This document provides an overview of 10 topics covered in the GSET Paper 2 English Literature exam, including cultural studies. It then summarizes a lecture on cultural studies, covering the origins and goals of cultural studies. Key concepts discussed include encoding and decoding, bricolage, cyberfeminism, and theorists such as Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, and Arjun Appadurai. The summary concludes by listing various areas of focus within cultural studies.

1. /GSET
Coaching Lectures 2020

2. Paper 2 English Literature
• 1 Drama
• 2 Poetry
• 3 Fiction, Short Stories
• 4 Non-Fictional Prose
• 5 Language – Basic Concepts, Theories and Pedagogy
• 6 English in India: History, Evolution and Futures
• 7 Cultural Studies
• 8 Literary Criticism
• 9 Literary Theory Post World War 2
• 10 Research Methods and Materials in English

3. Cultural Studies
Ms. Vaidehi Hariyani
(GSET 2019, Research Scholar)
Department of English,
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

5. ‘Culture’ in general
• ‘ Culture’ ‘cultura’ ‘colere’ ‘to cultivate’.
• It is also meant to ‘honour’ and ‘protect’.
• Habits, Customs, Rituals, Tastes…
• Cultural artifacts…

6. ‘Culture’ – in Cultural Studies
• Mode of generating new ideas.
• ‘Mode’ is a negotiation over which meanings are valid.
• Meanings are governed by Power relations.
• Elite Culture controls meanings.
• Non-Elite views are seen as ‘tasteless’.

7. Cultural Studies
• An academic discipline
• Study the ways in which literary texts are theorized and read.
• Inter-disciplinary field of study that investigates politics, political
economy, sociology, history, anthropology, philosophy, ethnography,
communication and media theories and much more…
• To comprehend the ideological base on which a literary text is built.
• CS opens up the gates to investigates text in wider sense.
• From literary texts to movies, from classic art to popular culture.

8. • Drew upon the ‘Culture and
civilization’ in literary studies from
Mathew Arnold’s ‘Culture and
Anarchy’ (1869)
• The Aristocrat Class, The Philistines,
and The Populace.
• Reached to its peak in the works of
F.R.Leavis and Q.D.Leavis (1930s-
1940s)

9. Origin of CCCS
• Richard Hoggart established “Centre
for Contemporary Cultural Studies” in
Birmingham in 1964.
• He was the first director of the CCCS.
• It was formed as a result of re-
evaluation of the class/elite character
of culture as appeared in the
traditional literary studies.
• Richard Hoggart appointed Stuart Hall
as assistant by 1971 and by 1971 he
became the director of CCCS.
• In the late 1990s, ‘restructuring’ of the
university led to the elimination of
CCCS.

10. Originating Core Texts
‘The Uses of Literacy’ (1957) –
Richard Hoggart
‘Culture and Society’ (1958) and
The Long Revolution (1961) –
Raymond Williams
E.P.Thompson’s ‘The Making of
the English Working Class’ (1963)

11. Four Goals
of Cultural
Studies
Politically Engaged
Analyze not only the
cultural work, but
means of Production.
Transcends the confines
of particular discipline
such literary criticism
and history
Denies separation of
‘high’ and ‘low’ culture

12. The Pioneer of Cultural Studies
• Richard Hoggart (1918-2014)
• E.P.Thompson (1924 – 1993)
• Raymond Williams (1921-1988)
• Stuart Hall (1932-2014)

13. Cultural Materialism
• A literary theory
• Origins from the work of Raymond Williams
• The term was coined by Williams
• Emerged as a theoretical movement in the early 1980s along with new historicism
• Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield influenced this movement and their book is
considered to be a seminal text.
• They have identified four defining characteristics of cultural materialism as a
theoretical device:
• Historical context
• Close textual analysis
• Political commitment
• Theoretical method

14. Bricolage
• The process of appropriating elements from the dominant culture to
have their meaning transformed in order to challenge and subvert the
culture.
• French Anthropologist Claude Levis-Strauss introduce this term
• In his work “The Savage Mind”(1962)
• Refers to the creation of new from pre-existing things in an innovative
manner.

15. Cyberfeminism
• Refers to the process of critiquing female identity and experience on
the cyberspace.
• Term is coined by Sadie Plant in 1994
• Major Theorists:-
• Sadie Plant
• Donna Haraway
• Susanna Paasonen
• N.Katherine Hayles
• Radhika Gajjala

16. Metatheory of disjuncture
• Renowned Globalization Theorists Arjun Appadurai in his work
“Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”
introduces this theory.
• He discussed the five Global Cultural flows
• Ethnoscapes
• Ideoscapes
• Finanacescapes
• Mediascapes
• Technoscapes

17. Encoding and Decoding
• Stuart Hall introduces this idea in his work “Encoding and Decoding in
the Television Discourse”(1973)
• It refers to the process of perceiving, interpreting and using the media
messages.
• Encoding is the process the production of messages through media.
• Decoding is the process of perceiving and interpreting these
messages by the audience.

18. • Three positions of Decoding
• 1.) Dominant/Hegemonic Position – Taken or Interpreted directly as it
was encoded.
• 2.) Negotiated Position – May not interpret as the producer intended.
• 3.) Oppositional Position – When the receiver takes a totally
contradictory stand.

19. Paul Gilroy
• Paul Gilroy’s book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double
Consciousness (1993) marks a turning point in the study of diasporas.
• The book analyses the black intellectual history and identifies Black
Atlantic as the metaphoric space where the transnational identity of
the Africans formed.
• Small Acts (1993)
• Against Race (2000)

20. Cultural Studies Areas
• Cultural Materialism
• Cyberfeminism
• Posthumanism
• Space and Cultural Studies
• Queer Studies
• Cultural History
• Nationalism and Cultural Studies
• Renaissance Studies
• Consumer Culture
• Modernity Studies
• Museum Studies
• Counter Culture and Subculture
• Shakespeare and Cultural Studies
• Race Studies
• Popular Culture Studies
• Indigenous Culture Studies
• Film Studies
• Globalization Studies
• Disability Studies

21. Theorists

22. T
E
R
M
S

24. NET 2021
• Cultural Studies and its origin
• Cultural Intermediaries – Bourdieu
• Ecofeminism
• Arjun Appadurai
• Paul Gilroy
• Encoding and Decoding

25. HAPPY LEARNING!!!
• Works Cited
• Babu, Chithrakala. Easy Handbook on Contemporary Literary Theory
and Cultural Studies. Ed. Dr.Kalyani Vallath. Bodhi Tree Books &
Publications, 2019. Print.
• Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. Viva Books
Private Limited, 2016. Print.