddish,
aggressive, and violent
c) a
strong and dependable breadwinner
d) openly
bisexual and proud of it
Ans:
a.
Explanation: In contemporary Western
societies, it may be argued that some of the traditional gender divisions
between men and women are becoming blurred. One example of this is the concept
of the 'new man', discussed by Frank Mort. This was a feminized male identity, defined
and promoted by the mass media in the 1980s. The new man was sensitive,
emotional, non-aggressive, and concerned with his appearance. Tim Edwards
suggests that this was also related to the rise of the male fashion industry at
the time.
9. Which of these changes did not occur during the 'sexual revolution' of the
1960s?
a) a
growing fear of HIV and AIDS, fuelled by the New Right
b) divorce
law reforms
c) the
availability of oral contraception
d) the
recognition of women's sexual pleasure
Ans:
a.
Explanation: Many changes occurred in
the 1960s that created greater gender equality in the private sphere. Legal
changes made divorce easier to obtain, giving women the freedom to leave
unhappy marriages, while the introduction of the oral contraceptive pill
allowed women to choose when, and indeed whether, to have children. It was not
until the 1980s that the celebration of sexual freedom gave way to concerns
about HIV and AIDS.
10. Queer Theory makes the claim that:
a) heterosexuality
is the normal and most desirable way to be
b) the
sexual categories and discourses we use are based upon true, underlying
biological differences
c) deviant
forms of masculinity are seen as more threatening to the gender order than
deviant forms of femininity
d) all
sexualities are pluralistic, fragmented and frequently reconstructed
Ans: d.
Explanation: The queer movement of
the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries suggests a blurring of the
boundaries between sexual identities. The term 'queer' was originally used in a
pejorative sense, but has been reclaimed by many non-heterosexual people as a
matter of pride. Queer Theory challenges the notion that heterosexuality is
normal or natural, or that everyone could be fitted neatly into one category or
another. If sexual behaviour is merely a lifestyle choice, then sexual
identities are fluid and people can move back and forth between them.
Trauma Theory
The trauma novel demonstrates how a traumatic
event disrupts attachments between self and others by challenging fundamental
assumptions about moral laws and social relationships that are themselves
connected to specific environments. Novels represent this disruption between
the self and others by carefully describing the place of trauma because the
physical environment offers the opportunity to examine both the personal and
cultural histories imbedded in landscapes that define the character's identity
and the meaning of the traumatic experience. The primacy of place in the
representations of trauma anchors the individual experience within a larger
cultural context, and, in fact, organizes the memory and meaning of trauma. Trauma, refers to a person's emotional response to
an overwhelming event that disrupts previous ideas of an individual's sense of
self and the standards by which one evaluates society. The term "trauma
novel" refers to a work of fiction that conveys profound loss or intense
fear on individual or collective levels. A defining feature of the trauma novel
is the transformation of the self ignited by an external, often terrifying
experience, which illuminates the process of coming to terms with the dynamics
of memory that inform the new perceptions of the self and world.
Important Points
1. Traumatic experience produces a
"temporal gap" and a dissolution of the self.
2. It is an experience sometimes delayed, to an
overwhelming event or events, which takes the form of repeated, intrusive
hallucinations, dreams, thoughts or behaviours stemming from the event.
3. In explaining the traumatical patients’ dreams,
Freud introduces the concept of ‘latency’, a concept that accounts for the
belatedness as well as the literality of the dreams.
4. Trauma experiences remain open with all its
horror, nightmares, silence and cognitive and linguistic breakdown.
5. It creates a speechless fright that divides or
destroys identity.
6. Identity is created by intergenerational
transmission of trauma.
7. Trauma is repetitive, timeless and unspeakable.
Popular Names
1.Freud’s deliberations on traumatic experiences in
‘Beyond the Pleasure Principles and Moses and Monotheism.
2. Cathy Caruth’s ‘Unclaimed Experience’.
3. Kali Tal’s ‘World’s of Hurt.
4. The Longest Shadow: In the Aftermath of the
Holocaust (1996)- Geoffrey Hartman
5. Crises
of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History- Shoshana and Dori Laub
Expected Questions
1. The term ‘trauma
theory’ first appeared in_____
a)
Cathy Caruth’s ‘Unclaimed Experience’
b)
Freud’s ‘Beyond Pleasure Principles’.
c)
Kali Tal’s ‘World’s of Hurt
d)
Geoffrey Hartman’s ‘The Longest Shadow’
Ans: a
Explanation: The
term ‘trauma theory’ first appeared in Cathy Caruth’s ‘Unclaimed Experience’.
The theory arguably stems from her insightful interpretation and elaboration of
Freud’s deliberations on traumatic experiences in ‘Beyond the Pleasure
Principles and Moses and Monotheism’.
2.
Which psychological condition is a central concept of Trauma Theory?
a)
Bipolar Disease
b)
Schizophrenia
c)
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
d)
Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Ans: d
Explanation: A
response sometimes delayed to an overwhelming event or events, which takes the
form of repeated, intrusive hallucinations, dreams, thoughts or behaviours
stemming from the event.
3.
Which is the concept that accounts for the belatedness as well as the
literality of dreams as enunciated by Freud?
a)
Psychoanalysis
b) Ego
c)
Unconscious
d)
Latency
Ans:
d.
Explanation:
Description of the geographic place of dramatic experience and remembrance
situate the individual in relation to a larger cultural context that influence
the recollection of the event and the reconfiguration of the self.
4. Who
called twentieth century as a “century of traumas”?
a)
Shoshana Felman
b)
Cathy Caruth
c)
Freud
d)
Geoffrey Hartman
Ans:
a.
Explanation: The
legacy of violence we inherited from the 20th century, “a century of
traumas”, as Shoshana Felman calls it has posed new existential and
epistemological questions to human civilization, questions that trauma theory
is trying to make sense of and answer.
5.
Which of Freud’s concept did American Psychiatric Association in 1980
officially acknowledge and term as “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that
is central to Trauma Theory?
a) Sub
consciousness
b)
Traumatic neurosis
c) Ego
d) All
the above
Ans:
b.
Explanation:
Traumatic Neurosis is a mental
disorder following an accident, injury, or other traumatic event.
6. Who wrote the seminal work, “The Interpretation of
Dreams”?
a) Sigmund Freud
b) Shoshana Felman
c) Dori Laub
d) Cathy Caruth
Ans: a.
Explanation: The Interpretation
of Dreams (German: Die Traumdeutung) is a 1899 book by psychoanalyst
Sigmund Freud, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious
with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what would
later become the theory of the Oedipus complex.
7. ‘Representing the Holocaust’ is a work used for
Trauma Studies. Who wrote it?
a) Dori Laub
b) Dominique LaCapra
c) Cathy Caruth
d) None of the above
Ans: b.
Explanation: Defying comprehension,
the tragic history of the Holocaust has been alternately repressed and
canonized in postmodern Western culture. Many of our efforts to comprehend the Holocaust, he shows,
continue to suffer from the traumatizing effects of its events and require a
"working through" of that trauma if we are to gain a more profound
understanding of the meaning of the Holocaust.
New Feminism
New feminism is a philosophy which emphasizes a belief in an
integral complementarity of men and women, rather than the
superiority of men over women or women over men.
New feminism, as a form of difference feminism,
supports the idea that men and women have different strengths, perspectives,
and roles, while advocating for the equal worth and dignity of both sexes.
Among its basic concepts are that the most important differences are those that
are biological rather than cultural. New Feminism holds that women should be
valued in their role as child bearers, both culturally and economically, while
not being viewed as a "home maker" in the broader sense of the meaning.
Its main aim is to promote the idea that women are individuals with equal worth
as men; and that in social, economic and legal senses they should be equal,
while accepting the natural differences between the sexes.
The term was originally used in Britain in the
1920s to distinguish New feminists from traditional
mainstream suffragist feminism. These women, also referred to
as welfare feminists, were particularly concerned
with motherhood, like their opposite numbers in Germany at the
time, Helene Stöcker and her Bund für Mutterschutz. New feminists
campaigned strongly in favour of such measures as family allowances paid
directly to mothers. They were also largely supportive of protective
legislation in industry. A major proponent of this was Eleanor
Rathbone of the suffragist-successor society, the National Union
of Societies for Equal Citizenship.
Important Points
1. Believes in integral sex complementarity and argues
that men and women are each whole persons in and of themselves, and, together,
equal more than the sum of their parts.
2. That the different bodily structures of men and
women lead both to different lived experiences.
3. That the different
ways in which men and women give life physically reveal how they give life
emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually.
4. That being a woman
means being a mother. New Feminists believe that whether or not they do it
well, women are physically structured to be mothers, to develop life with their
wombs. They purport the idea that the physical capacity for motherhood
gives rise to psychological, spiritual and emotional characteristics that women
would need to be mothers.
5. That regardless of
whether or not a woman ever gives birth; she has the capacity for maternal love
in spiritual motherhood.
6. New Feminists promote an understanding of
the human person as one who is made in the image and likeness of God (imago Dei) for the purpose of union and communion.
7. They see distinct differences in the ways
in which men and women make a sincere gift of themselves through the 'nuptial
meaning of the body', and see these gifts as shedding light on the mysteries of
God and their own vocation, mission and dignity.
Popular
Names
1. Contemporary proponents include Pia
de Solenni, a moral theologian in Washington, DC
2. Janet E. Smith, Katrina
Zeno, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Colleen Carroll Campbell of the Ethics and
Public Policy Center
3.Mary Beth Bonacci, Sister Prudence
Allen, Alice von Hildebrand, Kimberly Hahn, Dorinda C. Bordlee of the
Bioethics Defense Fund ("Holistic Feminism" in law and policy), and
Mary Ellen Bork.
4.The work of earlier Catholic thinkers on
masculinity and femininity, such as Hildegard of Bingen, Edith
Stein and G. E. M. Anscombe, has also become recently influential in
the development of New Feminism.
5.Though primarily Catholic in origin, the
movement also includes prominent non-Catholics, like Jewish author Wendy
Shalit and Protestant activist Enola Aird.
Expected Questions
1. The main concept of
difference feminism includes_______.
a) Requires
a commitment to essentialism.
b) Believes in the biological, inherent, ahistorical, link between womanhood and
traditionally feminine values.
c) Believes in the link
between womanhood and habits of mind.
d) Believes that there are
differences between men and women but that no value judgment can be placed upon
them.
Ans: d.
Explanation:
Taking for granted an equal moral status as persons, difference
feminism asserts that there are differences between men and women but
that no value judgment can be placed upon them. These feminists simply sought
to recognize that, in the present, women and men are significantly different
and to explore the devalued "feminine" characteristics.
2. New feminists were also
known as__________.
a) Welfare Feminists
b) Suffragist Feminists
c) Classical Feminists
d) None of these
Ans: a.
Explanation: Welfare feminists were particularly
concerned with the idea of motherhood. New feminists campaigned strongly
in favour of such measures as family allowances paid directly to mothers. They
were also largely supportive of protective legislation in
industry.
3. ‘Theology of the Body’ is
a theologically- based affirmation of integral gender complementarity. Whose
speeches were compiled to make this work?
a) Benedict XVI
b) Pope Francis
c) John Paul II
d) None of these
Ans: c.
Explanation:
John Paul II had begun his theologically-based affirmation of integral
gender complementarity in his Wednesday audiences between 1979 and 1984, in
what is now compiled as the Theology of the Body. In this work, he
describes his belief that men and women are formed as complementary human
beings, whose purpose, strengths and weaknesses are reflected in the physical
make-up of their bodies.
4. Who is considered to be
the first western philosopher to articulate a complete theory of sex
complementarity?
a) Maura Clarke
b) Mary Mackillop
c) Cristina Scuccia
d) Hildegard Von Bingen
Ans: d.
Explanation:
The first western philosopher to articulate a complete theory of sex
complementarity was Hildegard of Bingen, a
12th-century Benedictine nun. Her advances were soon buried by the
13th century Aristotelian Revolution and the lack of higher education for women
in the following centuries.
5. Which movements of the
early 20th century influenced the New Feminist theory?
a) Personalist and
Phenomenology.
b) Structuralism
c) Queer Theory
d) Public Sphere
Ans; a.
Explanation: Personalism is a
philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of
1) God as Supreme Person or 2) a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation
to animals. Phenomenology is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.
6. What is emancipatory knowledge?
a) Has to do with women's role in the global anti-slavery movement.
b) Is
committed to the status quo.
c)
Pursues knowledge that will lead to changes in favor of a normative ideal, such
as gender equality.
d)
All of the options given are correct
Ans:
c.
Explanation: Much feminist theory is based on the idea of emancipation - the
belief in the capacity of knowledge to drive positive normative change -
specifically related to the improvement of women's lives worldwide.
7. What is the myth of protection?
a) It characterizes men as protectors and women as protected.
b)
It is used to justify and shape national security policies.
c)
It has been challenged by changing gender roles in contemporary warfare.
d)
All of the options given are correct.
Ans:
d
Explanation: The protection myth is a
popular assumption that men fight wars to protect the vulnerable, including
women and children, and has been used to justify national security efforts.
However, changing roles of women as both the objects of violence in warfare and
in terms of increased participation as combatants has prompted some revision of
this myth.
8.
The idea of the gender-sensitive lens came from which feminist theorist?
a)
Tickner.
b)
Enloe.
c)
Peterson and Runyan
d) None of the options
given is correct.
Ans:
c.
Explanation: Various "lenses" help us focus our attention and
formulate questions with regard to world politics. A gender-specific lens, as
proposed by Peterson and Runyan, helps us see how gender structures world
politics.
9. What is the "double
burden"?
a)
It refers to the disproportionate share of housework done by
women.
b)
It dates to the 17th century.
c)
It is rooted in gendered conceptions of the distinction between public and
private life.
d)
All of the options given are correct.
Ans:
d.
Explanation: The "double
burden' arose in the 17th century
and shaped the conception of work appropriate for women as restricted to the
home, or in other cases, low-paying production or service industries. It led to
a devaluing of the work done by women.
10.
What is the impact of globalization?
a)
It has created new areas of women's advancement.
b)
It has led to new challenges and dangers for women.
c)
It has not changed the fundamental inequality of gender relationships in the
world enough.
d)
All of the options given are correct.
Ans:
d.
Explanation: Globalization
has created new opportunities as well as challenges for women, but most
feminists would agree that the gender structure of world politics remains
fundamentally unequal and that continuing advocacy for change is needed.
New Historicism
It is a type of historically oriented literary criticism that
developed during the 1980s, largely in reaction to the text-only approach
pursued by formalists, including practitioners of the New Criticism. New
historicists, like formalists, acknowledge the importance of the literary text,
but they analyse it with an eye to history. The new historicism is informed by
diverse discourses, including the poststructuralist and reader-response theory
of the 1970s, as well as the thinking of feminist, cultural, and Marxist
critics. New historicist critics assume that literary works both influence and
are influenced by historical reality, and they share a belief in
referentiality, that is a belief that literature both refers to and is referred
to by things outside itself. They are also less fact- and event-oriented than
historical critics used to be, questioning whether the truth about what really
happened can ever be objectively known.
Important Points
1. It is a method based on the parallel reading of literary and
non-literary texts, usually of the same historical period.
2. New historicism refuses to privilege the literary text and
envisages a practise in which literary and non-literary texts are given equal
weight and constantly inform and interrogate each other.
3. The New historicists ‘defamiliarise’ the canonical literary
text, detaching it from the accumulated weight of previous literary scholarship
and seeing it as if new.
4. This method focus attention on issues of state power and how it
is maintained, on patriarchal structures and their perpetuation, and on the
process of colonisation, with its accompanying mind-set.
5. They make use of aspects of the post-structuralist outlook,
especially Derrida’s notion that every facet of reality is textualised, and
Foucault’s idea of social structures as determined by dominant ‘discursive
practices’.
Popular Names
1. The term ‘new historicism’ was coined by the American critic
Stephen Greenblatt, whose book ‘Renaissance Self-Fashioning: from More to
Shakespere (1980) is usually regarded as its beginning.
2. J.W. Lever’s ‘The Tragedy of States: A Study of Jacobean Drama
in 1971.
3. American literary theorist, Louis Montrose
4. The French philosophical historian, Foucault.
Expected Questions
1. Richard Ellmann's classic biography of James Joyce opens with
the sentence: "We are still learning to be Joyce's contemporaries."
How would a New Historicist critic translate this statement?
a) We are still discovering new parallels between Ulysses and Finnegans
Wake that allow us to read these two works as one continuous work (as
Joyce himself would have read them)
b) In order to understand Joyce fully, we must read him as
his contemporary audience might have read him (specifically, from the
perspective of his fellow writers in the Modernist movement -- who would have
best understood the rationale behind his experiments)
c) We are still
learning to read Joyce from our own current perspectives as historians (there
is some irony in Ellmann's statement; it is not possible to become Joyce's
contemporaries by reconstructing the cultural milieu of 1920's
Paris)
d) What we know about the meaning of Joyce's work must necessarily
derive from our reading of texts whose authors Joyce considered to be his
contemporaries (Flaubert, Dujardin, and even Shakespeare and Dante)
Ans: c.
Explanation: New historicism refuses to privilege the literary text and
envisages a practise in which literary and non-literary texts are given equal
weight and constantly inform and interrogate each other.
2. How would a New Historicist critic interpret Derrida's statement,
"there is nothing outside the text"?
a) Historicist critics should restrict their attention to a culture's
literary productions; all other data is irrelevant to the critic's task
b) Language conditions the way we see the world, and there is no reality
beyond the "prison house" of language
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d) "Literature"
encompasses all cultural artifacts and all of the values, power relations, and
ways of seeing reflected in those artifacts; there is nothing outside of the
"text" broadly conceived
Ans: d.
Explanation: For the new historicists the events and attitudes of the
past now exist solely as writing, it makes sense to subject that writing to the
kind of close analysis formerly reserved for literary texts.
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3. Which
of the following theses would be considered an example of New Historicist
criticism as applied to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness?
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a) The
formation of the Boy Scouts in the first decade of the twentieth century helped
to establish the discourse of "sublimated savagery" in a Europe which
feared both the depravity of a Mr. Kurtz and the decadent "softness"
of the over-civilized man
b) The character of Marlowe represents the voice of Conrad himself
c) Conrad is known to have read Max Nordau's popular book Degeneration,
and Heart of Darkness may be considered an exploration of
Conrad's own anxieties over Nordau's Darwinian argument
d) Conrad's novella is about the metaphorical "heart of
darkness" within every reader who is seduced by the appeal of Kurtz's
Faustian iconoclasm
Ans: a.
Explanation: They make use of aspects of the post-structuralist outlook,
especially Derrida’s notion that every facet of reality is textualised, and
Foucault’s idea of social structures as determined by dominant ‘discursive
practices’.
4. Which of the following would not be invoked to describe a form of New
Historicist criticism?
a) Cultural materialism
b) Archaeology of social constructs
c) Poststructural recovery of authorial intent
d) Geneaology of patriarchal discourse
Ans: c.
Explanation: The new historicism is informed by diverse discourses,
including the poststructuralist and reader-response theory of the 1970s, as
well as the thinking of feminist, cultural, and Marxist critics.
5. What period of time is most studied by
New Historicisists?
a) Medieval
b)
Renaissance
c) Modern
d)Transcendentalist era
Ans: b.
Explanation:
At this point in history, we see a dramatic change in the way
people think, and thus analyze how this change of culture affected the
literature of the time.
6. Michel Foucalt is credited for the very important aspect of New
Historicism in which theorists analyze literature on the basis of
"power" spread throughout the piece. What is Foucalt's definition of
"power"?
a)
The physical strength of a community/region
b) A divine-given right
that allows dominance of a group
c) A complex of forces that
produces what happens next
d) A repressive force
used for conspiracy
Ans: c.
Explanation:
Foucault argued that no historical event has a single cause; rather each event
is tied into a vast web of economic, social and political factors.
7. What
other critical lens is very closely related with New Historicism?
a) Archetypal
b) Feminist
c) Psychoanalytic
d) Marxist
Ans: d.
Explanation:
Many think of the New Historicism as a branch of Marxist, however
instead of a stress on economic levels, a stress on the different thoughts of
different societies is given importance.
8. Which of these sciences are NOT associated with
the New Historical Lens?
a) Biotechnology
b) Anthropology
c) Geography
d) Sociology
Ans: a.
Explanation:
All the others are sciences with close relation to human v. some
other sort of societal feature
9. What is the one large criticism that New
Historicism faces?
a) New Historicism is too new to be considered
reliable
b) New Historicism does
not need an in depth historical background, so long as you can identify time
periods
c) New Historicism does
not have true evidence that the writing is reflective upon the time period in
which the author lives in
d) New Historicism is
not accurate to history
Ans: b.
Explanation: New Historicism does
not need an in depth historical background, so long as you can identify time
periods- best stated by Camille Paglia, New Historicism is a, "refuge for
English majors without critical talent or broad learning in history or
political science"
10.
What are "epistemes"?
a) No ideas for our times
b) Structures of thought
c) Ecocritical assumptions
d) None of the above
Ans: b.
Explanation: Epistemes are
structures of thought that shape everyone and everything within a culture. It
is important to New Historicism because it is what shapes time periods. For
example, in the scientific revolution, the biggest contributors to the period
all had incredibly similar thoughts and ideas, thus these thoughts defined that
period, which is used to find parallels in literature.
Culture Studies
A working definition of Cultural Studies
would be that it is the study of culture in order to understand a society and
its politics. While attempting to trace the history of Cultural Studies we need
to look at approaches and areas that are clearly related to what we identify as
the concerns of Cultural Studies. These would be:
— the focus
on everyday life and its practices
— a shift away from classical or elite cultural forms to popular or industrially produced forms (such as cinema, television, radio, popular magazines) and
— the focus on ways in which power and authority are exercised in cultural practices Cultural studies uses a wide range of materials from the realm of popular culture (click here to find out about books on popular culture) including films, cartoons, advertisements, newsreports, new media such as the internet, actual spaces such as cinema halls and other urban locations.
— a shift away from classical or elite cultural forms to popular or industrially produced forms (such as cinema, television, radio, popular magazines) and
— the focus on ways in which power and authority are exercised in cultural practices Cultural studies uses a wide range of materials from the realm of popular culture (click here to find out about books on popular culture) including films, cartoons, advertisements, newsreports, new media such as the internet, actual spaces such as cinema halls and other urban locations.
It also looks at legal documents,
government records and 'high' art. While shifting the emphasis from the written
to the visual, to the topography, to the imaginary, these methodological
innovations question the presumed centrality of the written text. Also critical
is the notion of culture as a set of meaning making practices. Or in other
words, culture is the manner in which a society makes sense of the world.
Important
Points
1.
The term ‘cultural
materialism’ was made current in 1985 when it was used by Jonathan Dollimore
and Alan Sinfield as the subtitle of their edited collection of essays
‘Political Shakespeare’
2. It emphasizes on historical context and
undermines the transcendent significance traditionally accorded to the literary
texts.
3. It emphasizes on theoretical approach
and signifies a break with liberal humanism and absorb the lessons of
structuralism, post structuralism and other approaches which have become
prominent since the 1970s.
4. It gives importance to political
commitment and the influence of Marxist and feminist perspectives and break
from the conservative- Christian framework which hitherto dominated
Shakesperian criticism.
5. It gives importance to textual
analysis.
Popular
Names
1.
The British critic Graham
Holderness, who described cultural materialism as a ‘politicised form of
historiography’.
2. Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield-
Essays on Political Shakespeare.
3. British left-wing critic Raymond
Williams who invented the term ‘structures of feeling’.
Expected
Questions
1.
Stuart
Hall's original argument in Cultural Studies was that the media were tools to:
a) persuade people
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d) reduce
uncertainties
Ans: b.
Explanation: In
fact, cultural studies theory argues that the media are powerful tools of the elite and
serve to keep powerful people
in control.
2.
Hall drew many of his ideas from
a)
Marxism
b)
Communism
c)
Socialism
d)
Democratic ideals
Ans:
a.
Explanation: One of the central concerns of contemporary cultural
studies is power. Cultural studies take its cue to the critique of power from
Marxist theory. Marxist views on power and social formations have influenced
radically as a direction to public discourses on cultural and social theories.
3. A key
assumption of Cultural Studies is that people are part of a hierarchical
structure of:
a) Culture
b) Mediated communication
c) Power
d) Ideology
Ans: Power
Explanation: Power relations in the society play a major
role in the structure of the society.
4. According to Cultural
Studies, _____________ in our culture is strongly affected by the media.
a) Industry
b) Hierarchy
c) Advertising
d) Meaning
Ans: d
Explanation: Media play a powerful role in our culture to
give definition and for arriving at structures and beliefs of the society.
5. _____________ refers
to the dominant culture and its power over other co-cultures present in a
nation.
a) Hegemony
b) Theatre of Struggle
c) Culture Wars
d) Dominance
Ans: a.
Explanation: Hegemony
is exercised through an amalgamation of power and approval through an
appropriation of historical bloc. Consequently, the normal exercise of hegemony
on the classical terrain of the parliamentary regime is characterized by the
combination of force and consent, which balance each other reciprocally without
force predominating excessively over consent.
6. _____________
refers to an audience resisting the messages of the dominant group.
a) Theatre of Struggle
b) Resistance phase
c) Social struggle
d) Counter hegemony
Ans: d.
Explanation: Counter-hegemony refers to
attempts to critique or dismantle hegemonic power. In other words, it is a
confrontation and/or opposition to existing status quo and its legitimacy in
politics, but can also be observed in various other spheres of life, such as history,
media, music, etc.
7. Cultural Studies suggests
that mediated messages must be _____________ by the mass audience.
a) Accepted
b) Resisted
c) Decoded
d) Encoded
Ans: c.
Explanation: The mass have the power to arrive at their own
conclusions based on the structures already in their minds.
8. Audience members may
engage in a(n) _____________ position, which occurs when they substitute an
alternative code for the code supplied by the media.
a) Negotiated
b) Communicated
c) Oppositional
d) Dominant
Ans: c.
Explanation: Audience members may arrive at different
conclusions while decoding the messages from the media.
9. Cultural Studies has
been criticized for its insistence on a(n) _____________ audience.
a) Active
b)Passive
c) Knowledgable
d) Intuitive
Ans: a.
Explanation: Cultural Studies insists that only an active
audience could decode meaningful messages.
10. Cultural Studies
originated in _____________, and some critics think it cannot be effectively
extended to other cultures.
a) The United States of
America
b) Britain
c) Australia
d) Germany
Ans: a.
Explanation: Many critics believe that culture studies
originated and is based in America and cannot be extended to other cultures.
Diasporic Writing
A diaspora is a scattered
population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale. Diaspora can
also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland. Diaspora
has come to refer particularly to historical mass dispersions of an involuntary
nature, such as the expulsion of Jews from Judea and the fleeing
of Greeks after the fall of Constantinople. Other examples are
the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the
southern Chinese or Indians during
the coolie trade, the Irish during and after the Irish
Famine, the Palestinian diaspora, and the Jewish exodus from Arab and
Muslim countries in the 20th century, the exile and deportation
of Circassians, and the emigration of Anglo-Saxon warriors and
their families after the Norman Conquest of England, many of whom found
employment in Constantinople and bolstered the elite bodyguard of the
emperor, the Varangian Guard.
Recently, scholars have distinguished between
different kinds of diaspora, based on its causes such as imperialism,
trade or labor migrations, or by the kind of social coherence within the
diaspora community and its ties to the ancestral lands. Some diaspora
communities maintain strong political ties with their homeland. Other qualities
that may be typical of many diasporas are thoughts of return, relationships
with other communities in the diaspora, and lack of full integration into the
host country.
Important Points
1. The precepts of Diasporic writings include
the migrants often possesses a double consciousness, a leftover native one and
a first world one.
2. They stand at the border of two cultures,
looking critically at both, neither assimilating nor combining either of them.
3. They assimilate the concept of hybridity
which is the rejection of a single or unified identity, and a preference for
multiple cultural locations and identies.
4. It can take the form of revival of a
pre-colonial past, such as folk or tribal cultural forms and conventions within
the nativist or even reactionary movements, or adapts the contemporary artistic
and social productions to present-day conditions of globalization,
multiculturalism and transnationalism.
5. People in one Diasporic community draw
upon the resources of another.
Notable Names
1. Avtar Brah (1997)
2. Robin Cohen (2001).
3. Stuart Hall
4. Will Kymlicka (1995)
5. Homi Bhabha
Expected Questions
1. Who described the
immigrants and Diasporic people as excolonial by birth, third world and
cosmopolitan?
a) Elleke Boehmer
b) Avtar Brah
c) Robin Cohen
d) None of the above
Ans: a.
Explanation: The Diasporic
people work within the precincts of the western metropolis while at the same
time retaining thematic and political connections with a national background.
2. In what aspect of Diasporic study does
post colonial theory gives importance?
a) Historical
b) Psychoanalysis
c) Celebrations of migrancy
d) All the above
Ans: c.
Explanation: They argue that the migrant often possesses a
double consciousness, a left over native one and a first world one. They stand
at the border of two cultures, looking critically at both, neither assimilating
nor combining either of them.
3. Who developed the concept of hybridity?
a) Homi Bhabha
b) Derek Walcott
c) Jan Mohammed
d) None of the above
Ans: a.
Explanation: Hybridity is the
rejection of a single or unified identity and a preference for multiple
cultural locations and identities.
4. Who propounded the theory of
‘multicultural citizenship’?
a) Homi Bhabha
b) Will Kymlicka
c) Antonio Negri
d) Derek Walcott
Ans: b.
Explanation: People in one
Diasporic community draw upon the resources of another.
5. What concept of home did the diaspora
theorists Avatar Brah and Robin Cohen showcase?
a) Home is a mythical concept
b) Home is a place of reality
c) Home has different meanings
d) None of the above
Ans: a.
Explanation: In the Diasporic
concept home is a mythic place of desire and longing. It is a place of
no-return, even if it is possible to visit the geographical territory that is
seen as the place of origin.
6. Who categorized the six rules to
distinguish migrants from the rest of the communities?
a) Avtar Brah
b) Robin Cohen
c) Homi Bhabha
d) William Safran
Ans: d.
Explanation: William Safran in an article published in 1991 set out six rules to distinguish
diasporas from migrant communities. These included criteria that the group
maintains a myth or collective memory of their homeland; they regard their
ancestral homeland as their true home, to which they will eventually return;
being committed to the restoration or maintenance of that homeland; and they
relate "personally or vicariously" to the homeland to a point where
it shapes their identity
7. Who endorses the weightless, nomadic,
placeless state of being embodied in the figure of the migrant?
a) Salman Rushdie
b) Hanif Kureishi
c) Homi Bhabha
d) Avtar Brah
Ans: a.
Explanation: Salman Rushdie
gives importance to the multiple identities of a migrant.
Public Sphere
The public sphere (German Öffentlichkeit) is an area in social
life where individuals can
come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through
that discussion influence political action. The term was originally coined by
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas
who defined "the public sphere as a virtual
or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable
space". Communication scholar Gerard
A. Hauser defines it as
"a discursive space in which individuals and groups associate to discuss
matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment
about them". The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in
modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium
of talk" and "a realm of social life in which public opinion can be
formed".
The ideology of the public sphere theory is
that the government's laws and policies should be steered by the public sphere
and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public
sphere. "Democratic governance rests on the capacity of an
opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate". Much of
the debate over the public sphere involves what is the basic theoretical structure
of the public sphere, how information is deliberated in the public sphere, and
what influence the public sphere has over society.
Important
Points
1.
The public sphere is a
virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable
space.
2. In its ideal form, the public
sphere is "made up of private people gathered together as a public and
articulating the needs of society with the state."
3. Through acts of assembly and
dialogue, the public sphere generates opinions and attitudes which serve to
affirm or challenge-therefore, to guide-the affairs of state.
4. In ideal terms, the public sphere is
the source of public opinion needed to "legitimate authority in any
functioning democracy".
5. The success of the
public sphere depends upon:
- the
extent of access (as close to universal as possible),
- the
degree of autonomy (the citizens must be free of coercion),
- the
rejection of hierarchy (so that each might participate on an equal
footing),
- the
rule of law (particularly the subordination of the state),
- and
the quality of participation (the common commitment to the ways of logic).
Notable
Names
1. Most contemporary conceptualizations of
the public sphere are based on the ideas expressed in Jürgen Habermas'
book, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere – An Inquiry
into a Category of Bourgeois Society.
2. In Rethinking the Public Sphere, Nancy
Fraser offers a feminist revision of Habermas' historical description of
the public sphere, and confronts it with "recent revisionist
historiography".
3. Gerard Hauser proposed a different direction
for the public sphere than previous models. He foregrounds
the rhetorical nature of public spheres, suggesting that public
spheres form around "the ongoing dialogue on public issues" rather
than the identity of the group engaged in the discourse.
Expected Questions
1. What is liberation theory?
a) The notion that media
should publish only those works that promotes libertarian ideals.
b) The belief that media play a vital role in
informing citizens in a democratic society.
c) The ideal that the individual should be free
to publish whatever he or she likes.
d) None of the above.
Ans: c.
Explanation: Libertarian theory or the Free Press Theory is one of the
Normative Theories of
mass communication where
media or press is given absolute freedom to publish anything at any time and
acts as a watchdog.
2. On what ideology is the Soviet theory based?
a) The
socialist system of government.
b) The communist system of government.
c) The democratic system of government.
d) None of the above
Ans: b
Explanation: Communist - a system of
government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a
single -- often authoritarian -- party holds power; state controls are imposed
with the elimination of private ownership of property or capital while claiming
to make progress toward a higher social order.
3. Who coined the term ‘public sphere’?
a) Jurgen Habermas
b) Gerard A Hauser
c) Craig Calhaun
d) None of the above
Ans: a.
Explanation: The term was originally
coined by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas who defined "the
public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily
exist in any identifiable space".
4. Which author considered the study of literature as
part of the history of culture in a broad sense?
a) Henrick Schuck
b) Craig Calhaum
c) Habermas
d) None of the above
Ans: a.
Explanation: The
life of the author was put in relation not only to his or her literary works,
but also to the surrounding society. Within the sociology of literature, the
social production of literature and its social implications are considered.
5. Who produced the seminal work, The Structural Transformation of the
Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society?
a) Derek Walcot
b) Habermas
c) Craig Calhaum
d) None of the above
Ans: b.
Explanation: Habermas argued in his book that public sphere is a
space outside of state control, where individuals can get together for debates,
conversations, and discussions, thus forming a “public opinion”.
6. What does Habermas refers to as ‘decay’ in the public sphere?
a) Population Explosion
b) Deforestation
c) Economic decline
d) Growth of commercial mass media
Ans: Both c and d.
Explanation: According to Habermas, the bourgeois public sphere had
its heydays in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. Already in the
1870s, the economic decline and the growth of commercial mass media caused what
Habermas refers to as the “decay” of the public sphere.
7. What is representative publicity?
a) The King or the Lord representing himself before an audience
b) The audience representing themselves before the King.
c) Both King and his audience having equal status.
d) All the above.
Ans: a.
Explanation: Before the bourgeois public sphere came representative publicity, which
existed from the Middle Ages until the eighteenth century. It involved the king
or lord representing himself before an audience; the King was the only public
person, and all others were spectators.
8. Where did a fully political public sphere
occur first?
a) USA
b) Britain
c) Germany
d) India
Ans: b.
Explanation: The development of the fully political public
sphere occurred first in Britain in the eighteenth century.
9. Which is the life blood of public sphere?
a) Political debate
b) Legal debate
c) Public debate
d) Rational- Critical debate
Ans: d.
Explanation: Rational-critical debate occurred in the
eighteenth century public sphere between members of a property-owning, educated
reading public using their reason. It centered first on literary questions,
then on political issues.
10. Who was considered to be the central liberal
theorist of the public Sphere?
a) John Stuart Mill
b) Jeremy Bentham
c) Karl Marx
d) Tocqueville
Ans: a.
Explanation: John Stuart Mill -
(1806–73) English philosopher who wrote On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Principles
of Political Economy. Habermas analyses Mill as a central
theorist of the liberal public sphere; public opinion for Mill is a powerful
force, but one that needs to be controlled.
Meta
Narratives
Metanarrative or grand
narrative or mater narrative is a term developed
by Jean-François Lyotard to mean a theory that tries to
give a totalizing, comprehensive account to various historical events,
experiences, and social, cultural phenomena based upon the appeal to
universal truth or
universal values.
In this context, the narrative is a story that functions
to legitimize power, authority, and social customs. A grand
narrative or metanarrative is one that claims to explain various events in
history, gives meaning by connecting disperse events and phenomena by appealing
to some kind of universal knowledge or schema. The term grand narratives can be
applied to a wide range of thoughts which includes Marxism, religious doctrines, belief in
progress, universal reason, and others.
The concept was criticized by Jean-François Lyotard in his work, The Postmodern Condition: A
Report on Knowledge (1979). In this text, Lyotard refers to what he
describes as the postmodern condition, which he characterized as
increasing skepticism toward the totalizing nature of
"metanarratives" or "grand narratives."
According to John Stephens it "is a
global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience." The prefix meta means
"beyond" and is here used to mean "about," and a narrative
is a story. Therefore, a metanarrative is a story about a
story, encompassing and explaining other 'little stories' within totalizing a
schema.
Important
Points
1. Many Christians
believe that human nature, since the Fall (Genesis 3), is characteristically
sinful, but has the possibility of redemption and experiencing eternal life in
heaven; thus representing a belief in a universal rule.
2. The Enlightenment theorists believed that rational thought, allied to
scientific reasoning, would lead inevitably toward moral, social and ethical progress.
3. Muslims view human history as the story of divine contact
through prophets. These prophets or their messages are resisted when
introduced, and distorted or corrupted over time necessitating new prophets,
the final one being Muhammad and the uncorrupted Quran; victory ultimately being for those who have purified
their hearts and accepted the divine nature of the world.
4. The Marxist-Leninists believe that in
order to be emancipated, society must undergo a revolution.
5. Freudian theory holds that human history is a narrative of
the repression of libidinal desires.
6. Categorical and definitive periodizations of
history, such as the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages and Renaissance.
7. Many feminists hold that patriarchy has systematically oppressed and
subjugated women throughout history.
8. The Whig Interpretation of History, where
history was viewed as a teleological process gradually leading to increased
liberty and democracy.
Notable Names
1. Jean Francois Loyatard
: The Post modern condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979).
2. John Stephens
3. Roby McCallum
Expected Questions
1. Who defined
postmodernism as ‘incredulity towards metanarratives’?
a) Jean Baudrillard
b) Lyotard
c) Habermas
d) None of the above
Ans: b.
Explanation:
Lyotard argued that these ‘metanarratives’ which purport to explain and
reassure, are really illusions, fostered in order to smother difference,
opposition, and plurality.
2. Who brought the term ‘metanarratives’ into
prominence?
a) John Stephens
b) Roby McCallum
c) Lyotard
d) Habermas
Ans: c.
Explanation: Although first used earlier in the 20th century, the term was
brought into prominence by Jean-François Lyotard in 1979, with his claim that the postmodern was
characterised precisely by a mistrust of the grand narratives (Progress, Enlightenment, emancipation, Marxism) that
had formed an essential part of modernity.
3. Who wrote the seminal work, The Post modern condition: A Report on Knowledge?
a) Lyotard
b) Habermas
c) Roby McCallum
d) None of the above.
Ans: a.
Explanation: In The
Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979), Lyotard highlights
the increasing skepticism of the postmodern condition toward
the totalizing nature of
metanarratives and their reliance on some form of "transcendent and
universal truth".
4. Who proposed that, a metanarrative "is
a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience"?
a) Lyotard
b) John Stevens and Roby McCallum
c) Habermas and Stuart Mill
d) All the above
Ans: b.
Explanation: According
to John Stephens and Robyn McCallum, a metanarrative "is a global or
totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience" –
a story about a story, encompassing and explaining other
"little stories" within conceptual models that assemble the "little stories" into a
whole.
5. What is eschatology?
a) Is a part of theology
b) A part of science
c) A part of psychology
d) None of the above.
Ans: a.
Explanation: Is a
part of theology concerned with the
final events of history, or the
ultimate destiny of humanity. This
concept is commonly referred to as the "end of the world" or "end
times".
Hyper Reality
Baudrillard‘s concept of hyper reality is closely linked to
his idea of Simulacrum, which he defines as something which
replaces reality with its representations. Baudrillard observes that the
contemporary world is a simulacrum, where reality has been replaced by false
images; to such an extent that one cannot distinguish between the real and the
unreal. In this context, he made the controversial statement, “The Gulf war did
not take place”, pointing out that the ‘reality’ of the Gulf War was presented
to the world in terms of representations by the media.
Important Points
1.
There is truth,
a basic reality which is faithfully represented, as in the paintings of LS Lowry, which represent the
monotony and repetitiveness of life in 20th century Britain.
2.
Reality exists but is distorted
in representation, as in the Victorian artist John Atkinson
Grimshaw‘s paintings of
Liverpool and Hull (Life in these cities was grim and dull but the paintings
present a glamourised and romanticised image.
3. Reality
does not exist, but this fact is hidden through representation that feigns a
reality (Rene Magritte‘s painting in which, what is shown beyond the window is not
reality, but another sign which has no
semblance with reality).
4. There is no
relationship between the reality and representation, because there is no real
to reflect (the abstract paintings of Mark Rothko).
Notable Names
1. Jean Baudrillard
Expected Questions
1. Which
of the following best defines the concept of hyperreality?
a)
An organization monitored 24/7 by surveillance cameras.
b)
A simulation of reality that eliminates many flaws of the reality it aims to
copy.
c)
A surreal experience encountered in a theme park.
d) An
expensive bill presented at the end of a meal in a themed restaurant.
Ans:
b.
Explanation: Hyperreality
suggests a simulation of reality that irons out many of the flaws or the
original that it intends to copy, presenting an experience that is 'better
than' reality. For example, a shopping mall is a simulation of a town centre,
but can control the climate so that it is always at a perfect
temperature.
2. Hyperreality corresponds to the disappearance of
intensity. It becomes something “cool” – stripped of intense affective
energies and the power of the symbolic and of fantasy. What does Baudrillard
meant by the term “cool”?
a)
The fashionable
b)
Something to be enjoyed
c)
Things relating to pleasure
d)
The loss of heat
Ans:
d.
Explanation: He
does not use the term “cool” in the sense of fashionable or enjoyable. He is
referring to the loss of heat. Heat is here a metaphor for intensity, enjoyment
(as opposed to pleasure), and emotional investment. To be “cool” is to be
apathetic, disillusioned, uncommitted.
3.
What does Baudrillard refers to as ‘implosion’?
a) Destruction
of the system
b)
System collapsing from within
c)
System collapsing from outside.
d)
All the above
Ans:
b.
Explanation: For
Baudrillard, the system has reached its culmination. It is accelerating towards
its limit, which today is expressed as implosion (rather than explosion or
revolution).
4.
The media has a special place in the implosion of meaning. What does it mean when
the nuances of hyperreality are applied?
a)
It creates a knowledge base
b)
It creates addiction
c) It
creates pressure of excessive information.
d)
All the above.
Ans:
c.
Explanation: The
media has a special place in the implosion of meaning. In particular, it
creates a pressure of excessive information. According to an online
saying, “getting information from the Internet is like taking a drink from a
fire hydrant”. For Baudrillard, this leads to the destructuring of the social.
Social life undergoes entropy. It implodes.
5.
The autonomy of the system of signs puts an end to the regime of signs, of representation,
and of production. Aesthetics are destroyed by the cold, systematic
reproduction of functional objects, including objects signifying beauty. Signs
become socially mobile, as in the phenomena of kitsch and cliché. All the
humanist criteria of value – from morality to truth to aesthetics – disappear,
because the code rests on indifference and neutralisation. Capitalism almost
becomes a parody of itself. What theory will you apply here?
a)
Hyperreality and simulacrum
b)
Structuralism
c)
Deconstruction
d) Semiotics
Ans:
a.
Explanation: The
situation of indistinction which reason and science have historically struggled
against is now coming into existence, because of hyperreality – because a lot
of what exists is neither objectively true nor subjectively imagined.
Panic tends to arise because of the functioning of value separately from
its referential contents. We are living through a collapse of meaning.
Simulacra
Simulacra, in plural) is the term closely associated
with the work of Jean Baudrillard and which, roughly, denotes likeness or/and
similarity. At first, around the 16th century when it entered the English
language, it was used to stand for a representation of a superior kind such a
statue of a divinity and, then, around the close of the 19th century, its
meaning considerably deteriorated to become synonymous with an inferior image
lacking the quality of the original. In Key Concepts in Literary Theory (2006),
Wolfreys et al argue that the term is bound up in Baudrillard’s “reality effect,”
that relates to the ways in which reality is often established and becomes
replaced for some individuals and cultures through hyperreal media such as
photography, film and other media; hence, simulacrum refers to the image,
representation or reproduction of a concrete other in which the very idea of
the real is no longer the signified of which the simulacrum is the sigDisneyland
is a perfect model of all the entangled orders of nified.
Important
Points
1. Simulation is, thus, the process of de-realisation
of reality into simulacra, or inferior representations, which, on the other
hand, signifies postmodern tendency to seriously question the idea of a
beginning and origin.
2. When the real is no longer what it used to be,
nostalgia assumes its full meaning.
3. There is a proliferation of myths of origin and
signs of reality; of second-hand truth, objectivity and authenticity.
4. There is an escalation of the true, of the lived
experience; a resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance have
disappeared. And there is a panic-stricken production of the real and the
referential.
5. Meaning is deterred, endlessly postponed,
suspended and undecided.
Notable
Names
1.
Nietzsche
2. Baudrillard
Expected
Questions
1. In his Sophist, Plato speaks of
two kinds of image making. The first is a faithful reproduction, attempted to
copy precisely the original. The second is intentionally distorted in order to
make the copy appear correct to viewers. Which theory is applied here?
a) Structuralism
b) Deconstruction
c) Psychoanalysis
d) Simulacrum
Ans: d.
Explanation: He gives the example
of Greek statuary, which was crafted larger on the top than on the bottom
so that viewers on the ground would see it correctly. If they could view it in
scale, they would realize it was malformed. This example from the visual arts
serves as a metaphor for the philosophical arts and the tendency of
some philosophers to distort truth so that it appears accurate unless viewed
from the proper angle.
2. Who addresses the concept of simulacrum (but
does not use the term) in the Twilight of the Idols?
a) Nietzsche
b) Baudrillard
c) Edward Said
d) None of the above
Ans: a.
Explanation: Nietzsche addresses
the concept of simulacrum (but does not use the term) in the Twilight
of the Idols, suggesting that most philosophers, by ignoring the reliable
input of their senses and resorting to the constructs of language and reason,
arrive at a distorted copy of reality.
3. How is simulacra represented in the Oscar Wilds’s
‘Picture of Dorian Grey’, Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ and Stanislaw Lem’s
‘Solaris’?
a) As symbols
b) As metaphors
c) As objects
d) All the above
Ans: c.
Explanation: Some stories focus on
simulacra as objects, such as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian
Gray. The term also appears in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and
in Stanislaw Lem's Solaris.
4. Who described simulacra as the avenue by which an
accepted ideal or "privileged position" could be
"challenged and overturned"?
a) Nietsche
b) Oscar Wilde
c) Gilles Deluze
d) None of the above
Ans: c.
Explanation: Deleuze defines simulacra
as "those systems in which different relates to different by means
of difference itself. What is essential is that we find in these
systems no prior identity, no internal resemblance".
5. Disneyland is a perfect model of
all the entangled orders of______.
a) Deconstruction
b) Simulacra
c) Alienation
d) None of the above
Ans: b.
Explanation: Disneyland is a perfect model of all the
entangled orders of simulation. To begin with it is a play of illusions and
phantasms: pirates, the frontier, future world, etc. This imaginary world is
supposed to be what makes the operation successful. But, what draws the crowds
is undoubtedly much more the social microcosm, the miniaturized and religious
revelling in real America, in its delights and drawbacks
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