Cultural Criticism Research Articles

Disposable Bodies

This article examines figures of disability in the poetry of D. M. Aderibigbe to illuminate the fate of disabled Nigerians. It considers the connections between disability and social norms, showing how normative masculinity is implicated in the killings of persons with disabilities. It draws on Chielozona Eze’s discussion of disability and Judith Butler’s concept of grievability to analyze Aderibigbe’s critique of normative culture, while situating the analysis of his poetry within the critical scholarship on disability, gender, masculinities, and social justice. In the poems “Olumo’s Face” and “Ode to My Father’s Childhood,” Aderibigbe represents disabled bodies as disposable, which underscores the need to continue advocating for disability justice.

Constructing cancel culture: Strategic scaling in stories of “cancellation”

Narratives about cancel culture are stories about problematic scaling—yet in telling these stories, cancel culture critics themselves engage in crucial forms of scaling. In this article, I analyze a selection of cancel culture narratives published in mainstream media outlets, focusing on how narrators define the here-and-now and project it into the future. I argue that in order to represent cancel culture as an “epidemic” of “ruining people’s lives over a single mistake,” these narratives must engage in strategic scaling processes that: (1) frame the event(s) prompting the cancellation as “a single mistake”; (2) frame the consequences as “ruining” someone’s “life”; and (3) frame the incident not an individual injustice but as a burgeoning cultural problem—an occurrence that is already too frequent and only becoming more so. This analysis demonstrates the central role that narrators’ scalar framings play in shaping the narrative’s moral and political implications.

Ovid Novelized: Metamorphose s Rewritten as a Cautionary Plea for Change in Our Mutual Friend

Abstract: Dickens's Our Mutual Friend is a rewriting of Ovid's Metamorphoses that sets off a dimension of cultural critique that is inherent to the poem. It does so by updating the scope of the source text's representational energies. In this respect, the novel explores a series of Ovidian mutations that partake of a criticism of signs of degeneration within the social landscape. For this, it mobilizes grotesque combinations made of variations on the intertwined figures of Narcissus and Pygmalion. While exposing the dysfunctional elements within the social landscape, the novel deploys yet more Ovidian storylines, motifs, and characters, namely around the Orphic parallel, as signs of regenerative formations promising the prospect of salutary, progressive transformations.

‘상실’과 ‘저항’: 두브라프카 우그레시치의 포스트유고슬라비아 에세이즘과 그 함의

This research is devoted to the exploration of the implications of the Post-Yugoslav essayistic writings(Post-jugoslavenska esejistička proza) by Dubravka Ugrešić, one of the major contemporary female writers in Croatia through the analysis of their main themes and narrative features. It is the genre of essay that came to the fore in her literary works after she chose to live as an exiled writer. On the whole, it is the feeling of ‘loss’(gubitak) and the attitude of ‘resistance’(otpor) that underlie her essayistic writings, which are subsequently classified into five groups from the thematic points of view as follows. The first one is related to the nostalgic feeling of loss from the disappearance of Yugoslavia and includes those essays that criticize the confiscation and manipulation of the historical memories of ex-Yugoslavia in the new nation states that came to being after the disintegration of SFRY and during the outbreak of the Yugoslav interethnic violences and civil wars. The second group comprises the essays that provide the microscopic observations on the current situations in the Western Balkans in the transitional post-communist period. The third group of essayistic writings addresses the mutual recognitions between the East and the West of Europe, and the changes in recent Europe, caused by refugees and labour migration. The fourth group of essays examines the current status of literature including those ones and their writers in the Western Balkans and emphasizes the necessity of the proper consideration of the transnational literature as an alternative to the conservative national literatures, which have relied on the exclusive nationalistic cultures and have contributed to the identity politics. The fifth group of essays in Ugrešić’s oeuvre is related with the feministic criticism of patriarchal culture and misogyny in the Western Balkans. Based on the frequently repeated narratological elements, the above-mentioned themes are expressed through the authorial colorful tones and writing styles from the writings in fragments and short manifestoes to the long sarcastic feminist critiques and serious political interpretations with the view of diagnosing the crises of humanness(humanitas) from the Western Balkan countries to the West European societies. Ugrešić’s essayism originated from her diverse existential experiences as an exiled writer, and therefore needs to be considered as the heterogeneous and multilayered discourses that lead the readers to the deep contemplation and seeking solutions to the frustrating circumstances after the collapse of the communist countries.

부정의 문화로서 니체·루만·묄러의 도덕비판론

As a cultural critique for morality, this article attempts a meta-criticism for morality from the ‘theoretical level’ and at the same time seeks an alternative attitude of life from the ‘realistic level’. This article, with the motto of ‘negative ethics’, examines in turn the theories of Nietzsche, Luhmann, and Moeller as master of critics for morality. Nietzsche and Luhmann’s reputation as critics for morality is overwhelming. Nietzsche’s criticism is unparalleled in strength and subversive. His theory that exposed ‘the will to power’ of morality through ‘slavery morality’ can be said to be a classical model of critique for morality. Sociologist Luhmann has his unique precise systematic guidance and bird’s eye view of the functionally differentiated modern society, and in this process, he ‘critically’ meets morality. He criticizes morality that as the moral code of ‘respect/ignorance’ spreads, many humans are measured in a holistic way, which becomes the spark for many conflicts. Moeller advocates an ‘amoral’ position that is detached from morality and the so-called ‘moral fool’ based on it. After systematically reviewing these scholars’ criticism, I synthesize them and suggest my own alternatives.

Platforming the Joe Rogan Experience: Cancel Culture, Comedy, and Infrastructure

This paper outlines a cultural critique of the Joe Rogan Experience. Framing the podcast as an adaptive cultural platform, I emphasize how it is ideologically informed by both the established infrastructure and dynamics of communicative capitalism and Joe Rogan’s ethos as a comedian. The paper discusses three ways Joe Rogan and his format negotiate their relationship with platform infrastructures. The first is Rogan’s relationship with Spotify and his interest in shaping “cancel discourses” and, subsequently, his own role as an embedded, “uncancellable” skeptic. The second is the combination of Rogan’s roast universalism and pioneering speech-a-ton format, designed to establish an infrastructure for platforming his cohort of podcasting comedians on YouTube. The third is Rogan’s relationship with platform-owner Elon Musk, whose communicative capitalist agenda has political implications. The paper establishes a theoretical connection between studies of platformisation and the under-studied cultural influence of podcasting comedians.

Science, Life, and Art in Nietzsche’s Notes for ‘We Philologists’

The study retraces Nietzsche’s 1875 notes for the planned but never published Unfashionable Observation, We Philologists, through a specific focus on the topics of science, life and art in their close and seldom discussed interrelation. The questions that the investigation addresses are: what is the significance of Nietzsche’s problematisation of science in We Philologists for our interpretation of the topic in his later works? How should we interpret these notebooks in relation to his previous writings, on the one hand, and to his later treatment of themes like the deconstruction of Christianity, the critique of eudemonism or the historical genesis of the genius on the other? Framing the notebooks as unwittingly experimental precursors of Nietzsche’s aphoristic books, the article interprets the unique nuance of the notes as an opportunity to start shedding a different light on the discussion of these questions in Nietzsche’s later works. Science, life and art become thus the focal points of a more specific and circumscribed analysis of his early thought – reconnecting these topics to their tangible origins, and tracking their early development in the context of Nietzsche’s acclaimed switch from philology to philosophy and cultural criticism.

Cultural Representations in Border Literature: Reflecting on Harka Gurung’s Vignettes of Nepal

This article explores the issues raised in Harka Gurung’s Vignettes of Nepal and analyzes them from historical perspectives. Cultural activities of the different geographical locations of Nepal that Gurung explores in the book are based on border, culture and the literature. Culture is a part of social practices interlinked to the cultural activities that connect people and literature of a society or a cultural community under a chain of social/socio-cultural activities. There might be different kinds of cultural groups within the same geographical border but they have the same kind of humanitarian values. However, they have some conflicting borders because of the space on performances and understanding of the cultural critics. Here, border refers to both the cultural community’s line as well as geographical territory. Many people respect to each-other’s culture but some of them disrespect borderland culture and literature that creates social disharmony in the name of cultural identity. Culture is a part of literary activities that helps to generate the literature and every literature is based on the culture. Gurung’s Vignettes of Nepal incorporates twenty essays based on different geographical borderlands, cultural practices and literature. He begins his essays from west of Kathmandu and concludes them coming to the east. In this study, this researcher selects particularly a few essays based on cultural borderland. Border, culture and literature are inseparable and so this study is on cultural cum ethno-geographical methodology as it studies the behavioral things of the people of different cultural communities. Objective of this paper is to show the connectivity of literature in the cultural borderland. To achieve the research goal, this study centers on historical places and observes cultural practices in Nepal. This researcher applies Mary Anderson and Dor Bahadur Bista’s ideas as supporting tools to the research in addition to Shalom H. Schwartz’s theory based on universal human values and cross-cultural psychologies. Finding of this paper is that the humanitarian cultures of the borders are key subjects to create the socio-cultural harmonies that help to generate the literature.

“No One Is Who They Say They Are”: The Political Aesthetics of David Peace, Waste Land Poetry, and Extreme Music

Abstract This article constructs a genealogy of anti-imperialist cultural practice, connecting novels and spoken word projects of David Peace to post–World War II Japanese poetry and to the extreme music practice of the powerviolence band Column of Heaven. By placing Peace's novels in conversation with these different cultural forms, it aims to show how the modernist mystification can augment the radical political effects of popular art during the era of imperialism. The article proposes an alternative route to Marxist cultural criticism via Althusser's understanding of ideological interpellation and his critique of Lenin's classic analysis of imperialism. In this sense, it proposes to link contemporary experimental musical and literary practice to a Marxist politics of anti-imperialism, in contradistinction to the potentially depoliticizing effects of the popular critique of neoliberalism.

التناص: تحولات الشعرية البلاغية إلى الوظيفة النسقية

The study revolves around the intertextuality orbit in terms of its systemic attachment with cultural critique, where this rhetoric approach assumes a rhetoric capacity that exceeds the deliberative dimensions which are based on showing the poetic aspect of intertextuality and its ability to express the ideas of the text and that is done through creating a new post for it. This post is known as the systemic post and is originally associated with cultural critique and is based on procedural tools designed to create the cultural trick through which the profound meaning is passed. The meaning which Strauss added to the hidden meaning and Iceberger drafted in the underlying structure of the text. The study followed the possibility of this post manifesting itself in Arabic rhetoric and the western intertextuality theory, and did not find a clear impact. Therefore, it assumes that this post is new to intertextuality and this assumption is proven by an applied study which has been conducted on a creative text from the Abbasid Era. This text is Sahl bin Haroun’s letter on stinginess. The research concluded after careful study with results: intertextuality - the rhetorical device known in both Arab and foreign cultures - has a well-known pragmatic function related to the aesthetic and intellectual enrichment of the text linked with various quotations; intertextuality can be utilized in cultural critical studies by establishing the systemic function it possesses. In light of a systemic reading of intertextuality in the message of Sahl ibn Harun on miserliness, it became evident that the writer challenged the image of Arabs by reversing the trait of generosity and placed it on a low moral scale. Therefore, The study recommends following Arabic rhetoric research and studying it within a new vision so that the procedural tools are effective in adopting cultural critique.

The heritagization of cultural politics: anthropological research on Chinese cultural heritage

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, in alignment with globalization and the megatrend within the international socio-cultural sphere, China has initiated a large-scale “intangible cultural heritage (ICH) protection movement” through its proactive leadership and management of cultural heritage administration. As a significant component of Chinese cultural politics, this movement has profoundly influenced the cultural lives of Chinese society and its citizens and is poised to continue doing so. Some Chinese anthropologists have also participated in and significantly contributed to this movement in various ways. This paper comprehensively and meticulously examines these fundamental ways. Building upon this analysis, this paper further provides an overview and assessment of the research outcomes of anthropological research on Chinese cultural heritage, both domestically and internationally. The author posits that the paramount contribution of anthropologists, both domestically and internationally, to Chinese cultural heritages and the related protection endeavors lies in their academic research outcomes being predominantly based on their respective fieldwork practices. These outcomes, shaped and realized through on-the-ground fieldwork, hold exceptional value for cultural heritage administration and national cultural policies, as they effectively provide cultural criticism and dissenting perspectives.

The Double Resistance of the German Periodical <i>Die Zone</i> (1933–34) in Paris

This article aims to explore the programme of the German-language anti-Nazi journal Die Zone, in which cultural criticism and political activism were inextricably intertwined. Published in Paris in 1933–34 as an exile periodical, it challenges the centre-periphery dichotomy by occupying a peripheral position with respect to the cultural and linguistic context to which they belong and wish to influence, while at the same time being able to rely on social and relational capital that would never be available to a platform belonging to a genuine (semi-)periphery. Taking into account the complexity of its positions, my investigation into Die Zone is therefore structured around three main questions. While exploring (1) the effectiveness of the journal as a platform for a community to engage in a double resistance, i.e. political action against both National Socialism and its own marginalization in French society, I equally examine (2) whether the editor-in-chief Emil Szittya could mobilize and channel the extensive network he had built in the context of the international avant-garde in the 1910s and 1920s. Finally, (3) I tackle the perception of Die Zone and those who made it by the French (general or professional) public.

LITERATURA GAY E A ABORDAGEM DOS ESTUDOS CULTURAIS

This Communication intends to analyze literature through the approach of cultural studies as a current of literature criticism. In this sense, it is considered pertinent to discuss that the concept of culture implies thinking beyond the product created by a minority, since exercising cultural criticism implies understanding how a given society works (CEVASCO, 2005). On the other hand, defenders of other currents of literary criticism accuse it of being militant, of having no method, however, they are wrong when they say there is no method, as we can draw up a panel of cartographies for this and thus have a method, a path to study of gay literature, for example. To this end, the research carried out followed a qualitative approach and a bibliographical type, as it involves an investigation carried out by consulting books and periodicals, both printed and available on the internet in digital libraries and blogs. Among the authors read Cevasco (2005), Matterlat and Neveu (2006), Bhabha (2014), Silva (2010), Hall (2014) and others. Therefore, literary critics who accuse cultural studies scholars need to step back and realize that as societies change and new historical realities are constructed, gays move from invisibility to social visibility, as does the literature that deals with them.

Palestinian resistance poetry - Praise of the High Shadow by Mahmoud Darwish as an example - A study in light of cultural criticism

كان شعر المقاومة الفلسطينية يشكل ركناً أساسياً من أركان الثقافة العربية، إلا أنَّ السنوات الأخيرة شهدت إهمالاً غير مسبوق له، سواء على مستوى تلقيه وانتشاره أم على مستوى دراسته، وذلك بسبب التحولات السياسية التي طالت المنطقة، إذ خمدت جذوة الصراع العربي الإسرائيلي حتى أصبح صراعاً محلياً، بينما شهدت المنطقة صراعات عربية عربية وانقسامات طائفية، كما شهدت تسابقاً على التطبيع، فضلاً عن أسباب أخرى أسهمت بانحسار هذا النمط الشعري، واليوم نجد من الأهمية بمكان إعادة الاعتبار له انتصاراً لما يعانيه شعبنا الفلسطيني العربي في غزة من ويلات الإبادة الجماعية، وما يشهده العالم من صحوة بإزاء الحق الفلسطيني، ووجدنا أنَّ قصيدة(مديح الظل العالي) لحمود درويش أفضل ما يمثل شعر المقاومة لما انطوت عليه من دلالات وصور تتطابق حرفياً مع ما يحدث اليوم في غزة، وقد درست هذه القصيدة بمقاربات نقدية متعددة، إلا أنَّها لم تدرس ثقافياً، فاتخذنا منها أرضية للبحث في سياقاتها وأنساقها الثقافية.

Faith in Fakes

Social media platforms have a deservedly poor reputation amongst scholars, cultural critics, politicians, and the wider public for their exploitation of users and their complicity in fostering misinformation and disinformation on a variety of topics. And yet they enjoy widespread usage, a duality increasingly understood through the false promise of authenticity they offer. This article considers the photo sharing app BeReal, an upstart contender whose viral popularity with teenagers made it both an emblem and an antidote to social media’s authenticity problem. Drawing on and affirming many of the conclusions in the existing scholarship on authenticity and media, it uses BeReal to demonstrate the necessity of considering photography as an essential element in the authenticity framework. Doing so clears a space for individual agency in the face of the acknowledged dominance of these platforms.

Civilizing Russia's “Barbarous Kingdom”

Abstract The Hulu series The Great, an ahistorical satire of the eighteenth-century Russian Empire, set at the courts of Peter III and Catherine II, doubles as a critique of contemporary politics and culture. Created for Anglophone audiences with little knowledge of history, but aware of stereotypes of Russia as a despotic, dysfunctional backwater, the show's appeal rests on the love-hate relationship between Peter the bro-emperor and the “girlboss” empress Catherine, as well as the expectation that Catherine, ultimately, will “have-it-all.” This article examines the gender dynamics structuring Peter's and Catherine's narrative arcs and argues that Catherine's trajectory from naïve, self-declared enlightened European princess to skilled, pragmatic ruler undermines Peter's attempt to liberate himself from an outdated model of masculinity.

Dream Scenario and Postcinematic Celebrity

FQ columnist Caetlin Benson-Allott turns the spotlight on Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, whose films ask what it means to want attention and be subject to unwanted attention in the era of social media and viral fame. His most recent film, Dream Scenario (2023), is the third in a series of films that “interrogate twenty-first-century celebrity—the forms of social, cultural, and financial capital it generates and the rules that (fail to) govern it.” In Dream Scenario, Borgli makes good use of the US star system, exploiting the contrasting filmic reputations of his leading actors Nicholas Cage and Julianne Nicholson to add depth to his critique of postcinematic celebrity culture.

A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF LITERARY CRITICISM A STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGE INFLUENCES THE EVALUATION OF LITERARY WORKS

This research delves into the complex connections between language and literary criticism, illuminating how linguistic decisions impact written work assessments. The study dives into different linguistic frameworks such as pragmatics, discourse analysis, and semantics to reveal the nuanced but potent ways language affects critical interpretations and assessments. This examination shows how rhetorical devices, diction, syntax, and metaphor play a part in crucial discourse by looking at literary critiques from various eras and genres. The study delves into how cultural and historical factors shape literary criticism's linguistic representation, illuminating the complex relationship between language and societal ideals. The subjective character of literary appraisal is better understood thanks to this in-depth linguistic research, which sheds light on how critics express their opinions. The results highlight the significance of language awareness in literary criticism by arguing for a more sophisticated and reflective method of assessing literary works.

Termites and Rough Theatre

Poet and art critic David Antin observed that, to a great degree, video art derives significance from its relation to some aspect of television. This article acknowledges this and examines video art in the context of a cultural critique via a distinctive mixture of cross-disciplinary collaborations within the arts during the latter half of the twentieth century. While the video art Antin described can be considered an extension of the postwar recalibration of the emphasis placed on art as object, it was also the beneficiary of early twentieth-century experimentation, such as Dada’s challenge to notions of art and expectations regarding aesthetics, as well as early experimentation in cinema. This intersection of culture and art histories finds its way into the early video work of Daniel Boord. My main interest in Boord’s work is its relation to experimentation with theatricality, an area not usually associated with video art. Boord’s “lowbrow” absence of pretense and disregard for reductive formalism align well with Peter Brook’s conception of the “Rough Theatre,” as well as film critic Manny Farber’s notion of “termite art,” art that “feels its way through walls of particularization” and eats at its own boundaries. Boord’s work is a self-propelled dizzying array of humor, ideas, and juxtapositions that are well suited for the twentieth century—work that moves along according to its own self-defined boundaries of invention.

Embedded Patterns in the poetry of Ali bin Al-jahm A study in light of cultural criticism

Embedded Patterns in the poetry of Ali bin Al-jahm A study in light of cultural criticism