IDENTITY, LIFESTYLE AND SUBCULTURE

IDENTITY ⇒ Is our individual being, ATTACHED TO THE CULTURE in which we live in. It
includes the language we learn as we grow up and the internalize rules, grammars, and
conventions of the culture. All of this become part of who we are. NONE OF US EXIST
OUTSIDE THE CULTURE. We learn how to feel and think according to it. We all acquire an
internal identity that comes from outside.
We can recognize the cultural signs of each identity, either they are CORPORATE OR
COUNTERCULTURAL

CULTURE ⇒ It can be reinforced through government institutions. Culture includes Religion,

social, economic and political assumptions and beliefs.

PLACES⇒ They have and identity too, and signs that you can recognize.

EX:

Madison ⇒ Associated with a high lifestyle. There are protestants. They prefer golf in
opposition to baseball. They are associated with WASP CULTURE ⇒ White anglo-Saxon
Protestants. Related to european descendants. They have a sense of superiority and
arrogance. They are defensive o property and they have fought against taxes. They
supported the suppression of labour unions. They believe on meritocracy and as a result
they are hostile to the belief though which the society is seen as whole with interrelated
parts. Their ideas of personal virtue entails te self-control and the suppression of passionate
behavior.

DOMINANT CULTURE OR MAINSTREAM ACCORDING TO WASP ⇒ They are not

associated with any group any particular interest. In America WASP was the dominant
culture. They formed a homogeneous group that controlled nation’s economy and its
political life. Wasp’s culture is associated with closing the door to immigration. All ethnic or
other groups were considered subordinated to wasp’s culture.
By the time wasp culture became a subculture.

Guilford⇒ associated with middle-class incomes and hippyish in the 60s, as a result is
considered countercultural. There you can find mostly Catholic churches because of the
people who live there that are working-class irish and italian people.

IRISH POLITICAL RADICALS ⇒They were the only ones on challenging the WASP
authority.

DOMINANT CULTURE, MAINSTREAM / SUBCULTURE

Subculture ⇒ this term connotes within a larger mainstream culture. The study of modern
subcultures at first focused on youth subcultures according to the way of clothing and
behavior. The first studies were concerned with their rebellious character, body decoration,
behavior, music ⇒ EX: 70s’ punk, metalers, etc.
Subcultures provide and identity to participants in the subcultural lifestyle by demarcating
them from other social groups that are often perceived to be dated, conservative, conformist
and dominant. ANY GROUP THAT IS ENJOINED OR DENIED ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE
BECOMES A SUBCULTURE. Subculture usually conjures the idea of dissident and
dissonance. They usually odds with dominant cultures.

Dominant ⇒ It is associated with the residue of a subculture that belongs to another

generation, slightly older. It is commonly associated with conservatives, that favour the
repression of natural impulses, that promotes unfairness and inequality, that rely on power,
authority, and force to exert discipline on or control over others so that resources can be
monopolized by a minority, that are anti-intellectual and suspicious of imagination
speculation.

PUNK/GOTH/EMO⇒ They were more rebellious and they embraced anarchism. At first
they were a subculture but then became mainstream. The punk preference for black clothing
persisted into a new subculture called Goth in the 80s that the turned into EMO. If punk
expressed the class rage of poor english kids, Emo draws on the heightened emotionality of
people who are experiencing particular kinds of feelings related to not-fitting.

DIFFERENTIATION AND HOSTILITY ⇒ It generates hostility because they cast (expulsar,

arrojar) doubts on the standards that others use to define their own identities. Humans react
negatively to the things that threaten their identities, either this reaction is symbolic or
physical. The sense of devaluation that occurs symbolically or culturally is threatening and
entails the possibility of physical harm.That’s why people stay together, to evade this
possibility.
By the logic of subcultural identity making, one gains a self not by expressing something
entirely unique, but rather adopting and adapting oneself to styles and images that come
from outside. ONE BECOMES RECOGNIZED AS A SELF BY BEING “ONE OF US”.

GAY/LESBIAN ⇒ They are one of the most persistent kinds of subcultures over the ages.

BOHEMIAN ⇒ they values were more liberatory in opposition to conservatives that

reinforced the idea of control of natural impulses. For that reason they used to use drugs to
open up their imagination. This subculture embodied itself in dree, preferences in art and
literature, dance. They were considered as free thinkers in opposition to bourgeoise that
favoured rich’s part of society.

CULTURAL STUDIES: subculture and dissent⇒ Their latter studies is not a subculture
but a part of the cultural mainstream. Then, the sub in subculture connotes dissent and
dissonance something at odds (en desacuerdo, no corresponde) with conservatism and with
the conservative ideal of society ruled by the tough for the purposes of material
accumulation by a minority. That core conservative value spreads itself out though a culture
like America. Also the idea of masculine toughness. Whether the dissent is with large idea or
its small local permutation, it is dissent nevertheless. It is subculture.
ETHNICITY AND RACE

ETHNICITY

It refers to the cultural practices and outlooks of a given community of people that set them apart
from others. They see themselves as culturally distinct from other groups in a society. We can
distinguish ethnicity by language, history or ancestry, religion, dressing or adornment. Ethnic
divisions sometimes produce social conflicts.

MINORITY GROUPS (or ethnic minorities)

This term is widely used in sociology and is more than numerical distinction. According to
sociological field, the members of a minority group are disadvantaged as compared with the
majority. They use to have a sense of group solidarity, of belonging together. They are subject
OF PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION. They are usually physically or/and socially isolated.
They tent to live in concentrated areas of neighbourhoods and cities. They also tend to marry
between the the members of the minority, promoting endogamy (marriage within the group).
Minorities are ethnically and physically different in comparison to the rest of the population. Their
distinction are commonly associated with inequalities of wealth and power.

RACE AND BIOLOGY

There were numerous attempts by scholars to define what a race is. But there are no clear-cut
races, only a range of physical variations in human beings. These differences are a result from
population inbreeding (endogamia). Otherwise, many scholars from different knowledge’s fields
agree in dropping the concept of race. There are many physical differences between people, but
just some characteristics become matter of social discrimination and prejudice, but this, it’s
nothing to do with biology. As a result, racial differences should be understood as physical
variations identified by the members of a community or society as socially significant (For
example, differences in skin colour are socially significant in opposition to differences in hair
colour). It is important to say that THE CONCEPT OF RACE IS MODERN, in opposition to
PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

RACISM ⇒ BLACK AND WHITE

It is prejudice based on socially significant physical differences. A racist is someone who

believes that come individuals are superior or inferior to others as a result of these racial
differences.
This phenomenon flourished by several reasons such as:
- the opposition between white and black. Black associated with evil and white with purity.
- A second important factor was the diffusion of the concept of race itself. The notion of
race as a group o features comes from european thought from the XVIII and XIX
centuries. One of the main scholars that held this idea was Gobineau who is called the
father of racism. He stated that exists three races: white, black and yellow. According to
him, the white race is the superior because its intelligence and morality. The blacks are
the least capable, close to the animal nature because of their lack of morality. All of these
ideas were presented as scientific theories.
- The third reason is that the racisms lies in the exploitative relation that europeans
established with non-white people. Slavery it wouldn’t be possible without these
supposedly scientific ideas of the inferiority of black people, justifying the colonialism.
 PREJUDICE

It refers to opinions or attitudes held by members of one group towards another. A prejudiced
person do not based her/his vision through direct evidence. Prejudice is the basis of the
discrimination, but they exist separately. People may have prejudice but they can act based on
them (discriminate) or not.

PREJUDICE ⇒ DISCRIMINATION

It refers to actual behavior towards the other group. It can be exteriorised in certain actions and
activities that involve the disqualifying members of a group.

PREJUDICE⇒ STEREOTYPE ⇒ SCAPEGOAT⇒ DISPLACEMENT AND PROJECTION

Prejudice operates mainly through STEREOTYPICAL THINKING. The stereotypes are fixed and
inflexible categories. Stereotyping is linked to the psychological mechanism of DISPLACEMENT
in which feelings of hostility or anger are directed to other objects that are not the real origin of
those feelings. People vent (desahogar, descargan) their antagonism against scapegoats that
are people blamed for thing that are not their fault. Scapegoating is directed to groups of people
that are powerless, because they make an easy target. Scapegoating involves PROJECTION,
the unconscious attribution to others of one’s desires.

AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY BY THEODOR ADORNO

According to researchers that developed a scale to measure the level of prejudice, people with
authoritarian personality tent to be conformist, submissive to their superiors and hostile towards
other people that they consider inferior. Also, they tend to be intolerant with religious and
sexuality. This type of person think in a STEREOTYPICAL WAY. These investigation is important
to understand how the authoritarian patterns of thought function.

ETHNOCENTRISM

Tendency of to evaluate other’s culture in terms of own culture. Virtually all cultures have been
ethnocentric to some degrees. This term combines with stereotypical thought and also, It goes
together with group closure.

GROUP CLOSURE

It is a process whereby groups maintain boundaries separating themselves from others. These
boundaries are formed by means of exclusion devices. Such devices include limiting or
prohibiting intermarriage between the groups, restrictions on social contacts or economic
relationships like trading, and the physical separation of the groups (like the ghettos).

RESOURCE ALLOCATION (ASIGNACIÓN/DISTRIBUCIÓN DE RECURSOS) AND STATUS

Wealth, power and social status are scarce (escaso) resources, some groups have more of
them than others. To hold their positions, privileged groups sometimes undertake extreme acts of
violence against others. Similarly, members of underprivileged groups may also turn into violence
as a means of trying to improve their own situation.
 COLONIZATION⇒ ETHNIC COMPOSITION, ETHNOCENTRISM, RACISM

It is formed as a result from flows of migration and mainly colonization from: europe to north
america; europe to central and south america, europe to africa and australia and africa to the
americas. This processes involve the implantation of numerous ethnic groups in their new
homelands. The coloniser had the belief that they were superior and that they were on civilizing
mission, taking an ethnocentric attitude towards the rest of the world.This coincides with the rise
of racism.

ETHNIC RELATIONS IN BRAZIL

Millions of african were transported to brazil before the end of slave trade in the middle XIX
century. They maintain their culture and they were allowed to marry and as a result they couldn’t
be sold as individual slaves. Slavery was abolished in 1888. Today, most of them live in poverty
conditions. In comparison with other experiences they weren’t segregated as in north america.
They developed a law prohibiting discrimination in public places.

SOUTH AFRICA⇒ APARTHEID⇒ TYPES OF SEGREGATION

In south Africa the first settlers were Dutch. The British empire later established a dominant
position, putting an end to slavery in 1830. After that, new taxes were imposed for black people
only. As a result black people were forced to employed themselves with european employers.
They tend to work in mines, living in special camps that then were formalised in law under the
APARTHEID SYSTEM, that consisted in the classification of four groups: white, coloured people,
asian descent and black. According to Pierre van den Bergue there were 3 types of segregation
during the apartheid:
1) Microsegregation ⇒ The public space were separated for the use for white and black
people.
2) Mezzosegregation⇒ segregation related to areas in which people both black and white
tend to live separately.
3) Macrosegregation⇒ Whole peoples in distinct territories.
Under apartheid black non-white people have no possibility to vote and no representation in the
government. As a result the homelands were created. Homelands were places away the cities
that were partially autonomous states in which the black people could exercise the political right
denied in white south africa. As a result South Africa was put into sanction as a device to stop
this system. For this reasons and in addition to protests lead by figures as Nelson Mandela,
apartheid started to disintegrate and a new constitution was made.
After that, the south african economy was placed under capitalism, up bringing new problems
such us ethnic hostilities and the concentration of business in white people, who were against
black farmers to control the land.

BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS IN USA, INTEGRATION AND DECLINATION

Slavery was abolished in 1863. Despites, black people remain in an unfavorable condition. In
1896 the segregation was recognized by law. As a result black people started to fight for their
rights, creating organizations such as the National association for the advancement of colored
people (NAACP) and the National urban League .Under the government of Roosevelt, NAACP
fought against segregation in public education. This caused the reaction of racist groups such as
the Ku Klux Klan. After the discriminatory act committed against Rosa Park in the public bus, the
protests grew up led by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. During the middle 60s, black
movements under the name “black power” became more radical and in some cases violent.
Otherwise they helped to claim for black culture as value.
During the 90s, thousands of black people were enrolled in universities and their position grew
up to middle class causing integration and harmony for a period..They also become more
prominent in literature. In spite of these the overall social and economic status of blacks again
declined.

LATINOS IN USA

The wars conquest made possible to the USA to take part of the south west after the war with
Mexico in 1848.The term Chicano refers to the descendant of mexican in USA. And the word
Latino refers to any one from spanish-speaking areas living in the United States. There are three
main groups of latinos in USA formed by Mexican-American, Puerto Ricans and Cubans. The
Latino population had been increasing mainly for the flow through the mexican border.

ASIAN IN USA

3% Of the population in USA is Asian origin. They have migrated in first place as a result from
the Vietnam War in the 70s.
Most of the Chinese people settled in California creating neighbourhoods called chinatowns,
resulting isolated from the wider society.
After the pearl harbour attack Japanese people were taken to relocation places that in fact were
concentration camps. Paradoxically this helped to the integration of asians into the american
society. They have become successful in reaching high levels of education and income. They
achieve better results in school and a higher rate of entrance to university than whites.

ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN UNITED KINGDOM

During time, many people settled in UK such as the Irish people in XVII century, that consisted
the largest immigrant group by XIX century. During the industrial revolution, Dutch immigrant
settle in Britain helping to raise its economy. On this period also there was an influx of Chinese
people that were employed in cheap labours for english factories. During the late XIX, a few
African and West Indian students were admitted to british universities but the largest black
community was composed by impoverished sailors.

REFUGEES, IMMIGRATION ,THE RACE RELATIONS ACT AND MINORITY GROUPS - UK

The Nazi persecution brought an unprecedented refugee problem. During the Commonwealth
many immigrants went to Britain looking for job opportunities. The british people were hostile
towards immigrants, that established in impoverished urban areas.
During the 76, the Race Relation Act tried to stop the racial discrimination in jobs alictions,
housing and memberships of clubs. Despite this organization, extreme right parties like The
national Front emerged. The Greater London Council Also created an ethnic minorities committe
to correct the underrepresentation of these groups. Yet the ethnocentric definitions of
BRITISHNESS wich flourished in conservative circles were hardly easy for ethnic groups to
identify with.
 CITIZENSHIP, COMMONWEALTH AND HONG KONG, MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE - UK

During the 80s The british citizenship was separated from citizenship of British dependent
territories. A category of British Overseas Citizens was created, referring mainly to people living
in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. They weren’t permitted to settle in Uk and their children
could not inherit their citizenship. In opposition to Commonwealth citizens, after living for 5 years
in Britain, could get the naturalization , but with some restrictions on residence.

IMMIGRATION POLICY IN THE UK

The immigrant policy has been marked by two traits: the absence of concern about creating
possibilities for job and the conditions for denying the entry for an insignificance. This arbitrary
devices were mainly against coloured people of new commonwealth origins that stated that his
occurred because black people are unwanted in Britain.

RACE AND RACISM RELATED TO OCCUPATION AND CRIME

Many of the ethnic groups and colored people, immigrants from West Indian, among others
occupied principal in manual jobs living away the cities. In opposition, the most favourished
immigrants were the south Asians who ran their own business becoming a prominent aspect on
british economy.
It is possible to affirm that there is a correlation between race, unemployment and crime. As a
result the public opinion a link between race and crime. Yet the experience of blacks is that they
are the object of violent exploitation in their encounter with whites and the police who is actively
hostile to minority groups.
In addition, blac women are focus of prejudice, mainly the one that comes from media and the
police.

ETHNIC RELATIONS ON THE CONTINENT

A large scale migrations took place in Europe during the first two decades after the WW2.
Countries that used to be colonial powers experiences an influx of immigrants from their former
colonies. Otherwise, more restrictive policies against minority groups were introduced such as
the threat of deportation. As result many organization expressed their reject to this devices
which reinforce the racism attempting to construct a fortress europe.

MINORITIES RELATION WITH US SOCIETY

There are 3 ways of integration of minorities into a society

1) Assimilation: immigrants abandon their origin practices and culture, moulding their
behavior to he values and norms of the majority
2) Melting pot: All blended to form a new, forming a cultural pattern. Otherwise the anglo
culture has remained the preeminent
3) Cultural pluralism: Foster the development of a genuinely plural society in which the
equal validity of numerous subcultures is recognized.
UNIT II MEDIA INFLUENCE

COMMUNICATION ⇒ It refers to the transfer of information from one individual or group to

another, whether in speech or through another medium.

MCLUHAN ⇒ MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE⇒ GLOBAL VILLAGE-PEOPLE

According to Marshall McLuhan (who is influenced by Innis) , the medium is the message,
which means that the nature of media influences the social structure much more than the
content or the messages which media convey.
For instance ⇒ TV ⇒ A society in which tv plays a basic role is one where everyday life is
experienced differently from one which only has print. Thus TV news conveys global
information instantaneously to millions people. The electronic media are creating what he
called a GLOBAL VILLAGE-PEOPLE through which people participates in the same events
by watching the TV or using the internet.

HABERMAS ⇒DEMOCRACY ==> PUBLIC SPHERE

FRANKFURT SCHOOL⇒ CULTURE INDUSTRY
He is a german philosopher linked to the FRANKFURT SCHOOL of social thought inspired
by MARX ⇒ They believed that Marx had not given enough attention to the influence of
culture in modern capitalist society.
The FRANKFURT SCHOOL developed the idea of CULTURE INDUSTRY:
- films
- tv
- popular music
- radio
- newspaper
- magazines
The CULTURE INDUSTRY produce undemanding (poco exigente, effortless) and
standardized products undermining individual’s capacity for critical and independent thought.
This vision can be considered too negative for other authors. In this context the ART is
opposite to the commercialization (Ex: Kitsch products like the reproduction of art paintings
like the monalisa).
HABERMAS ⇒ He analyzed the development of media, tracing out the emergence of the
PUBLIC SPHERE ⇒ are of public debate in which issues of general concern can be
discussed and opinions formed. It involves individuals coming together as equals in a forum
for public debate. At first, the public sphere was formed in coffee houses and saloons of
London, that were very important to the development of democracy. Then became more
prominent the newspapers.
In modern society the public debate is stifled (reprimido,ahogado) by the CULTURE
INDUSTRY. For this reason, the PUBLIC OPINION is not formed through open, rational
discussion, but through manipulation and control ⇒ This see the receiver of the information
as a passive object in the same way FRANKFURT SCHOOL does it. EX ⇒
● Media spread news aligned with their own interest
● Advertising
● Commercial interest triumph over the public sphere
BAUDRILLARD ⇒ HYPERREALITY
Media in general but particularly electronic media such as tv does not just REPRESENT the
worlds to us, It DEFINE what the world in which we live actually is.
HYPERREALITY ⇒ There is no longer a reality that TV allows us to see. The REALITY is a
string of images on the TV screens of the world which define an specific event in a global
event. He argues that, in an age where mass media are everywhere, in effect a new reality -
HYPERREALITY - is created, composed of the interminignly of people’s behavior and
media images. The world of hyperreality have no grounding in an EXTERNAL REALITY
EX ⇒ The O.J.Simpson Trial or the Golf war in 1991.

JOHN THOMPSON ⇒ MEDIA AND MODERN INSTITUTIONS AND INTERACTIONS

Influenced by Habermas (but at the same time critical of him) he studied media and the
development of industrial societies. He argues that media have played a central role in the
development of modern institutions. Thompson thinks that the culture industry and media in
general are not to negative because they can provide information that otherwise, we can not
get without them. MODERN MASS MEDIA does not deny the critical thought. The
individuals are not a passive object in this idea, because they discuss the information in the
course of the reception, and through this process of TELLING AND RETELLING they are
transforming their knowledges. The mass media change the balance between the public
sphere and the private sphere in our lives.
TYPES OF INTERACTION:
1. FACE-TO-FACE⇒ People sharing information in the same place and time ⇒
DIALOGICAL
2. MEDIATED INTERACTION ⇒ It occurs in a different place but same moment. There
is an interaction in a direct way but mediated by a medium. The participant are not in
the same place. Ex ⇒ People talking on the phone ⇒ DIALOGICAL
3. MEDIATED QUASI-INTERACTION⇒ This refers to social relations created by the
mass media. Such interaction does not link individual people, and it does not involve
the sharing of space and time ⇒ MONOLOGICAL

IDEOLOGY AND MEDIA⇒ MARX, THOMPSON AND DE TRACY

IDEOLOGY ⇒ It refers to the influence of ideas on people’s beliefs and actions. MASS
MEDIA expand the scope of ideology in modern societies based on quasi-interactions.
According to MARX, ideology is a FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS through which powerful
groups are able to control the dominant ideas circulating in a society so as to justify their
own position. The social analyst should uncover the distortions of ideology so as to allow
the powerless to gain a true perspective on their lives and take action to improve their
conditions of life ⇒ THOMPSON ⇒ Considers this view as CRITICAL CONCEPTION OF
IDEOLOGY, and considers that is more important in opposition to neutral conception
because it LINKS IDEOLOGY WITH POWER. IDEOLOGY ⇒ Is about the exercise of
SYMBOLIC POWER, how ideas become used to hide, justify or legitimate the interests of
dominant groups in the social order.
NEUTRAL CONCEPTION OF IDEOLOGY ⇒ DE TRACY (french) ⇒ The ideological
phenomena is not necessarily misleading (engañoso), illusory or aligned with the interests of
any particular group.
THE GLOBALIZING OF MEDIA ⇒ WORLD INFORMATION ORDER
The world information order which is an international system of production, distribution and
consumption of the information has been unequal between developed countries and third
world countries. The flow of information are dominated by a small number of news agencies,
which supply up-to-date information to newspapers and other media in different parts of the
world.
NEWS AGENCIES ⇒ They divided up the globe into new territories of information:
● Reuters ⇒ British, was the first. Controlled Britain, Holland, imperial dependencies,
Africa and Asia, Fars East, Australasia.
● HAVAS ⇒ Was from france ⇒ It controlled the information for France, Italy, Spain,
Portugal, South America, Middle East.
● Associated Press (AP) ⇒ American agency. Was first led by the european agencies
but after the ww2 became independent from them, entering to the news market.
● United Press International ⇒ From USA, controlled the international field of news.
FILM INDUSTRY ⇒ Hollywood is the largest influence and power cinema industry. It is from
the USA. No other country can compete with their products. A great percentage of the films
in other countries are american. In South America, the proportion is over 50 per cent, and a
similar ratio applies to Africa and Asia.
TV SHOWS ⇒ In matter of Tv programmes Britain and American products and formats are
the hegemonic ones.
ADVERTISING FIRMS ⇒ Nine of the ten advertising firms are from USA.The rest are from
Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Australia.The top ten agencies are transnationals.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ⇒ Used to banking, monetary transactions and some kinds of TV
and radio broadcasting are in American Hands. IBM has the monopoly of computers and
computers resources.
MEDIA COMPANIES⇒ One of the most important is Time-Warner that is form USA. They
produce films, television, video, book publishing and music recording. Other significant
companies are Sony from Japan and the German RCA, that is also US-based.

MEDIA IMPERIALISM
It consists on a cultural empire. Third world countries are held to be especially vulnerable
because they lack of resources to maintain their own cultural independencies. The western
products are spread all over the globe and the new’s control are also dependent of the
western agencies. This involve a PREDOMINANCE OF A FIRST WORLD OUTLOOK in the
information.
SCHILLER ⇒ He states that the control of global communications by US firms is related
with the factor that the government and the defense department have an interest on this
area. American informational products are exported to propagate the commercialized culture
to corrode local forms of cultural expression.
The American cultural domination sets the boundaries for national discourses by
overwhelming the world with their information.
MEDIA ENTREPRENEURS (EMPRESARIOS)

RUPERT MURDOCH ⇒ He is an australian entrepreneur who is the owner of one of the

largest media empires. He has turned many of their newspapers towards
SENSATIONALISM based on three main topics: sex, crime and sports.
He owns satellite and cable chains, TV networks in Hong Kong, among others. Governments
can cause troubles for Murdoch's because at least within their own boundaries, they can
introduce legislation limiting media cross-ownership- Yet murdoch’s power is not easily
contained. In spite of that, Disney has emerged as a powerful opponent to Murdoch.

_________________________________________________________________________

MEDIA STUDIES

COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

COMMUNICATION is essential to human and MEDIA are essential to communication. THE
FIRST MEDIA was the tongue and gestures. The FIRST COMMUNICATORS were the
ORATORS , one of the most important to them was Cicero, a Roman legislator.
Communication and media are likely to INFLUENCE others to think in certain ways.

WORDS AND MEDIA INFLUENCE

The WORDS work changing the world. From posters to Internet Sites, they use words and
images to convey IDEAS THAT INSPIRE ACTIONS. The action they inspire can be mild and
can take the form of a simple belief in something, in other cases can turn into actions or
even extreme actions causing death and violence.
MEDIA ⇒ are educational and rethorocial, they shape what we think, feel, they INFLUENCE
us to see something in certain ways such that our behaviour in regard to them takes certain
forms. They paint a particular picture of REALITY we hold in our MINDS, and that plays an
important role in determining the choices we make and the values we hold in the real world.
That explains why governments sometimes place limits on how much of a single medium
such as television one person can own. The assumption guiding such policies is that ONE
PERSON CAN INPRINT HIS OR HER WAY OF SEEING THE WORLD ON THE MEDIA
and use them to foster that particular picture of reality in people’s mind.
By inserting a right-wing idea into a new broadcast is not likely to convince the audience
directly, but if media repeat consistently one particular perspective they can easily influence
people’s belief. They will see the world in a limited way ⇒ NEWS REPORT SOMETHING
MORE THAN AN ALIGNMENT OF WORDS ⇒ They can normalize the reality they spread,
making it normal, even when it is not attached to the real events.
SO, MEDIA SPREAD PICTURES that are linked to KEYWORDS we use to categorize the
reality before us in our minds. MEDIA USE CERTAIN WORDS TO REPRESENT (A
SLANTED VERSION) THE REALITY TO US.

EX ⇒ , many newspapers are owned by white people that spread a white perspective. They
tend to spread an idea that whites have money and black people do not. This is placed as
something normal.
NARRATIVE
Within the news, the distribution of the information over and across paragraphs arranged in
certain order is called NARRATIVE. We teel narrative or story of things, events, people, and
the world when we describe it in a certain order. Narratives usually have a SUBJECT⇒ The
door of the action or the voice of the story teller. Narratives have also an OBJECT ⇒ They
do not have voice in the stories.
PERSPECTIVE ⇒ The narratives are told with a perspective or point of view of the person
or institution telling the story, this makes a difference. Perspective always frames events.
FRAME ⇒ is an invisible demarcation that defines the boundaries of a news story and it
differentiates between what will be included and excluded from a story ⇒ (cosmovision,
ideología).

NEWS AND NARRATIVES ⇒ PRE-INTERPRETIVE CATEGORIES ⇒ PREJUDICE

The way we see and the tools we use to describe what we see also play a significant role
shaping and determining the content of news narratives. Because we have pictures in our
minds which we compare new data. we often pre-interprete the world around us, but those
pre-interpretations and images take precedence to new versions of those categories. Words
express ideas and words in news stories EVOKE the ideas or categories which they are
linked in our minds. Words are tools for describing but they are infused with our
assumptions. Words generate images in our minds that tap into presuppositions and
interpretations based on past experiences that may not always applicable to a whole group.
Sometimes PRE-INTERPRETATIONS TAKE PRECEDENCE TO THE FACT giving a
slanted version of reality.

P 40 ⇒ SEE THE EXAMPLE OF JEWISH AND PALESTINIANS

_________________________________________________________________________

FROM COMMONWEALTH TO POSTCOLONIAL

BRITISH EMPIRE ⇒ XX CENTURY

Africa - Asia - Australasia - Canada - Ireland
By the XXI CENTURY ⇒ the British empire was formed by a small number of colonies.The
term is used always in the past tense, because it involves a set of relationships that are no
longer current.

COLONIALISM⇒ CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM

It takes many forms. It can be related with CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM ⇒ According
to Denis Judd ⇒ The desire for profitable trade, plunder (saqueo) and enrichment was the
primary force that to the establishment of the IMPERIAL STRUCTURE. The SEIZING (toma
de poder, apoderamiento, control), OF FOREIGN LANDS for government was in part
motivated by the desire to crate and control the natural resources and labour-power at the
lower possible cost. COLONIALISM WAS A LUCRATIVE COMMERCIAL OPERATION.
Colonialism and CAPITALISM share MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIP with each
other.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM
PETER CHILDS⇒ IMPERIALISM is an ideological concept which upholds the legitimacy of
the economic and military control of one nation by another.
CHILDS AND WILLIAM ⇒ It is the extension and expansion of trade and commerce under
the protection of political, legal, and military controls. But, imperialism does not require the
settling of communities from the imperial nation in another location.
This form continues today. For Ex. America is engaged in imperial acts. securing wealth and
power though the economic exploitation of other nations.-

COLONIALISM⇒ is only ONE FORM OF PRACTICE which results from the ideology of
imperialism, and specifically concerns the SETTLEMENT of one group of people in a
another location. It is also a lucrative commercial operation. Colonialism, is virtually over
today, is one historically specific experience of how imperialism can work. Colonialism is a
SPECIFIC MODE OF IMPERIALISM. Which means that it is a particular historical
manifestation of imperialism.
Elleke Boehmer's⇒ It is the exploitation or development of resources and attempt to govern
indigenous inhabitants. Colonialism also includes the unequal relations of power which
colonialism constructs.

DECOLONISATION⇒ There are three moments for the British empire

1) AMERICAN ⇒ LATE XVIII CENTURY ⇒ The first loss was the American colonies.
2) THE DOMINIONS ⇒ XIX AND XX ⇒ The dominions were Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa. At first The settlers who lived there claimed for a new and
more independent form of government. So they achieved more autonomy but they
still had to pledged allegiance (comprometer lealtad) to the British empire.
In 1931 ⇒ The STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER removed the obligation for the
dominions to defer ultimate authority to the empire British crown and gave them full
governmental control.
3) SOUTH ASIA, AFRICA, CARIBBEAN ⇒ 40S DECADE ⇒ In these cases, the
independence is a consequence of indigenous anti-colonial nationalism and military
struggle.
- India and Pakistan ⇒ 1947
- Sri Lanka ⇒ 1948
- Ghana ⇒ 1957
- Nigeria ⇒ 1960
- Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago ⇒ 1962
*Note ⇒ APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA WAS IN ⇒ 1948-1994
REASONS FOR THE PROCESSES OF DECOLONIZATION ⇒ Because of the growth of
various nationalist movements which mounted the resistance to British colonial authority,
and the declination of the british empire before the WW2 (1939-1945).

COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE AND POSTCOLONIALISM

The antecedent for postcolonialism was the growth of the study of commonwealth literature.
COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE ⇒ Was a term for literary critics that began to use from
the 1950 to describe literatures in english emerging from a selection of countries with a
history of colonialism. It incorporated the study of writers from the european settler
communities or people from the territories that were in the processes of gaining
independence like ⇒ AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND SOUTH ASIAN NATIONS ⇒
FIGURES LIKE NARAYAN (India)
The creation of the new category was an attempt to identify and locate this vigorous literary
activity. Neither American nor Irish literature were included in this category. The creation and
association of this term have historical roots.
CAUSES ⇒ One consequence of the decline of the British Empire is the establishment of
the BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS ⇒ XX CENTURY ⇒ 1931 - 1949
This term was used to refer to the special status of the dominions, but when the term was
being dropped, this different meaning emerged. As a result the British Empire hosted
conferences gathering the heads of those dominions that rename the conference as
Commonwealth conferences. In this new context, the British crown held no political authority
over other commonwealth nations and the word British was dropped. Then, the
commonwealth became redefined after the war in more equitable terms.

THE USE OF COMMONWEALTH⇒ Suggested a particular version of history in which the

status of the colonised countries happily changes. But Its use had its own problems,
reinforcing the primacy of Britain among commonwealth nations and literature. Otherwise,
“commonwealth literature” had been created to attempt to bring together writings from
around the world on and equal footing.
It also suggested a RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LITERATURE AND THE NATIONS ⇒ The
genesis of a local literature in Commonwealth countries has almost always been
contemporaneous with the development of a truly nationalist sentiment.
THE LITERARY PIECES AND ITS IDEAS AND NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF LIFE IN
COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE OWNED MUCH TO THE WAYS THAT WRITERS
WERE FORGING THEIR OWN SENSE OF NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY.
The commonwealth suggested a diverse community with a common set of concerns and
COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE WAS THE NEED TO RECOGNISED THE IMPORTANT
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WRITERS FROM DIVERGENT LOCATIONS AND
ALSO REVEALING THE WAYS IN WHICH LITERATURE FROM COMMONWEALTH
COUNTRIES WAS UNIFIED BY A COMMON EXPERIENCE OF COLONIAL
EXPLOITATION AND THE USE OF ENGLISH.

CRITIC AND CRITERIA⇒ All writings use the english language so as a result they become
as a criteria of excellence by which literary works in english are judged. But the pressures
that act upon is not the same for those countries that write in english, which is not their
mother tongue.
This means that the texts studied as commonwealth literature were written in english and
evaluated in relation to english literature with the same criteria to account for the literary
value of the age-old english classics. This term revalue the notions of what a good writing is
and that this fact transcends the borders whether local or national. As a result the critics
value the TIMELESSNESS AND UNIVERSALITY OF LITERARY PIECES FROM
COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE.
NATION / WRITING / UNIVERSALITY⇒ CRITICAL APPROACH ⇒ LIBERAL HUMANIST
CL ⇒ Dealt with fundamentally same preoccupations with human condition as did Jane
Austen (Classic english authors). NATIONAL DIFFERENCES WERE IMPORTANT ADDING
PERSONALITY TO THE LITERARY PIECE BUT WERE SECONDARY ⇒ The most
important was the UNIVERSAL MEANING OF THE WORK.
For liberal humanists the most literary texts always transcend the provincial contexts and
deal with MORAL PREOCCUPATIONS RELEVANT FOR PEOPLE OF ALL TIMES AND
PLACES.

LIBERAL HUMANIST DIFFERENCES WITH POSTCOLONIAL CRITICS

Postcolonial critics think that the historical, geographical and cultural specifics are
vital to both the writing and the reading of a text, and cannot be easily placed as
secondary, as a background. They critic their predecessors the liberal humanist because
the argue that were not challenging the western criteria of excellence. For postcolonial critics
the different preoccupations and contexts of texts were become more important than their
alleged similar abstract and universal qualities. They focus on the darker side of exploitation
and dependence of those literary pieces.

LIBERAL HUMANIST CRITICS (CL) / POSTCOLONIAL CRITICS

The liberal assumptions constituted a fundamentally important political act. Such critics
assisted in ensuring that these literatures were a major field that merited serious attention on
the same terms as the classics of english literature.

COLONIAL DISCOURSES ⇒ POSTCOLONIAL CRITICS

Colonial discourses were antecedent for the postcolonial critics. The colonial discourses
theories explore the ways that REPRESENTATIONS and MODES OF PERCEPTION are
used as weapons of colonial power to keep colonised peoples subservient (servil,
subordinado) to colonial rules. They studied how colonialism operates to give a sense of
order and helping to internalize certain expectations about human relationships. According to
them, colonialism suggests certain ways of seeing, specific modes of understanding the
world and one’s place in it, that justifies the subservience of colonised peoples.

COLONIZING THE MIND ⇒ COLONIALISM is perpetuated by justifying to those in the

colonising nation the idea that it is right and proper to rule over other people's, and by getting
colonised people to accept their lower ranking in the colonial order of things. This process
called colonising the mind it operates persuading people to internalise its logic and speak its
language, to perpetuate the values and assumptions of the coloniser as regards the ways
they perceive and represent the world.

COLONIAL DISCOURSES THEORIES pay attention to the ROLE LANGUAGE PLAYS in

getting people tu succumb to a particular way of seeing. They focus on the intersections
where the POWER AND LANGUAGE meet.
LANGUAGE ⇒ Is more than simply means of communication, it constitutes our world-view
by cutting up and ordering reality into meaningful units. The meanings we attach to things tell
us which values we consider important and how we learn or choose to differentiate between
SUPERIOR AND INFERIOR.
NGUGI WA THIONG'O⇒ LANGUAGE CARRIES CULTURE, and culture carries,
particularly orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive
ourselves and our place in the world. How people perceive, how they look at their culture,
politics and social productions, at their entire relationship to nature and other human beings.
As a result, in colonial countries, the cultural values of the colonised peoples are deemed
(considerados, juzgados) as lacking of values or uncivilised, so they must be rescued.
++++SO, THE BRITISH EMPIRE NOT ONLY BY MILITARY AND PHYSICAL FORCE, BUT
BY ALSO GETTING THE COLONISED TO SEE THE WORLD IN A PARTICULAR WAY,
INTERNALISING THE LANGUAGE, SEEN AS NATURAL AND THE TRUE ORDER OF
LIFE++++

FRANTZ FANON⇒ EMERGED IN 1950⇒ FROM PSYCHOLOGICAL FIELD⇒

POSTCOLONIAL
IMPORTANT WORKS ⇒ BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASK, 11952
He focus on attempting to record the psychological damage suffered by colonised peoples
who internalised these colonial discourses. On his main work he develop his own experience
and the cost to the individual who lives in a world where due to the colour the colour of his
skin. Fanon’s identity is defined in negative terms by those in position of power. HE IS
FORCED TO SEE HIMSELF NOT AS A HUMAN SUBJECT BUT AN OBJECT, less than
human, BY INTERNALIZING OF THE SELF AS AN OTHER. This violence splits his very
sense of self. As a result the relationship between LANGUAGE AND POWER IS FAR
REACHING AND FUNDAMENTAL.
People who a traumatic belief on their own inferiority respond in some cases embracing the
civilised ideas, THE WHITE MASK. For Fanon the END OF COLONIALISM meant no to just
political and economic change but PSYCHOLOGICAL CHANGE. Colonialism is destroyed
only one this way of thinking about identity is successfully challenged.

ORTIENTALISM ⇒ EDWARD SAID

Colonialism created a certain order of things that was to be learned as true, but Said paid
attention to the colonizers perspective. Orientalism draws upon MARX’S THEORIES OF
POWER AND GRAMSCI AND FOUCAULT.
COLONISER ⇒ The western nations spent an immense amount of time producing
knowledge about the locations they dominated. The western travellers had recorded their
observations from the places the had visited. Through these they learn about their culture.
But their observation were based on commonly-held assumptions ⇒ PREJUDICE ⇒ That
was supposed to be a scientific true. This vision helped to justify the colonial domination
placing the colonised people and territories as the other, the exotic.
As a result Said affirms that THE EMPIRE ALSO COLONISE THE IMAGINATION. To make
possible to overturning the colonialism is important to develop different ways of seeing and
representing reality without replicating the colonialist values. ⇒ DECOLONIZING THE MIND
or in Salman Rushdie words ⇒ THE LANGUAGE HAVE TO BE REMADE IN OTHER
IMAGES.
80s TURN TO THEORY ⇒ LITERARY ANALYSIS ⇒ INTERDISCIPLINARY
1. REREADING CANONICAL ENGLISH LITERATURE ⇒ To examine If they
perpetuated or questioned the latent assumptions of colonial discourses, if their work
were supportive or critical of colonial discourses.
2. POST-STRUCTURALISM AND SUBALTERN STUDIES⇒ Derrida, Foucault, Lacan.
They focus on the representation of colonised subjects in not only literary products
and the possibility of reading those texts and discover the moments in which the
colonised subject resists being represented with colonial values.
The SUBALTERN STUDIES were from India. They have explored the problem of
whether or not it was possible to recover the voices of those who had been made
subjects of colonial representations and read them as potentially disruptive and
subversive.
3. POSTCOLONIALISM / THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK ⇒ SAID - SPIVAK - BHABHA
⇒ Is a result from the contribution from the colonial discourses and commonwealth
literature critic. They were more interdisciplinary, dropping the name of
commonwealth. They argue that their objects of study were primarily concerned with
WRITING BACK TO THE CENTRE. In opposition to COMMONWEALTH
LITERATURE ⇒ They were more politically radical and locally situated than
universally relevant. They were active in DECOLONIZING THE MIND by exploring
and producing new modes of representations from the one-colonised countries,
noting how writers were expressing their own sense of identity by REFASHIONING
ENGLISH ⇒ ENGLISH WAS BEING DISPLACED by linguistic communities in the
post-colonial world challenging the colonial value system ⇒ LANGUAGE IS SEEN
AS A CRUCIAL MEDIUM OF POWER which help to seize (tomar el poder) the
language to replace it in a discourse fully adapted to the colonised place. For them,
WRITERS WERE CREATING NEW ENGLISHES through various strategies, by
REFUSING TO FOLLOW THE STANDARD ENGLISH.
POSTCOLONIAL WRITING USE THE RECEIVED ENGLISH WHO SPEAKS FROM
THE CENTRE AND IN THE ACT OF APPROPRIATION WITH THE VERNACULAR
TONGUE THEY CREATE SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
This new english was different from the centred english, creating a separate gap,
whose absence is not negative but positive. It presents the difference through which
an identity can be expressed.
IN OPPOSITION TO COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE ⇒ They were concerned
with local issues and their meanings, they did not pay attention to the universality but
the historical and geographical contexts.
CRITICS TO THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK ⇒
- The gender differences are neglected between the writers⇒ women and men
do not live the post-coloniality in the same way
- National differences are neglected in relation the the experiences with
colonialism
- Some critics stated that no all writers from post-colonial literature are
necessarily writing against colonial discourses.
- The book tends to homogenize the particularities from every writer into a less
problematic theory of the other.
POSTCOLONIAL MAIN CONCEPTS AND DANGER

COLONIALISM⇒ Affects modes of representation. It is not safe to assume that the

colonialism end with the declaration of independence. To decolonize is not easy at all.
LANGUAGE ⇒ Carries a set of assumptions about the proper order of things that is taught
as a reality or true.
POSTCOLONIAL ⇒ Involves the challenge to colonial ways of thinking that are still
circulating in the present. That is why we should not subscribe the term postcolonial to a
specific moment in history. So POSTCOLONIAL IS NOT TO SAY “AFTER
COLONIALISM”, It does not define a radically new historical era, but IT RECOGNISES A
HISTORICAL CONTINUITY AND CHANGE.

POSTCOLONIALISM IN LITERARY CONTEXT

- It involves reading texts produced by writers from countries with a history of

colonialism.
- Reading texts produced by those that have migrated from countries with a history of
colonialism or those descended from migrant families.
- Rereading texts produced during colonialism

READING ⇒ From a postcolonial perspective reading is not neutral. How we read is as

important as what we read, and it has political implication.

_________________________________________________________________________
THEORETICAL POSITIONS AND PRACTICAL APPROACHES

THEORY
According to Latin, the sense of the word THEORY , whose root is the word THEATRE,
combines the idea of observation, embracing both spectacle and speculation. So, Theory is
a SPECTATOR ACTIVITY.

PRACTICE
Is related with a PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, which is participant activity; or with the more
technical term, PRAXIS. As regards praxis, it is specifically denotes a form of theorising
through doing.

ABRAMS⇒ CRITICAL POSITIONS

The author affirms that the critical positions emphasize in some aspects, such as: WORK -
AUTHOR - READER - UNIVERSE. This model is more applicable to an interdisciplinary
context ⇒ MODIFICATION OF THE AUTHOR’S BOOKLET
1. PRODUCT ⇒ Any text or other human artefact may be understood as a product or
SUCCESSION of products, that a result from a number of PROCESSES ⇒ Abram’s
WORK
2. PRODUCERS ⇒ They are involved in the processes ⇒ Abram’s AUTHOR
3. RECEIVERS ⇒ Abram’s READER
 4. RELATIONS TO THE REST OF THE WORLD, That it’s everything else to which the
work can refer or relate ⇒ Abram’s UNIVERSE.

1. TEXT AND PROCESSES ⇒ PRODUCT-CENTRED / PROCESS ORIENTED

It is an array (despliegue) of achieved products and as a serie of constitutive processes. As
a result the PROCESSES is double headed⇒ They converge on and radiate out from the
centre and help us see human activity as both PRODUCT-CENTRED and
PROCESS-ORIENTED. This implicate that the texts are not fixed things, but they are also
items we change and exchange ⇒ This notion It can be called OBJECT CENTRED OR
TEXT-CENTRED.
We must recognize that a text exists in TIME AND SPACE. Everyone of these products and
processes are constituted in a variety of HISTORICAL MOMENTS and is always
PARTICULAR ⇒ HISTORICALLY SITUATED AND PARTICULAR

2. PRODUCERS
The text is an expression of the design and intention of particular authors, artists, directors.
All producers are in sense REPRODUCERS because people create something new or
different according to things that existed previously in language, literature, among others. We
never make thing out of nothing ⇒ This notion It can be called MAKER-CENTRED.

3. RECEIVERS
We understand the text involving the various effects on various readers, audiencies and
viewers. Receivers are also in a sense RE-PRODUCERS, because they are not passive
objects ⇒ This notion It can be called EFFECTS-BASED dimension.

4. RELATIONS TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

The text is understood as in relation with people, places, events, ideas, beliefs,
psychological, economic, political, among others fields, this can also be called
REFERENTIAL-BASED

SEE PAGE 66 FOR SHAKESPEARE’S EXAMPLE

_________________________________________________________________________
PRACTICAL CRITICISM AND (OLD) NEW CRITICISM
WHEN ⇒ Practical criticism and new criticism were two influential approaches developed
during middle twentieth century (1950 approx)
WHERE⇒ Britain and US
BOTH WERE TEXT-CENTRED ⇒ Both approaches involved the close reading of the words
on the page, without reference to context, author’s identity and reader’s role.
NEW CRITICISM⇒ FORMALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM
NC emphasizes on literature as a series of finished art objects or verbal icons that It seemed
to relate them with the ideas of formalism and functionalism. NC were also opposed to many
kinds of psychological, marxist, feminist and postcolonial critics. They assumed that the most
important literature was made by white,middle-to-upper-class males. The practice of
close-reading has tended to be technically sharpened by the use of stylistics and the
awareness of rhetoric and language as a discourse.
FIGURES AND MOVEMENTS ⇒ Richard’s book⇒ PRACTICAL CRITICISM
The practical Criticism was both a CRITICAL METHOD AND AN EDUCATIONAL
MOVEMENT. It was initiated by RICHARD’S BOOK CALLED PRACTICAL CRITICISM
published in 1929. The book was concerned with establishing an area of English devoted
with literary criticism as distinct from literary history. Richard pointed to many aspects of the
reading process that had previously been ignored, stressing THE ULTIMATE AMBIGUITY
OF ALL WORDS in which he emphasized the general preconceptions and doctrinal
adhesions. This concerns were aligned to the idea that reading poetry involved the
cultivation of “discrimination” and “literary judgment”. In Richard’s view there is also a
hint of an idea of high culture.
Richard moved from Cambridge to Harvard, facilitating the development of a movement that
was called NEW CRITICISM IN THE US. Both movements (new and practical criticism)
became orthodoxes.
OTHER AUTHORS ⇒ WILLIAM WIMSATT AND MONROE BEARDSLEY ⇒ They stated
that the intentions or design from the author’s text was not a desirable parameter to measure
the success of the literary work.

IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF NC
NEW CRITICISM LOOKED FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF ORGANIC-UNITY OR INTEGRATED
STRUCTURE IN A WORK (OFTEN POEMS). This would be related with the detailed
PARTICULARS and TEXTURES OF IMAGINARY.
TENSION, CONTRAST AND BALANCE, AS WELL AMBIGUITY in individual words and
phrases were reckoned THE HALLMARK (sello distintivo) OF A FINE PIECE. Overall, the
purpose was to establish the VARIETY WITHIN THE UNITY. The contradictions would be
solved with IRONY or PARADOX. As regards Richard, he preferred to concentrate in
SCIENTIFIC USE OF LANGUAGE in opposition to the POETIC SENSE, perpetuating the
division between ART AND SCIENCE.
Another characteristic of the NC was the elevation of poetry and the marginalising of the
prose and the neglection of drama. They also concentrated on formal and structural matters
of techniques such as point of view, characterisation, narrators, narrative structure and
plot.THEY WERE NO INTERESTED ON THE WORLDS REPRESENTED AND THE
NOVEL’S OR THE NOVELIST’S RELATIONS WITH THE SOCIETY OF ITS TIME.
FORMALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM

There were two formalism:

- RUSSIAN FORMALISM ⇒ text-centred ⇒ They were concern with the features that
make literature literary and poems, poetic. They studied the DEVICES OF
NARRATIVE FICTION. Their aim was the establishment GENERAL PRINCIPLES
and theories. They were also concerned with the DEFAMILIARIZATION AND
FOREGROUNDING. They were involved in sharpen the PERCEPTION. They
observed that literary, especially poetic tends to draw attention to certain aspects of
the language, and these elements are thereby (de este modo) foregrounded against
a background.
The BACKGROUND⇒ were made of routine and ORDINARY LANGUAGE.
FOREGROUNDING ⇒ were basically any linguistic feature that sticks out
(sobresale, destaca,proyecta). The narrative fiction does this in a larger scale,
reshuffling the time.
- THE PRAGUE SCHOOL FUNCTIONALISM ⇒ from 1920-1960.
They took the abstract formalist notions of DEFAMILIARIZATION and
FOREGROUND socializing and and historicizing the terms. They recognized that
these notions were in a dynamically changing all the time. It was argues that THERE
IS NO FIXED NORM OF PERCEPTION NOR ANY ORDINARY LANGUAGE-USE.
As a result there is NO FIRM GROUNDS on which to plot (trazar) what is universal,
familiar or unfamiliar. They stated that the discussion was placed between the
distinction of LITERATURE and LIFE, or ART and REALITY. What we consider
literature or art is subject to constant renegotiation and revision.

POETICS VS ORDINARY LANGUAGE

Historians ⇒ tend to categorize the poetry according to periods in history, genres, traditions.
In opposition, FORMALISTS ⇒ They sought (buscaron) to codify the rules which made the
poetry poetic. According to JACOBSON ⇒ His definition of poetry see the poetry as a
“ORGANISED VIOLENCE COMMITTED ON ORDINARY SPEECH”, which means that
poetry disturbs and reforms the patterns of routine language. The poetry disturbs the
language in three different ways:
- sound-structure: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, among others.
- choice of words: metaphor, varieties of vocabulary,etc.
- combination of words: unusual collocations, inverted word order, etc.
They developed patterns for the ordinary language. Formalist are mainly, chiefly
(principalmente) what distinguish POETIC SPEECH AND ORDINARY SPEECH. For them
there was only A FORMAL REDESIGN OF ROUTINE VERBAL MATERIALS.

*POETICS ⇒ It is not restricted to poetry and it can include a “more-than-ordinary” design in

all language. But this is more obvious in poems.

CRITICS⇒ ORDINARY SPEECH ⇒ Is a problematic term as a result of the varieties of

what is considered ordinary or normal. There are many elements that can be considered
ordinary in what part of the world, but really unusual in other place.
DEFAMILIARIZATION IN POETRY
Defamiliarization is a concept that is useful to find what makes a text particular and
interesting. The term can be extended to narrative too by analyzing how the elements of the
world are reconfigure in the production. Some authors from this movement like Shklovsky
tend to focus on modernist techniques. For instance Picasso. He uses the term BARING
THE DEVICE which means to analyze the devices that are put together and allow us to
distinguish from a realist work, a medieval work, modernist work, and so on.

FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND

Foregrounding had referred to those features which are prominent within a text in contrast to
other elements that are part from the background. Later Functionalists recognised that there
are in fact at least two stages of the foregrounding/backgrounding process.
- Foreground and background within the text
- Foregrounding of the text against the background outside the text
Only when we gauge (medimos, calibramos) the overall effect of the picture in relation to the
room and building in which it hangs,and as extension the world as a whole. To get the whole
picture we have to look at, through, behind and beyond it.

LITERATURE ⇒ Might be different things to different peoples - not universal and eternal
form, but a range of socio-historical functions. Its values would therefore be conditional, no
absolute.

FORM INTO FUNCTION ⇒ JAN MUKAROVSKY

He was concerned with AESTHETIC FUNCTION AND SOCIAL VALUES INTERRELATE
according to PREVAILING NORMS and how they shift as those norms shift. The most
important for him was to see the instrumental function with some other end in mind, or
aesthetically as an end itself. For instance: The picture of a saint could be according to
different periods of time a religious function, a touristic function, educational function, and so
on. How we see it will partly depend upon HOW WE ARE EXPECTED TO USE IT. ITS
VALUE IS A PRODUCT OF ITS FUNCTION.

“We can never discount the possibility that the functions of a given work were
originally entirely different from what they appear to be when we apply our system of
values...Every shift in time, space or social surroundings alters the existing artistic
traditions whose prism that work is observed”.

What he wanted to say is that THERE IS NO ETERNALLY PRESENT NORM in relation to

which the value of a work may be gauged. A LIVING WORK OF ART ALWAYS
OSCILLATES BETWEEN THE PAST AND FUTURE STATUS OF AN AESTHETIC NORM.

BAKHTIN⇒ He insisted on the idea of the WORD AS A TWO-SIDED ACT SUSPENDED

BETWEEN ON LANGUAGE-USER AND ANOTHER.
Words are always A SITE OF STRUGGLE BETWEEN CONTENDING VALUE SYSTEMS.
The DIALOGIC RELATIONS between various moments of production and reproduction: we
are constantly refashioning another’s words i one’s own language.
_________________________________________________________________________
POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND POSTMODERNISM

BOTH:
- are concerned with the INSTABILITY OF SUBJECTS.
- celebrate the openness, plurality and DIFFERENCES.
- state the INDETERMINACY within and around meanings.

POSTSTRUCTURALISM
- It comes from an academic field related with linguistic, anthropology and philosophy.
- It is mainly concerned with LANGUAGE
- Its definition depends on STRUCTURALISM, and at the same time it can be seen as
its brake.
-

POSTMODERNISM
- It comes from an artistic and literary milieu (ambiente, sector)
- It is mainly concerned with global COMMUNICATION AND MULTIMEDIA.
- Its definition depends on MODERNISM.

STRUCTURALISM
It is a term stuffed (relleno, atiborrado) with a wide range of authors: LEVI STRAUSS -
SAUSSURE - CHOMSKY - BARTHES - DERRIDA and the writings from the russian
formalists who were rediscovered in western at the 60s.
They understand that the words, poems, narratives, customs, social practices are PART OF
LARGER STRUCTURES OR SYSTEMS ⇒ SIGNS INTO SIGN-SYSTEM
They also focus and how those SIGN-SYSTEM relate to other signsystems.
They consider this sign-system as something perfect, FINISHED, POTENTIALLY
KNOWABLE, WITH A CENTRE.
They concentrate on WHOLE SYSTEMS.
They are concerned with MAKE-SENSE ACTIVITIES.

POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Related with the later works of BARTHES, DERRIDA AND FOUCAULT. The brake with
structuralism is concerned with the belief of SIGN-SYSTEM AS INCOMPLETE,
UNFINISHED, ULTIMATELY UNKNOWABLE FRAGMENT WITH MANY POTENTIAL
CENTRES OR NO CENTRE.
They concentrate on HOLES IN SYSTEMS.
They are concerned on NON-SENSE-MAKING ACTIVITIES.

Their most known technique is the DECONSTRUCTION ⇒ It involves the breaking down of
a text or any other object of study, into its constituent DIFFERENCES and identifying its
notional CENTRE. One of its purpose for this method is to invert differences and to point to
what is marginalised or absent, challenging the notion of centre.
Poststructuralists are fascinated with absences, GAPS and silences.
MODERNISM
It is characterized as an early twentieth-century literary and artistic movement with an
aesthetic OPPOSED TO that of nineteenth-century CLASSICAL REALISM.
They have such figures like: JOYCE - WOOLF - T.S. ELIOT - YEATS - BECKETT.
They were implicated on the notion of HIGH CULTURE and they tend to concentrate on
TRADITIONAL LITERATURE AND THE WRITTEN WORLD.

POSTMODERNISM
Their authors developed a non-realistic strategies to express their art or vision. In opposition
to modernism they are more POPULIST and not elitistic. They tend to concentrate on
MULTIMEDIA rather than only the written world.
They developed many strategies such as: collage, monage, multiple viewpoint and open
intertextuality. They focus on studying popular music, game, tv programmes, internet,
advertising, among others.

CRITICS ⇒ They come from marxism, feminism, postcolonialism. They argue that their
hyper-sceptical game was debilitating. If all differences and centres are arbitrary then what is
there to support the preferences. However they pointed the valuable idea of deconstruction
that challenges all the things, practices, systems hierarchies, among others, that are
considered “neutral” and fixed centres.

SAUSSURE ⇒ SIGN-SYSTEM: SIGNIFIER/SIGNIFIED ⇒ WORDS

Either to structuralism or poststructuralism, the idea of SIGN COMPOSED OF SIGNIFIER
AND SIGNIFIED are important to understand the linguistics and communication in terms of
sign-system.
WORDS ⇒ are the product of SYSTEMATIC YET SHIFTING RELATIONS BETWEEN
SOUNDS/MARKS/SYMBOLS ⇒ SIGNIFIERS and those aspects of experience that are
attached to a signifier ⇒ SIGNIFIEDS.
For instance, in english, there is no reason why the word “tree” should be what it does.
Words mean by virtue of an assumed and broadly AGREED RELATIONS amongst people
who speak the same language, which means, the ones that are drawn by the same
sign-system. SIGNS are parts of APPARENTLY STABLE BUT ULTIMATELY MOVING
SIGN-SYSTEM

LÉVI STRAUSS ⇒ STRUCTURAL MODEL OF CULTURE

He developed a model which sistematises the understanding of symbolic interaction within
cultures. His model is structuralist. He used sets of FUNDAMENTAL OPPOSITIONS, for
instance: civilization vs nature, to produce an overview of how whole societies interact
chorently. For him, ALL CULTURAL ARTEFACTS HAVE FUNCTIONAL AND SYMBOLIC
DIMENSION. The systematic interrelations among these artefacts and practices also
encourage a kind of THINKING BY ANALOGY.
Cultural artefacts may be associated with things in a given culture,being part or
accommodated within a larger STRUCTURAL OPPOSITION.
He also pointed to the ways in which MYTHS, dramas and narratives in general rehearse
and resolve the contradictions experiences within societies, allowing cultures to maintain a
sense of coherence.
BARTHES ⇒ THE MODERN MYTH
He was a structuralist with strong poststructuralist tendencies. He argue in his work “Myth
today” for an extension of SIGN-THEORY so as to recognize myth, narrative and drama, as
a SECOND ORDER SIGN-SYSTEMS⇒ This means that, as they are made of words,
considered as a FIRST-ORDER SIGN-SYSTEM, they (myth) are made of strings or frames
of words can be aligned with certain genres (second order sign-system).
With this, he suggests that CULTURE IS PLURAL, HYBRID, MANY-CENTRED AND
NON-TOTALISABLE, confirming his postructuralist side. There is always a sense that THE
SYSTEM IS OPEN AND IN PROCESS.

DERRIDA ⇒ DECENTRING AND DECONSTRUCTION

He is a philosopher. He challenged the dominant western notions of wholeness and centre in
symbolic structures of all kinds, mainly in language. MEANINGS are constituted through the
INTERPLAY OF DIFFERENCES, and that all meanings are ultimately DEFERRED. There is
never an encounter with meaning as such, simply a ceaseless play of DIFFERENCES
between those terms which are present and those which are absent. Put another way, we
only understand things by UNDERSTANDING WHAT THEY ARE NOT. In a given culture
there is a tendency to assume a HIERARCHY OF DIFFERENCES. For instance, in Western,
is most common to privilege white before black. Thus he argue that there is a VIOLENT
HIERARCHY. For this reason is important to DECONSTRUCT to invert the violent
hierarchies and to reopen the play of differences round the terms and to resist to the
BINARY THINKING, recognising the plurality, permutation and the sense of alternative
opposed to the centre.
Most of his work is focus on relations between SPEECH AND WRITING and the effect of
trying to DECENTRE THE HUMAN SUBJECT FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE.

“diferimiento, pues las palabras y los símbolos nunca puede resumir plenamente lo que
significan y sólo pueden ser definidos mediante nuevas palabras de las que difieren. Así, el
significado es siempre "pospuesto", "diferido" en una cadena interminable de signos
significadores. Por lo que toca a la noción de "diferenciar", concierne a la fuerza que
distingue elementos y, al hacerlo, da lugar a oposiciones binarias y a jerarquías que
terminan afectando el significado mismo”

FOUCAULT ⇒ DISCOURSE AND HISTORICAL DISCONTINUITY

He was concerned with the interrelations of KNOWLEDGE AND POWER especially the
ways in which legal, medical and religious DISCOURSES OPERATE TO PRODUCE what is
considered NORMAL OR DEVIANT, SANE OR INSANE at various times. They also shifted
the focus to TEXTS in context as INTERTEXTUAL CONSTRUCTS, insisting that
CULTURES are expressed through, not by writers or producers.
He developed the articulation of various models of SELF AND OTHER. He resists the
notions that history can ever be understood within a single narrative frame (no hay
objetividad). He argues that we must recognise the many LOCALISED NARRATIVES OF
HISTORY, like the many discourses of culture. HISTORY IS FRACTURED AND OFF
BALANCE.
LYOTARD AND THE POSTMODERN CONDITION
THE GRAND NARRATIVES ⇒ It refers to all the dominant intellectual strategies or frames
that offer a totalising model to understand the modern life, for instance ⇒ The belief in
progress, the Darwinian evolutionism, Freudian psychology, and so on. They are all seen as
potentially repressive and regressive forces that limit the INTENSITIES AND ENERGIES. All
of these forms of knowledges may become straitjackets. In place of such grand narratives,
he proposes small-scale narratives. IN TERMS OF DISCOURSE this means that Lyotard is
committed to what wittgenstein calls LANGUAGE GAMES

[La función del juego de lenguaje no es otro que el significado de la frase. El sentido no
aparece sino en un contexto concreto. Es decir, que no aprendemos el sentido de las
palabras que utilizamos aprendiendo los conceptos de ellas definen sino a través de la
práctica del lenguaje. ].

He argues that ALL KNOWLEDGES BECOME AT ONCE GLOBAL AND LOCAL,

TIMELESS AND TIMELY.

BAUDRILLARD ⇒argues that modern COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA have become so

sophisticated that we can no longer claim to have a view of THE REAL which is untouched
by human hand, mind or machine. Instead we are treated to composite images of images of
images, without any guarantee of an untouched reality beyond. SIMULACRA ⇒ Are the
images without originals.

[ver pág 94]

_________________________________________________________________________

POSTCOLONIAL AND MULTICULTURALISM

Most english-speaking countries are multicultural. Such changes contribute to the

construction of the subjects of study considered as ideological subjects, geographically and
historically situated. In every domain of language, literature and culture there is a tension
and contradiction between GLOBALISING PROCESSES OF STANDARDISATION AND
LOCALISING PROCESSES OF DIFFERENTIATION.
NEW ENGLISHES of the former British colonies, mainly in Africa, The caribbean, India,
Australasia and so on, include varieties such as pidgin (lengua simplificada) and creoles
(criollo) as well as alternatives national STANDARDS.

World or international english as kind of global standard is mainly written and printed. It
commonly used for international communication in science, technology, education, among
others.
Kinds of literacy or illiteracy in third world countries state the ability to read and write in
english, seen as a rare skill and prized commodity.
English literature is currently being transformed into LITERATURE IN ENGLISH OR
LITERARY STUDIES dropping the english. The conventional anglocentric and
Anglo-american cannons of literary classics are being recast in the shapes of a wide variety
of national and regional cultures considering other literatures.

DISPLACEMENT OF NARROW NOTIONS OF LITERATURE and an increasing recognition

of non western european genres of writing, oral performances and cultural production.
Legends, histories, laws, fables, anecdotes, oratory, song, among others are transforming
the cultural environment, challenging the dominant western classical division of literature into
the mega-genres of poetry and drama.
The printed novel is being recognised as junt one of many forms of narratives, pointing the
oral and manuscript cultures within the Old and middle east.
The challenge is to grasp the nature of TRANSLATION as in its broadest sense, an activity
of transformation between languages and cultures. Easy access can led to appropriation and
assimilation. The possibility of radical misinterpretation because of an ignorance of local
social and historical conditions has to be tackled (derribada).
The classical heritage of Greece and Rome have to be in relation with the heritage of places
like India, Japan, oral cultures of Africa. The same applies to the relation between the
Christianity and other religions and their stories, symbolisms , systems and holy books.

KEY TERMS ⇒ CANON AND CLASSIC - CENTRES AND MARGINS - ETHNIC

ETHNOCENTRIC

COLONIZATION⇒ Is the activity of making colonies. It can embrace many different relations
amongst people an things and places.
COLONIALISM ⇒ Is the state of being a colony

STAGES OF THE BRITISH COLONISATION

1) INTERNAL COLONIZATION ⇒ Within the isles by england of Wales, Ireland and
Scotland.
2) EXTERNAL COLONIZATION ⇒ Beyond the British Isles in what became the British
Empire and then (from 1931) The Commonwealth. The colonies can be distinguished
according to:
a) Initial trading relations leading by the imperial administration ⇒ India
b) Dissident religious communities of tradespeople ⇒ New England in America
c) Farming communities of settlers⇒ New Zealand, Africa and parts of the
America.
d) Slave transportation⇒ From West Africa to the Caribbean and parts of
America.
e) Convict transportation ⇒ Australia

THE SLAVE TRADE TRIANGLE

The slave trade triangle linked Britain to West Africa and both to the West Indies and the
Americas. Ships from Britain would head for West Africa with load of supplies for the settlers.
In West Africa they would pick up African slaves, species, animal skins and ivory and take
them all to the Caribbean and America. Once there, the slaves would be sold and set to
work on the sugar-cane, cotton and fruit plantations. The whole triangular operation was
efficiently which made it A MODEL OF ECONOMIC RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.

AMERICA ⇒ Has been both COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL states since the arrival of
the europeans and well before. Native American Indians were and in some sense remain
colonised.

COLONISERS ⇒ They were the foreigners, those who initially come from elsewhere.
COLONISED ⇒ Native people who were born in the place.
SLAVES ⇒ Who were often neither coloniser nor colonised but forcibly brought from
elsewhere, foreigner and non-natives.

It is important to emphasize that the second, third, and son, generations of settlers and
colonisers may become natives. Settlers may also have interbred (cruzarse con) with the
initial natives. Colonisers too may also been colonised at some point in their past. In this
respect no people is in absolute terms either native or foreigner to a place. Everybody is
involved in various stages of colonialism and postcolonialism, during or after the event.

COLONIZATION ⇒ It is a varied and ongoing process because HISTORY does involve

actions and reactions as well as interactions and interrelations.
But is important to recognise that SOME PEOPLE WERE MORE COLONISING THAN
COLONISED.

POSTCOLONIALISM ⇒ Is defined as what grows out of and away colonialism. It is both

CONTINUOUS AND DISTINCT at the same time. It is more narrowly and historically
defined, the term is used to refer to those COUNTRIES WHICH ACHIEVED FORMAL
POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN. Many of these countries became the
COMMONWEALTH.
British and AMERICAN can be characterized as being both COLONIAL AND
POSTCOLONIAL since the beginning of modern history.

NEOCOLONIALISM ⇒ Means the EXERCISE OF INTERNATIONAL POWER THROUGH

ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL RATHER THAN MILITARY means. The USA and Japan
are currently often accused of this, because of their DOMINANCE IN WORLD MARKETS
and their POWER TO MAKE OTHER COUNTRIES ECONOMICALLY DEPENDENT. ⇒ The
monetary Found.

MULTICULTURALISM ⇒ Is the awareness of the distinctively plural and hybrid nature of all
cultures. But is relevant to note that the term can be used in a superficial way, to promote the
sense that everyone equal, no considering inequity as regards wealth, education, health
care, and so on. There are various views of what multicultural can mean:
- MULTIRACIAL ⇒ Differences in people’s colour skin, hair texture and physical build.
The core concept for this term is RACE.
- MULTIETHNIC ⇒ The emphasize is more on people’s social organisation and
cultural practices rather than their physiological make-up. For instance marriage
customs.
- ETHNICITY ⇒ Avoids the biological determinism of the term RACE and recognises
the fact that people can be born into a certain group but they take the cultural
practices of another group. The concept offers the possibility of cultural change and
variation, race implies biologically fixity. +++ETHNOCENTRISM ==> Is the tendency
to privilege or centre one culture before others which thereby become marginalised.

LITERACY, LITERACY AND LANGUAGE POLICIES ⇒ [SEE IN PAGE 100 AND

101 - CUADRO]

RENAMING AND MAPPING

PLACES’ NAMES ⇒ The suppression or the survival of particular place-names an
the ceaseless processes of renaming give us glimpses in miniature of tiny fragments
of continuing, invariably contentious, history. MAPS are symbolic too. Most maps of
the world before before the early twentieth century were made by western european
with their view as the centre.
In all these ways through processes of renaming and remapping, Western europeans
have left their marks, both physical and figurative, in the shape of the modern
post/colonial world. Post-independence governments were quick to rename their
countries and cities, but they couldn’t do much about the actual redrawing of their
borders. For instance ⇒ RHODESIA WAS RENAMED ZIMBABWE. Remapping and
renaming is motivated by politically distinct agendas. The SIGNS on buildings, roads
, maps and even return, but they never point to the exactly place [recentre]. For the
pointing is always going on in a different social context and historical moments.
EVEN IS THE FORM OF WORDS (SIGNIFIERS) LOOKS OR SOUNDS THE SAME,
THE PARTICULAR TIMES AND PLACES AND PEOPLE REFERRED TO
(SIGNIFIED) ARE DIFFERENT.

WHITE SELVES AND BLACK OTHERS

We tend to brace a sense of our SELVES against our sense of everyone and
everything we are no. IN ETHNIC TERMS this means that specific cultural groups
tend to define themselves by reference to other groups they are not. the basis of all
such distinctions is ETHNIC STEREOTYPES, LIKE RACIAL STEREOTYPING.
There are psychological, social dimensions to these processes that constructs binary
stereotypes that allows people to definite their own identities in opposition to others.
But also this BINARY OPPOSITIONS are commonly invoked a simplistically
black-and-white approach. This was a founding axiom of European colonialism and
one of the declared rationales of its civilising mission, that the black man is the white
man’s burden (responsabilidad). THE DOMINANT POLARITIES featured obviously
underwrite this view of the coloniser as basically a helper. This polarities are
extended to the post and neo colonial world.

[ver el cuadro page 102]

THE WORLD AFTER THE WALL

- The map of the literary world changed with the growth of multiculturalism
- In USA the literary tradition changes the emphasize from the american tradition to the
reevaluated version of the american dream.
- Indian and African writing take notoriety ⇒ post colonial authors emerge. They
revalue their traditions as something more independent and positive cultural identity.
- The narratives are no longer local with internet and technologies.

THE FANTASYWALLAS OF BOMBAY

- The writers write in a different english. This was a post-colonial invention of the
language.
- They write about the many Bombays, many of their stories begin there.
- Film industry ⇒ Bollywood were hindy films which portray the Bombay of their
imagination that has grown to surreal proportions.
- The stories for their works were mainly from the oral tradition, for instance myths.
- Poetry ⇒ Tries to reconcile conflicting identities ⇒ LIKE SEEING RED POEM
- A protest literature emerged. African writers living in Latin and Caribbean.

THE WRITING OF AFRICA TODAY

- They had a colonial education but independent thinkering, that emerged in 1950.
- They set about writing their own versions of the African past and present, derived
from the stories, language and festivals that surrounded them in their childhood ⇒
relate with NGUGI WA THIONG'O'S
- It was presumed that they had no literary inheritance but the writers lay on the oral
tradition expressed in storytelling, praise-poems, proverbs and myths.
- The cheaply literature had influenced the writing of african authors who write with
melodramatic and moralistics elements.
- Some of their writings were politically active in opposing to oppression, criticizing
colonialism.
- They portray the political implosion in contemporary Africa and the role of the african
women.

THE WRITING OF THE CARIBBEAN

- Is more concerned with exile and economic migration. Many of their authors live in
the Caribbean.
- Slavery dominates Caribbean experience so as its literature.
- Most of its celebrate authors were mainly anglophone, but there was also Fanon who
is Francophone and Cesaire, the first to use the term NEGRITUDE, that involved a
whole movement of resurrection for black values.
- Anglophone writers deals with local experience.
- francophone writers produced a largely political works that was assimilated into the
french canon of literature
- The rastafarian movement emerged simultaneously with the Civil rights and black
power. Its expression were more concerned with sung word, but many of their lyric
were considered poetry.
- The west indian fiction is it is more concentrated on developing a sense of place.
- Freedom were considered the idea of choosing your own food, house, marry as you
pleased, doing things that are taken for granted. As a result, much of the caribbean
literature deals with everyday life.
- The notion of home is important in Caribbean Life and in their writings because many
people were pulled out from their homes in africa and brought into Caribbean.
- In Trinidad and Tobago there is a racial tension between African and Indian people,
and this is reflected the Afro-caribbean works.
- the poetry from writers like Derek Walcott is a mean to signal the African culture
present in the Caribbean.
- In jamaica the works treat mainly political topics as a result of the corruption within
the territory.
- BUT THE THINGS THAT ALL OF THE CARIBBEAN WRITER IS THAT THEY HAVE
STRONG SENSE ON PLACE AND HOME.