Communication Studies: The Essential Resource
Extract taken from page 177 from a handout in lesson.
The dream that society would eventual become an “organic society” (an integrated meaningful whole) had two trajectories. One led back to the past and the feudal ideal of hierarchal ordered community. This idea was in opposition to the second trajectory was seen as being opposite the “wasteland” of contemporary life.
The second trajectory, less heavily supported, led towards the future to a socialist utopia where the distinction between labour and leisure was to be annulled. Two basic definitions of culture emerged from this trajectory:
- Essential classical and conservative. It represented culture as a standard of aesthetic excellence: “The best that has been thought and said in the world” (Arnold 1868). This definition derived from an appreciation of “classic” aesthetic form (opera, ballet, drama, literature, art).
- Traced by Raymond Williams to the 18th century and rooted in anthropology. This definition refers to “a particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour”
This second definition of culture has a much broader range than the first. T S Elliot (1940s) said it has ” …. all the characteristic activities and interests of a people. Derby Day, Henley Regatta, Cowes, the cup final, the dog races, the pin table, the dartboard, Wensleydale cheese, boiled cabbage, beetroot and vinegar, 19th century Gothic churches, the music of Elgar ….”
If one supports the second definition of culture then the theory of culture now involved the “study of relationships between elements of a whole way of life” rather than just focusing on the “classical and conservative”. It includes working class communities and their way of life.
So it’s “culture as a standard of excellence” versus “culture as a whole way of life”.
The working class way of life (or “culture”) was acknowledged as a community which had tried and tasted values despite the dour landscape in which it had been set (ie poverty). However, theorists began to be concerned about how mass communication was undermining traditional culture with “bland and sleazy” entertainment (Williams). He was concerned to distinguish between “worthwhile products’ (jazz music – a real musical form, football – a wonderful game) from “the trash (the rape novel, the Sunday strip paper and the latest Tin Pan drool). Williams wrote this in 1965, would he think things have gotten better or worse?
Hoggart (1966) wrote that of one develops an appriciation of good literature (Shakespeare et al) then literatury critical analysis can be applied to examples of popular arts/mass communications (eg studying Eastenders/Coronation Street using the same techniques).
See Also
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» Term Two
» The Rules of Culture
» Wot U Lookin At?
» The Canon
» Culture, What Is It To You?