Part 2

Time

Past, Present and Future

2.1 The Past: Cultural History/Cultural Memory

• Cultural studies focuses on contemporary culture, but “as soon as we want to explain the current state of things we are going to be tempted to tell stories about the past which might reveal how the contemporary came to be the way it is.”

• The present-cultural studies and the past-cultural history

• “Ordinary life is saturated in the past.” “Every action carries a trace of the past- an unconscious memory of it.”

• For example:

– “A recipe is handed down across generations, associated with a grandmother.”

– “A food you dislike recalls a time you were forced to eat it by your parent.”– A piece of candy “takes you back to when you were a kid and it was your

most favorite thing in the world.”

• Cultural History:

“looks at popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past knowledge, customs, and arts of a group of people. Its subject matter encompasses the continuum of events occurring in succession leading from the past to the present and even into the future pertaining to a culture. It involves past cultural activity, such as ceremony, class in practices, and the interaction with locals.

• “Modernity” that defines cultural studies is “the transformation of society and ideology and the consequent embrace of commerce and technological development.”

• The past can help us understand the present through the use of stories and exploration.

• “The past can teach us most not because we share its world, but because it reminds us that there are other ways of doing things.”

• “The past often retains its presence in the contemporary.” “The past is made available for consumption.”

– For example: Radio stations that play old songs

– Television reruns of old TV shows

– The presence of old movies on TV

• For some people history is a hobby or a form of entertainment. For example the presence of TV channels that focus mainly on history such as the history channel.

• The past also functions as a ground for identity. At the level of the family (and) genealogy.” For examples family trees and many libraries and archives that help people uncover their family lines.

• History continues to form a basis of identity for ethnicities and nations. For example, “French identity is still articulated around its sense that France brought modern civility and rationality to the world.”

• Cultural memory and heritage industry:

- “Both refer to those elements of the past that remain current beyond formal and specialized scholarship. The past that we remember is, to a large degree, the past that organized interests present for us to be remembered.”

- for example historical entertainment such as museums.

2.2 The PresentThe Contemporary

• Cultural studies as we know is contemporary and modern

• Contemporary:

– It means coexistent in time and existing, occurring, or living at the same time.

– At one level the contemporary refers to the present. And the present is the time that is associated with the events happening now and not as part of a recollection or a speculation.

• The present can be divided into 3 parts

1- The residual: “current formations which were inherited from the past but had little future”

2- The dominant: “formations that control the present”

3- The emergent: “those which had not yet attained their full development and influence”

The Postmodern• Modernism:

– “It is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”

– “The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world.”

• Postmodernism:– “It is a movement away from the viewpoint of modernism. More

specifically it is a (trend) in contemporary culture characterized by the problem of objective truth and (natural) suspicion.”

– “It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations; in particular it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as male versus female, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial. Rather, it holds realities to be relative, and dependent on who the interested parties are and what their interests consist in.

• Postmodern “emerged as a concept after some intellectuals concluded that it was no longer possible to tell coherent stories about society.”

• Postmodernism gave rise to Relativism”– “It is the notion that all cultures, people, faiths are equal,

none being more advanced than other.”– “Instead of history appearing to be the story of progress-

the long, painful struggle towards increased social justice and prosperity-

it came to seem a parade of variations of social structures and ways of living. That way of thinking is associated with ‘relativism’.”

• “Postmodernism’s power as a concept is that it compels us to pay attention to the way in which the contemporary world has changed.”

2.3 The Future: Policies and Prophesies• Progressivism: “is a political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform

through governmental action.”

• “There has been the idealist project of developing the full and balanced potentialities of individuals so as to help secure a more civilized and unified society for the next generation.”

• “What is the place of the future in cultural studies and in ‘culture?”

• The future “relies on a confidence that we have enough information about both past and present to (move) beyond them.”

• “Futuristic images of the future are projections of the present in which they were created.” For example, “watching fifties sci-fi movies, for instance, can be an uncanny experience as, on the one hand, now outdated technologies (the rotary telephone, the reel-to-reel computer) exist as the latest thing in the future, while, on the other, that future seems to share little with where we seem actually to be going (skyscrapers towering into outer space).”

Cultural Policy• Cultural policy is “public policy-making that governs activities related to

the arts and culture. This involves fostering processes, legal classifications and institutions which promote cultural diversity and accessibility.”

History of the development of cultural policy:• Started with the following patterns of state support for cultural activities:1- 1850-1940/ Social control: culture was supported by the state to correct

the disorder of democracy.

2- early forties to early sixties/ national prestige: promotion of the state and developing a reputation.

3- Mid sixties to the late seventies/ Social access: “emphasized the need for neglected communities to participate in the wider culture.

4- Present/ Market-Oriented Policies: Policies made to help with economic growth.

Cultural Policy Studies• It is a branch of cultural studies that much like cultural studies, began as

a strand of analysis.

• It makes the point that cultural studies does not spell out how criticizing culture might lead to practical outcomes. “In order to achieve practical outcomes one needs to influence the actual governance and organization of culture that is possible by becoming involved in the policy-making process.”

• This means that power does not need to be seen as an instrument of repression and control, but rather as a force through which people are empowered by the use of government. This is called the “theory of modern power.”

• This branch of cultural studies has made the cooperation between culture, theory and government respectable because it pressures academics to produce “work with practical outcomes.”

• “Culture’s economic and national value has encouraged governments to develop cultural policies” that benefit both sides. The following are four important reasons:

1- The growing importance of the economic potential of cultural industries

2- The threats to national culture from international trade policies. ex. Hollywood and US brands.

3- The back lash of conservatives against forms of art seen as cheap or experimental.

4- “The emergence of governmentally endorsed and managed multiculturalism.”

• Cultural policy supports the building and development of culture because of social and cultural acceptance as well as for industry development. This is called “cultural development.”

• It also emphasizes cultural activities with market potential. For example fashion shows, dance companies, comedy festivals, and public artworks. These industries are called “creative industries” or “copyright industries.”

• One of the objectives of cultural policy is to ensure “cultural rights.” “Cultural rights” means “an individual’s right to participate in and express themselves through a culture of their choosing. It includes the right to cultural respect from others.”

Multiculturalism: “The encouragement of different cultures within one state”

Cultural diversity: “The openness to different cultural global flows”

Both mean the same thing!