Online Discussion - Example of Fourth Goal of Cultural Studies

Example of Fourth Goal of Cultural Studies

#  Instructions by Teacher

Reading and thinking task for summer vacation

All students,

In Cultural Studies, we have studied about four goals of CS. The fourth is about " CS analyses not only the cultural work, but also the means of production".

Marxists critics have long recognized the importance of such 'paraliterary' questions as these:

1) Who supports a given artist?

2) Who publishes his or her books, and how are these books distributed?

3) Who buys these books?

and . . . what is the 'control' of majoritarianism on the production of culture / literary text?

Here is an interesting article.

One TV serial was stopped being aired. Shohini Ghosh who is Professor at the AJK Mass Communication Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia questions something interesting.

The character of Jassi was a bit bold for Inian culture. 

We can see how majority of the audience can control and see that some voices can be curbed... some voices can be relegated in the margins from where they are no longer heard.

That's how production of literary text can get affected and hence it is one of the four important goals of CS.

Moreover, 

The writer also questions something interesting which is eye-opener. "When the show started to bend under (what appeared to be) the majoritarian will of the viewers, I began to wish that the makers of Aadhe Adhoore had gifted Jassi the habit of reading. She may then have come across a translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Streer Patra (`The Letter from the Wife’) written in the early decades of the twentieth century."

This observation has two imp points:

1) Are our characters in TV serials and films readers? Do they ever read good books? In the moments of crisis, do they find their answers after reading a paragraphs from some books? We have seen Hamlet reading book on stage? Why, even if our females in TV serials are educated, our characters in popular serials and films do not read?

2) Tagore was very progressive for those early days of India.

"When Streer Patra was published in 1914, Tagore was at the receiving end of scathing attacks for dishonouring the institution of marriage. Tagore was undeterred. I wish the makers of Aadhe Adhoore had also remained undeterred.

Jassi should have lived." (The serial ends with the death of Jassi).

Read full article here. . .  and if you come across any such cultural artefact, please share with insighful critical analysis. (This reading and thinking task is for your summer vacation.)

# My answer of the given task:

       After reading this article, we can clearly see that how majority of audience can control the story and writers have to follow the rules of society. There are rare writers who do not care about majoritarianism.
     
       The character of Jassi is bold but as far as Indian culture is concern, India has so many Rushi and Sadhu   and they all had relationships with apsaras and other women. The character of Jassi is not acceptable because she was a woman. There is a vast difference between the perspective of society towards the crime of man and woman. If man rapes any woman its normal but the character like Jassi makes relations with other man that is sin and that was the reason for her death. If she would have been lived, people would take objection that the show is harming our society so the story writer have to take society and its perspective in center.


    Another example of audience demand is "Kyunki Sans bhi kabhi bahu thi" when the character of Mihir(Amar Upadhyay)  died in serial audience wanted him to come back and Ekta Kapoor has done that too.
     Habit of reading in characters are rarely shown in TV serials, even such serials are based on books but in those serials characters have not habit of reading, for example 'Sarasvatichandra'.