LCT 05: EVOLUTION OF CULTURAL STUDIES

IN THE 20TH CENTURY

1. The concept of culture in F.R. Leavis’s “Mass Civilization and Minority Culture” (1930)
F.R. Leavis (1895-1978) was a prominent literary and cultural critic. His essay
“Mass Civilization and Minority Culture” published in 1930 is considered
to be his literary manifesto. He argues there what culture is and what for sure
is not culture (mass culture is not culture and it is dangerous).
Later on, the current of literary thought called Leavisism emerged.
The central notion of this current is that culture is the high point
in civilization and concern of an educated minority. Leavis argues
that prior to the industrial revolution England had an authentic culture of the educated elite.
For Leavis, it was a golden age of an organic community with a lived culture of Folk-song and Folk-
dance. Leavis himself was heavily influenced by a 19th-century scholar Matthew Arnold.
a. the definition of culture vs. civilization
Culture for Leavis is a concern of the educated minority only. He thinks that only a few people
in society are able to comprehend and understand culture properly. For him, culture is elitist
and uneducated masses have nothing to do with it. Even worse, the industrialization
and popularization of culture in 20th-century England led, in his mind, to the deterioration
and eradication of true culture.
Civilization, on the other hand, is the mass
culture of uneducated people. Civilization
F.R. Leavis saw culture as elitist,
started to be more and more present in society
available for a narrow minority
because of industrialization and social changes
in the society. He thought that true
of the 20th century. For Leavis, civilization is not
culture is threatened by mass culture
culture and poses a threat to it. Leavis is scared of
and that it will disappear.
the vision of cars becoming popular and the
Americanization of cinema, claiming that those
have nothing to do with the once-great culture. Civilization and culture are opposing terms.
b. the role of minority
F.R. Leavis (1895-1978) claims that culture belongs to the minority of society, on which
the appreciation of art and literature depends, and that culture is only for a few who are capable
of unprompted, first hand judgment. His view is quite elitist, and he agrees here
with Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) and his book Culture and Anarchy (1869) – Arnold was
sure that culture only belongs to the elite of people who appreciate all forms of beauty and art.
Leavis gives the minority responsibility for conserving culture. Those people should
preserve their best qualities by appreciating not only great figures in literature and art
(Shakespeare, Donne, Dante, Baudelaire) but also by recognizing their latest successors (Leavis
might mean writers such as Joyce or Beckett). Their mission is so important because they are
the only people able to interpret the hidden parts of the history of humankind.
 c. the relationship between minority and masses
Leavis makes a distinction between the comprehension abilities of the minority
and the masses. He claims that there are works of art that are accessible both
to uneducated masses and intellectual minorities, e.g. Shakespeare or John Milton’s
Paradise Lost. The difference is that the masses are only able to read them very generally,
and the minority can appreciate their true genius by reading them in a certain and proper way.
On the other hand, Leavis claims that there are works of literature that can be read only
by the minority because they have no popular features. He provides The Waste Land
or Ulysses as examples.
Finally, Leavis is very skeptical of the technological machinery of his times. He dreads to think
what the development of cars would bring, and he points out the Americanization of the movie
industry. Leavis concludes that the true sophisticated culture is disappearing
and the awful “mass culture” will prevail.

2. Raymond Williams’s redefinition of culture in The Long Revolution (1961)

Raymond Williams (1921-1988) was the founding father of cultural
studies. In his book The Long Revolution, the titular revolution
is a revolution in culture that happened because of the democratic
revolution and the industrial revolution. Inside the book,
he recognized the growing importance of the popular press, the growth
of standard English, and the growth of the reading public in English-
speaking culture and in Western culture as a whole (which was new
in the 1960s – remember about the poem Them and [uz] in which Tony
Harrison defends the vernacular English
and locality). He proposed there three Raymond Williams disagreed with Leavis’s

levels of culture which can be analyzed concept of elitist culture, claiming that culture

in three different ways – this was the element is more than a narrow discipline reserved

that revolutionized the discipline of cultural for the elite. He thought that analyzing porn

studies, making them more inclusive and is culture as well, because it relates to everyday

concerned about more than high-brow activities of some people.

culture.

New ways of thinking about culture:

T.S. Eliot also saw culture 1) culture as a description of a particular way
as the characteristic activities of life
and interests of people. He thought 2) culture as an expression of certain
for example of beetroot in vinegar meanings and values
as culture and advised the reader Thus, cultural analysis should be the clarification
to make his own cultural list. of the meanings and values implicit and explicit
in a particular way of life.
 a. three levels of culture: ideal, documentary, and social
b. the ways of analyzing each level of culture
LEVEL OF
WHAT CULTURE IS HERE HOW IT IS ANALYZED
CULTURE
the discovery and description
here culture is a state or process of
of values that can be seen
human perfection, in terms
IDEAL to compose a timeless order,
of certain absolute or universal
or to have a permanent reference
values
to the universal human condition
the activity of criticism, by which
thought and experience, the details
here culture is the body
of the language, form,
of intellectual and imaginative
and convention are described
DOCUMENTARY work where human thought
and valued
and experience are variously
(such criticism can range
recorded
from a process similar to the ‘ideal’
analysis to historical criticism)
the clarification of meanings
and values implicit and explicit
in a particular way of life,
a particular culture
here culture is a description
(this approach to culture includes
of a particular way of life
the analysis of elements of life
SOCIAL that expresses certain meanings
that are not ‘culture’ at all, e.g. porn
and values also in institutions
or disco polo, family structure
and ordinary behavior
and relations)
(also, institutions are analyzed
because they express or govern
social relationships)

3. John Fiske’s redefinition of the purpose of cultural studies and theory revolution
John Fiske (1939-2021) was a media scholar and cultural theorist. In 1998
he wrote an essay “Culture, Ideology, Interpellation”, in which he redefined
cultural studies and culture as political. He claimed that the analysis of culture
in aesthetic and humanist terms is not as important as its political emphasis.
To him, culture is heavily influenced by politics
and by the sociopolitical events that shape society. He provided
an example of the industrial society that created an area for some kind of culture
to arise and develop.
 a. Harold Bloom’s reaction to the reconceptualization of literary studies under
the influence of cultural studies
Harold Bloom (1930-2019) was an American literary and cultural critic.
He was a defender of a traditional Western canon at a time when
literary departments were focusing on what he derided as the “school
of resentment” (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). Bloom
defended the Western canon by saying it has great educational and aesthetic
value.
Harold Bloom was outraged
While Fiske remarked that cultural
by the direction in which literary studies started
studies revolve around politics and
to be pursued. He claimed that there are
was rather neutral about it, Harold
few institutions that still feature literary studies.
Bloom was enraged
For him, literary studies became politicized
by the politicization of classical
by the “school of resentment”. He was
culture and the eradication
an enthusiast of aesthetic values
of aesthetics.
in literature, which are no longer appreciated
nowadays. He thought neoconservatives betrayed
literature’s essential purpose. In his view, popular culture will soon replace the traditional one.
Finally, he stated a hypothesis that in the future Departments of English will comprise 3-4
scholars, just as the Latin and Greek Departments are today.

4. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the relationship between culture and power

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual.
His contributions have achieved wide influence in media and cultural studies.
He was primarily concerned with the dynamics of power in society, especially
the diverse and subtle ways in which power is transferred and social order
is maintained within and across generations. He wrote a book Distinction: A Social
Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1979) which is a sociological report about
the state of French culture.
a. the role of taste in social life
In sociology, taste is an individual or a demographic group’s subjective preferences. The social
inquiry of taste is about the arbitrary human ability to judge what is considered beautiful, good,
proper, and valuable.
Bourdieu claims that the tastes of social classes are structured on the basis of assessments
concerning possibilities and constraints of social action. Some choices are not equally
possible for everyone. The constraints are not simply because members of different classes have
varying amounts of economic resources at their disposal. There are also significant non-economic
resources and their distribution affects social stratification and inequality.
Cultural capital can manifest itself in the verbal facility (the way a person speaks), general cultural
awareness, aesthetic preferences, and educational credentials. Overall, cultural capital defines
one’s social position.
b. different types of cultural capital: economic, educational, social, cultural
Cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person that promote social mobility
in a stratified society. It functions as a social relation within an economy of practices and includes
the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers social status and power,
thus cultural capital comprises the material and symbolic goods, without distinction, that society
considers rare and worth seeking.
There are four types of capital:
1) economic capital – what you own and receive, material objects; how much money you have
2) cultural capital – how competent you are in culture and to what extent you present it
3) social capital – networks; whom you know and whom you can ask for favors if necessary
4) symbolic capital – prestige; how you can deny the capital of the underparty
c. forms of cultural capital
1) embodied capital – how your body demonstrates cultural competence (using cutlery,
following manners, ways of walking, postures)
2) objectified capital – the manifestation of cultural competence in objects that you use
or that surround you (instruments, books)
3) institutionalized capital – credentials and diplomas
d. the notion of symbolic systems and symbolic violence
Symbolic systems are those communicating using symbols. An obvious example is the human
mind. They have certain functions:
1) cognition – “structuring structures”: language, myth, religion, science
2) communication – “structured structures”
3) social differentiation
Symbolic violence describes a type of non-physical violence manifested in the power
differential between social groups. It is often unconsciously agreed upon by both parties
and is manifested in the imposition
of the norms of the group An example of symbolic violence is presented
possessing greater social power in the poem Them and [uz] by Tony Harrison.
on those of the subordinate group. A child from Leeds is reading a poem by John
Symbolic violence can be manifested Keats in his vernacular accent, and the teacher
across different social domains such as is heavily critical of that. It does not matter
nationality, gender, sexual that Keats was from Cockney and did not speak
orientation, or ethnic identity. posh English – the poem is meant to be read
e. the notion of habitus in Received Pronunciation.
To understand habitus, one needs
.
to know what disposition is. Disposition is an individual pattern of behavior.
Habitus, on the other hand, is a collective pattern of behavior. It can be understood
as “cultural grammar of action”. It is a set of rules that function in the particular community,
its “cultural langue”. Habitus results from early socialization, and it regulates particular decisions
in the community. It is responsible for the stability of the social distinctions.
 Habitus has certain characteristics:
1) practical rather than discursive – habitus is not explained to people and it is not
regulated by manuals; people just employ it in practice
2) pre-reflective – people who express certain views do not reflect on them but rely on common
sense
3) embodied – habitus is expressed by the body via customs
4) durable though adaptive – it is difficult to break habitus but it can be gradually adapted,
just like tradition
5) reproductive though generative and inventive – it is passed from generation
to generation, also referred to as social wisdom
6) product of particular social conditions though transposable to others – habitus
is a social wisdom that is shared as passed

WARM-UP

Match the scholars with their views.

1. F.R. Leavis a. “culture is much more than we think, it is about the ordinary”

2. Raymond Williams b. “culture is about politics rather than aesthetics”

3. John Fiske c. “culture can be understood only by few educated people”

4. Harold Bloom d. “culture is determined primarily by the society”

5. Pierre Bourdieu e. “real culture is dead!!! now there are only pseudo-feminists!!!”

EXAM PRACTICE

1. How does F.R. Leavis see culture in relation to the masses? Present his views and compare them
with the views of Raymond Williams. In what ways do they differ?
2. What three levels of culture does Raymond Williams postulate in The Long Revolution? Discuss
them briefly and pinpoint the importance of this book for the evolution of cultural studies. Does
Williams advocate for broadening or narrowing the definition of culture?
3. What does John Fiske claim about the definition of culture? What is the most important notion
of culture in his view? How does Harold Bloom react to the contemporary changes in literary
and cultural studies?
4. Define cultural capital in the view of Pierre Bourdieu. What three forms of cultural capital does
he mention? Provide an example of each of them.
5. Discuss symbolic violence in relation to a chosen example of a cultural text. What group
is the imposing one and upon what group is it imposed?
6. Define the notion of habitus in the view of Pierre Bourdieu. Discuss its three characteristic
features of choice. To each of them, provide relevant examples.