Five Types of Cultural Studies

Five Types of Cultural Studies

Name:  Pritiba B. Gohil

Roll No. :  21

Course No. 8-C: The Cultural Studies

TOPIC: Five Types of Cultural Studies

M.A. English Semester - 2

Batch: 2014 - 2016

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Submitted to :-

Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad,

Head of the Department,

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

INTRODUCTION:-

As we are going to discuss five types of cultural studies before that we have to understand that What is culture ?? And what is cultural studies ?? So let’s discuss these both. First of all let’s talk about culture that what is culture??.

What is culture ? :-

·         The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.

·         The ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society.

What is Culture? or Definition of Culture :-

Definition of Culture  :-

Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Today, in the United States as in other countries populated largely by immigrants, the culture is influenced by the many groups of people that now make up the country.

And there are some types of culture like,

·         Western Culture :- The term Western culture has come to define the culture of European countries as well as those such as the United States that have been heavily influenced by European immigration. Western culture has its roots in the Classical Period of the Greco-Roman era and the rise of Christianity in the 14th century. Other drivers of the Western culture include Latin, Celtic, Germanic and Hellenic ethnic and linguistic groups. Today, the influences of Western culture can be seen in almost every country in the world.

·         Eastern Culture :- Eastern culture generally refers to the societal norms of countries in Far East Asia (including China, Japan, Vietnam, North Korea and South Korea) and the Indian subcontinent. Like the West, Eastern culture was heavily influenced by religion during its early development. In general, in Eastern culture there is less of a distinction between secular society and religious philosophy than there is in the West.

·        Latin Culture :- Many of the Spanish-speaking nations are considered part of the Latin culture, while the geographic region is widespread. Latin America is typically defined as those parts of the Central America, South America and Mexico where Spanish or Portuguese are the dominant languages. While Spain and Portugal are on the European continent, they are considered the key influencers of what is known as Latin culture, which denotes people using languages derived from Latin, also known as Romance languages.

·         Middle Eastern Culture :- The countries of the Middle East have some but not all things in common, including a strong belief in Islam and religion is a very strong pillar of this society. The Arabic language is also common throughout the region; however, the wide variety of dialect can sometimes make communication difficult.

·        African Culture :- The continent of Africa is essential two cultures — North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The continent is comprised of a number of tribes, ethnic and social groups. One of the key features of this culture is the large number of ethnic groups — some countries can have 20 or more — and the diversity of their beliefs Northwest Africa in particular has strong ties to European and Southwestern Asia. The area also has a heavy Islamic influence and is a major player in the Arab world. The harsh environment has been a large factor in the development of Sub-Saharan Africa culture, as there are a number of languages, cuisines, art and musical styles that have sprung up among the far-flung populations.

Now let’s talk about cultural studies that what is cultural studies ?

What is Cultural studies ?

Definition :-

Cultural studies is an innovative interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that investigates the ways in which “culture” creates and transforms individual experiences, everyday life, social relations and power.

Cultural studies is an innovative interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that investigates the ways in which “culture” creates and transforms individual experiences, everyday life, social relations and power. Research and teaching in the field explores the relations between culture understood as human expressive and symbolic activities, and cultures understood as distinctive ways of life. Combining the strengths of the social sciences and the humanities, cultural studies draws on methods and theories from literary studies, sociology, communications studies, history, cultural anthropology, and economics. By working across the boundaries among these fields, cultural studies addresses new questions and problems of today’s world. Rather than seeking answers that will hold for all time, cultural studies develops flexible tools that adapt to this rapidly changing world.

Cultural life is not only concerned with symbolic communication, it is also the domain in which we set collective tasks for ourselves and begin to grapple with them as changing communities. Cultural studies is devoted to understanding the processes through which societies and the diverse groups within them come to terms with history, community life, and the challenges of the future.

Cultural Studies explores culture, power, and identity. In Cultural Studies, we analyze a wide variety of forms of cultural expression, such as TV, film, advertising, literature, art, and video games. As well, we study social and cultural practices, like shopping, cell phone use, and social justice movements. We are concerned with thinking about identity and social roles, including gender, sexuality, race, class, and nation. Cultural Studies research and teaching seeks to be self-critical, self-reflexive, and engaged. It challenges dominant or “normal” assumptions about who we are, in relation to others, and how.

“Culture has two aspects: the known meanings and directions, which its members are trained to; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested. These are the ordinary processes of human societies and human minds, and we see through them the nature of a culture: that it is always both traditional and creative; that it is both the most ordinary common meanings and the finest individual meanings. We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life--the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning--the special processes of discovery and creative effort.” – Raymond Williams.

“To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students.” – Bell Hooks.

“It is the underlying philosophical nature that gives this program significance. What one thinks they know about popular cultural can become completely destabilized and reorganized to create an entirely different understanding of the world in which we live. It is in this way that cultural studies explore larger layers of significance and meaning in the world. It reveals aspects of the familiar that are hidden, confusing and meaningful.”

Cultural Studies traces the relationships among aesthetic, anthropological, and political economic aspects of cultural production and reproduction.  Cultural studies scholars and practitioners often begin their inquiries by questioning the common understandings, beliefs, and histories that shape our world.  This type of inquiry assumes that culture is not a fact to be understood and explained.  What demands attention is how culture constitutes diverse worlds and how it can be mobilized to change those worlds.

Cultural Studies relies on interdisciplinary research on the formation of knowledge, power, and difference.  Cultural Studies scholars and practitioners explore constructions of race, class, ability, citizenship, gender, and sexuality in their effort to understand the structures and practices of domination and resistance that shape contemporary societies. Many different topics surface as part of this exploration: everyday practices that structure the creation and reception of cultural artefacts; relations between producers and consumers in the circulation of global commodities; claims to membership in particular communities as they undergo transformation.

After discussion of What is culture? And What is cultural studies? Let’s elaborate types of cultural studies.

Five Types of Cultural Studies :-

As we know that

1.      First, :-  cultural studies transcends the confines of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history. Cultural studies involves scrutinizing the cultural phenomenon of a text and drawing conclusions about the changes in textual phenomena over time.

2.      Second, :- cultural studies is politically engaged. Cultural critics see themselves as “oppositional,” not only within their own disciplines but to many of the power structures of society at large.

3.       Third, :- cultural studies denies the separation of “high” and “low” or elite and popular (mass) culture.  Rather than determining which are the “best” works produced, cultural critics describe what is produced and how various productions relate to one another. Cultural critics aim to reveal the political, economic reasons why a certain cultural product is more baled at certain times than others.

4.      Finally, :- cultural studies analyzes not only the cultural work, but also the means of production. Cultural studies joins subjectivity– that is, culture in relation to individual lives– with engagement, a direct approach to attacking social ills.

Now let’s talk about Five Types of Cultural Studies.

Five Types of Cultural Studies :-

1. British Cultural Materialism
2. New Historicism
3. American Multiculturalism

ü  African American Writers

ü  Latina/o Writers

ü  American Indian Literatures

ü  Asian American Writers

4. Postmodernism and Popular Culture

5.       Postcolonial Studies

Now let’s discuss this all types in details.

(1)               British Cultural Materialism  :-

Cultural materialism began in earnest in the 1950s with the work of F. R. Leavis, heavily influenced by Matthew Arnold’s analyses of bourgeois culture.

Matthew Arnold sought to redline the “givens” of British culture. To appreciate the importance of this revision of “culture” we must situate it within the controlling myth of social and political reality of the British Empire upon which the sun never set, an ideology left over from the previous century. In modern Britain two trajectories for “Culture” developed one led back to the past and the feudal hierarchies that ordered community in the past; here, culture acted in its sacred function as preserver of the past. Cultural materialism began in earnest in the 1950s with the work of F.R. Leavis sought to use the educational system to distribute literary knowledge and appreciation more widely promoted the “great tradition “ of Shakespeare and Milton to improve the moral sensibilities of a wider range of readers than just the elite.

Cultural materialists also turned to the more humanized and even spiritual insights of the great students of Rabelais and Dostoevsky, Russain formalist Bakhtn, especially his amplification of the dialogic form of communal, individual and social.

Culture stand is referred to as ‘culture materialism in Britain and it. has a long tradition .In the later ninetieth century Mathew Arnold sought to redefine the ''givens of British culture Edward Burnet Tyler’s pioneering anthropological study primitive culture or civilization taken in widest anthropology sense is a complete whole whose 'includes knowledge ,belief 'or morals. Law custom and any other capacities’ and habits acquired by man as a manner of society.

(2)               New Historicism :-

As a return to historical scholarship, new historicism concerns itself with extra literary matters– letters, diaries, films, paintings, medical treatises– looking to reveal opposing historical tensions in a text. New historicists seek “surprising coincidences” that may cross generic, historical, and cultural lines in borrowings of metaphor, ceremony, or popular culture. The new historicism rejects the periodization of history in favor of ordering history only through the interplay of forms of power.

New Historicism focuses on the way literature expresses-and sometimes disguises-power relations at work in the social context in which the literature was produced, often this involves making connections between a literary work and other kinds of texts. Literature is often shown to “negotiate” conflicting power interests. New historicism has made its biggest mark on literary studies of the Renaissances and Romantic periods and has revised motions of literature as privileged, apolitical writing. Much new historicism focuses on the marginalization of subjects such as those identified as witches, the insane, heretics, vagabonds, and political prisoners.

Laputa ''the where ''what did Jonathan swift mean when he gave that name to the flying island in the third voyage of Gulliver’s Travels? It is a question that has political reality of the British Empire upon which the sun never set an ideology left over from the previous century. In modern Britain two trajectories for cultural developed one led back to the past and the feudal hierarchies that ordered community in past hear culture acted in its sacred function as preserver of the past.

(3)               American Multiculturalism :-

As we discuss above that this American Multiculturalism have its different four types like,

ü  African American Writers

ü  Latina/o Writers

ü  American Indian Literatures

ü  Asian American Writers

ü African American Writers :- African American writers is widely pursued in American literature criticism from the recovery of the eighteenth century poets such as Phillies wealthy to the experimental novel of Toni Morison, In Shadow and Act 1964novel Ralph Ellison Argue that any viable theatre of Negro American culture obligates us to fashion a more adequate theory of American culture as a what''.

ü  Latina/o Writers :- Latina/o Writer Hispanic Mexican American, Puerto Rican Nuyarican Chicane may be Huizhou or Maya. Which names to use/ the choice after has political implications. We will use the term'' Latina/o to indicate a broad sense of Ethnicity among Spanish speaking ,people n the united states Mexican American are the largest and most influential of Latina/o Ethnicities in the united states.

ü American Indian Literatures :- In pre dominantly oral cultures, stalling passes and religious beliefs, moral values, political codes and practical lesson of everyday life .For American Indians stories are a source of strength in the face of centuries of silencing by Euro American.

ü  Asian American Writers :- Asian American literature is written by people of Asian descent in the United States addressing the experience of living in a society that views them as alien. Asian immigrants were denied citizenship as late as the1950s.Edward said has written of Orientals, or the tendency to objectify and exoticism Asian, and their work has sought to respond to such stereotypes Asian American writer include Chinese Japanese , Korean Filipino, Vietnamese, Asian , Polynesian and many other peoples of as a the Indian subcontinent , and pacific.

The idea that American identity is vested in a commitment to core values expressed in the American Creed and the ideals of Exceptionalism raises a fundamental concern that has been the source of considerable debate. Can American identity be meaningfully established by a commitment to core values and ideals among a population that is becoming increasingly heterogeneous? Since the 1960s, scholars and political activists, recognizing that the “melting pot” concept fails to acknowledge that immigrant groups do not, and should not, entirely abandon their distinct identities, embraced multiculturalism and diversity. Racial and ethnic groups maintain many of their basic traits and cultural attributes, while at the same time their orientations change through marriage and interactions with other groups in society. The American Studies curriculum serves to illustrate this shift in attitude. The curriculum, which had for decades relied upon the “melting pot” metaphor as an organizing framework, began to employ the alternative notion of the “American mosaic.”

Multiculturalism, in the context of the “American mosaic,” celebrates the unique cultural heritage of racial and ethnic groups, some of whom seek to preserve their native languages and lifestyles. In a sense, individuals can be Americans and at the same time claim other identities, including those based on racial and ethnic heritage, gender, and sexual preference.

(4) Postmodernism and popular culture :-

Postmodernism and Popular Culture brings together eleven recent essays by Angela McRobbie in a collection which deals with the issues which have dominated cultural studies over the last ten years.
A key theme is the notion of post modernity as a space for social change and political potential. McRobbie explores everyday life as a site of immense social and psychic complexity to which she argues that cultural studies scholars must return through ethnic and empirical work; the sound of living voices and spoken language. She also argues for feminists working in the field to continue to question the place and meaning of feminist theory in a postmodern society. In addition, she examines the new youth cultures as images of social change and signs of profound social transformation. Bringing together complex ideas about cultural studies today in a lively and accessible format.

Postmodernism questions everything rationalist European philosophy held to be true. Postmodernism argues that it is all contingent and that most cultural constructions have served the function of empowering members of a dominant social group at the expense of “others.” Popular culture: there are four main types of popular culture analysis: production analysis, textual analysis, audience analysis, and historical analysis.

Postmodernism like poststructuralist and deconstruction is a critique of aesthetic of the preceding age, but besides more critique post modernism celebrates the very act of dismembering tradition. Postmodernism question everything rationalist European philosophy held to true, arguing that it is all counting and that most culture constructions have served the function of empowering member of dominant social group at the experience of other beginning in the mid1980. Post modernism emerged in art.

As we discuss four types of American Multiculturalism here we have another two types of Postmodernism and Popular Culture.

1.    Postmodernism

2.    Popular Culture       
        

[1] Postmodernism :-


Postmodernism describes a range of conceptual frameworks and ideologies that are defined in opposition to those commonly attributed to modernism and modernist notions of knowledge and science, as, materialism, realism, positivism, formalism, structuralism, and reductionism. Postmodernist approaches are critical of the possibility of objective knowledge of the real world, and consider the ways in which social dynamics such as power and hierarchy affect human conceptualizations of the world to have important effects on the way knowledge is constructed and used. In contrast to the modernist paradigm, postmodernist thought often emphasize idealism, constructivism, relativism, pluralism and scepticism in its approaches to knowledge and understanding.

It is not a philosophical movement in itself, but rather, incorporates a number of philosophical and critical methods that can be considered ‘postmodern’; the most familiar include feminism and post-structuralism. Put another way, postmodernism is not a method of doing philosophy, but rather a way of approaching traditional ideas and practices in non-traditional ways that deviate from pre-established super structural modes. This has caused difficulties in defining what postmodernism actually means or should mean and therefore remains a complex and controversial concept, which continues to be debated. The idea of the postmodern gained momentum through to the 1950s before dominating literature, art and the intellectual scene of the 1960s.Postmodernism's origins are generally accepted as having been conceived in art around the end of the nineteenth century as a reaction to the stultifying legacy of modern art and continued to expand into other disciplines during the early twentieth century as a reaction against modernism in general.

[2] Popular  culture : -

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are preferred by an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and dumped-down in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, and corrupted

The term "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier refers to the education and general "cult redness" of the lower classes, as was delivered in an address at the England. The term began to assume the meaning of a culture of the lower classes separate from (and sometimes opposed to) "true education" towards the end of the century, a usage that became established by the antebellum period. The current meaning of the term, culture for mass consumption, especially originating in the United States, is established by the end of World War II the abbreviated form "pop culture" dates to the 1960s.

(5) Postcolonial Studies :-

Post colonialism refers to a historical phase undergone by the Third World countries after the decline of colonialism. Many Third World writers focus on both colonialism and the changes created in a postcolonial culture.

The critical nature of postcolonial theory entails destabilizing Western ways of thinking, therefore creating space for the subaltern or marginalized groups, to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourse. Often, the term post colonialism is taken literally, to mean the period of time after colonialism. This however, is problematic because the ‘once-colonized world’ is full of “contradictions, of half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridist, and liminalities” .In other words, it is important to accept the plural nature of the word post colonialism, as it does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era. By some definitions, post colonialism can also be seen as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge. Due to these similarities, it is debated whether to hyphenate post colonialism as to symbolize that we have fully moved beyond colonialism.

Post-colonialist thinkers recognize that many of the assumptions which underlie the "logic" of colonialism are still active forces today. Some postcolonial theorists make the argument that studying both dominant knowledge sets and marginalized ones as binary opposites perpetuates their existence as homogenous entities. Homi K. Bhabha feels the postcolonial world should valorise spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move aside for ambiguity. This space of hybridist, he argues, offers the most profound challenge to colonialism. Critiques that Bhabha ignores Spaak’s stated usefulness of essentialism have been put forward. Reference is made to essentialisms' potential usefulness. An organized voice provides a more powerful challenge to dominant knowledge - whether in academia or active protests.

Post colonial refer to a historian phase undergone by third world countries after the decline of colonialism for era, when countries in Asian Africa, Latina/o America, and the Caribbean separated from the European emperies and were left to rebuild themselves. Many third words write focus on both colonialism and the change created a postcolonial culture.

CONCLUSION:-

So, this all are Five Types of Cultural Studies. For understand culture we have to understand cultural studies.

( Words :- 3,790 )

I.A.Richard’s View On The Language Of Poetry

I.A.Richard’s view on the language of poetry

Name:  Pritiba B. Gohil

Roll No. :  21

Course No. 7: Literary Theory & Criticism: The 20th Western & Indian Poetics – 2

Topic:  I.A.Richard’s view on the language of poetry

M.A. English Semester - 2

Batch: 2014 - 2016

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Submitted  to :

Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad,

Head of the Department,

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

INTRODUCTION:-

As we all know that this work Figurative Language is done by gem writer I.A.Richard. So, before we discuss about figurative language of poetry let’s know about I.A.Richard. Richards is recognized for his perceptive theories of poetic language which maintained the importance of poetry, while reflecting the scientific approach of the modern age. His differentiation of language use—referential for scientific discourse and emotive for poetry—originated from his early pronouncement that poetry could offer only "pseudo-statements." This controversial issue prompted much discussion of the problem of belief and value in poetry as Richards analyzed it in Coleridge on Imagination. Richards also delineated four areas of meaning to be disentangled by the responsible critic: a poem's sense, its feeling, its tone, and its intention.

Richards's reputation as the forerunner of New Criticism derives from two of his earliest books. Principles of Literary Criticism, published in 1924, was his attempt to establish a criticism based upon scientific method. Of particular interest to Richards was the relatively new discipline of psychology, which he hoped would eventually justify his theory of value that the best art satisfies the greatest number of "appetencies." In Practical Criticism, published in 1929, Richards applied his theories to the study of literature. The method he introduced, asking students to comment on poems without benefit of background information, was for a time a widely accepted exercise in evaluating literature. Richards was especially concerned with the reader's reaction to the poem; he believed that only close analysis would reveal the complexity of great art and he warned against sentimentality and stock responses.

According to I.A.Richards language can be used in two ways, i.e. the scientific use and the emotive one. It’s only in recent years that serious attention is given to the language as a science. In the scientific use of language, we are usually matters of fact. All the activities covered by this use require undistorted references and absence of fiction.

I.A.Richards was an orthodox advocate of a close textual and verbal study and analysis of a work of art. According to Richards there are three objectives to write ‘The Practical Criticism.’

To introduce a new kind of documentation:

This documentation is to be introduced to those who are interested in the contemporary state of culture whether as critics, philosophers, as teachers, as psychologists, or merely as curious persons.

To provide new technique:

New technique is to be provided for those who wish to discover for themselves what they think and feel about poetry and why they should like or dislike it.

To prepare the way for educational methods:

Educational methods are to be preparing more efficient than those we use now in developing discrimination and the power to understand what we here and read.

In his methodology, a lot of importance is given to the “words”. According to him the poet writes to communicate, and language is the means of that communication. Language is made of words and hence a study of words is all important if the meaning of work of art is understood. Words carry four kinds of meaning: Sense, tone, feeling and intention

To his language of poetry is purely emotive, in its original primitive state. This language affects feelings. Hence we must avoid intuitive and over-literal reading of poems. Words in poetry have an emotive value, and the figurative language used by poets conveys those emotions effectively and forcefully. His approach towards criticism is pragmatic and empirical. I.A.Richards by his, own work could make literary criticism factual, scientific and complete. It no longer remains a matter of the application of set rules or more ‘intention’ or ‘impressions.’ His factual and scientific method of critical analysis, interpretation and evolutions has exercised considerable influence on the New Critics everywhere.

Richards constructs this theory on the base of like or dislike of reader and he uses two approaches for this theory.

v Pragmatic: Basically pragmatic means to deal with cause but Richards uses it in different way. He concedes it as knowledge.

v Empirical: This theory basically follows practicality. So this approach is based on practical observation and experiments. It is not based on theoretical things but practicality is base of this theory and approach.

The Importance of Words:

A study of his Practical Criticism together with his work ‘The Meaning of Meaning’ reveals his interest in verbal and textual analysis. According to him a poets writes to communicate, and language is the means of that communication. Language consist words so study of words is significant to understand the meaning. The meaning depends on

Sense: By sense it meant something that is communicated by the plain literal meanings of the words.

Feeling: Refers to emotions, emotional attitudes, desire, will, pleasure, UN pleasure and the rest. Words express feelings.

 Tone: Tone here means the writer’s attitude towards his audience. The writer chooses his words and arranges them keeping in mind the taste of his readers. Feeling is only state of mind.

Intention: Intention is author’s conscious or unconscious aim. It is the effect that one tries to produce. Also intention controls the emphasis, shapes the arrangement or draws attention to something of importance. Richards says that

Words in poetry have an emotive value and the figurative language used by poets conveys those emotions effectively and forcefully. Words have different meanings in different contexts. Words are symbols or signs and they deliver their full meaning only in a particular context sense and feeling have a mutual dependence.

“The sound of a word has much to do with the feeling it evokes.”

“The feelings already occupying the mind limit the possibilities of the new word.”

Importance of Rhythm and Meter:

Rhythm and Meter and integral and important parts of any poem because they determine the meaning of the words used by the poets. Rhythm, meter and meaning cannot be separated; they form together a single system.

Richards finds two kinds of belief and disbelief
i) Intellectual belief
ii) Emotional belief

The Nature of Poetic Truth:

The ‘poetic truth’ is much, different form the ‘scientific truth’. In the principle of literary criticism he writes “It is evident that the bulk of poetry consists of statement which only the very foolish would think of attempting to verify. They are not the kind of things which can be verified. If we recall what was said in chapter 16 as to the natural generality of verge of reference, we shall see another reason why references as they occur in poetry are rarely susceptible to scientific truth or falsity. Only references which are brought in to certain highly complex and very special combinations, so as to correspond to the ways in which things actually hang together, can be either true or false and most references in poetry are not knit together in this way. But even when they are on examination, frankle false, this is no defect. Indeed, the obviousness of the falsity forces the reader to reactions which are incongruent or disturbing to the poem. An equal paint more often misunderstood, their truth when they are true, is no merit.” Metaphorical language is important purpose of communication.

The enthusiasm for science is an apartment in Principles of Literary is never carried out in a rigorous programme of research. In 1992, Practical Criticism followed: arguably a kind of reality statement after the illusions of principles. Practical Criticism was no doubt a pedagogic necessity, the consequence of Richards’s work as a lecture in English literature. With the influx of students just back from the war, Richards had to direct his lectures to an audience with quite different expectations from those of pre-war students. The legacy of this pedagogical practice is the central and persistent place in Anglo-American criticism which is accorded to interpretation and to close reading, whether the objects are poems, Hollywood films, or historical documents. This is despite the fact that Richards himself practiced little extended close reading. Significantly, when Basil Willey credits Richards with founding the modern school of New- Criticism, it is Practical Criticism, and not Principles, that he mentions. Part 3 of Practical Criticism, ‘Analysis’, begins with chapter ‘The Four Kinds of Meaning’, which pronounces that: the original difficulty of all reading, the problem of making out the meaning, is our obvious starting-point. The answers to those apparently simple questions: ‘What is a meaning?’ ‘What are we doing when we Endeavour to make it out?’ ‘What is it we are making out?’ are the master-keys to all the problems of criticism. If we can make use of them the locked chambers and corridors of the theory of poetry open to us, and a new and impressive order, is discovered even in the most erratic twists of the protocols.

Is it the return of the repressed in the form of Moore’s ‘What do you mean by that?’ is this what is behind Richards’s wish to eliminate the question, ‘Is the passage good or bad poetry?’ , and to invite answers only to the question, ‘What does it mean?’ at the outset of Practical Criticism? Commentators have pointed to the underplaying of meaning in poetry in the early work, inherent in the division between symbolic and evocative language for scientific and poetic use respectively.

Source of Misunderstanding in Poetry:

According to I.A.Richards there are four sources of misunderstanding of poetry. It is difficult to diagnose with accuracy and definiteness, the source of some particular mistake or misunderstanding. First, there might be a misunderstanding of the sense of poetry. It arises from inattention, or sheer, cardessness. I.A.Richards warns readers- In most poetry the sense is as important as anything  else; it is quite as a subtle, and as dependent on the syntax, as in prose, it is the poet’s chief instrument to other aims when it is not itself his aim. His control of thoughts is ordinarily his chief means to the control of our feelings, and in the immense majority of instances we miss nearly everything of value if we misread his sense.

An over literal-reading is as great a source of misunderstanding in poetry as careless, ‘intuitive’ reading. Careless, intuitive reading and prosaic “over-literal” reading are the simple-grades, the justing rocks. Defective scholarship is a third source of misunderstanding in poetry. The reader may fail to understand the sense of the poet, because he is ignorant of poet’s sense. A far more serious cause of misunderstanding is the failure to realize that the poetic use of words is different from their use in prose. Complaints may rest upon an assumption about language that can be fatal to poetry. Literary is one serious obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the poetic words. According to Richards-‘poetry is different from prose and needs a different attitude for right understanding.’

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:

A Simile is a FIGURE OF THOUGHT:-

A simile is a figure of thought in which one kind of thing is compared to a markedly different object, concept, or experience; the comparison is made explicit by the word “like” or “as”; “jen’s room is like a pig sty.” The simile can be carried further and specify some feature of the comparison: “jen’s room is as dirty as a sty.” In either case, the effect is that the subject and the analogy are pictured in quick sequence, side by side.

Similes occur in both poetry and prose, and they may be short and simple or long and extended. They provide an important indication of an author or speaker’s TONE; that is implied attitude towards the subject. As with a METAPHORE, the means is to use a comparison that reflects some key quality of the literal subject. For, use a comparison that reflects some key quality of the literal subject. For example, the tone of simile may be exalted, as in Robert Burns’ lyrical tribute: “O, May luve’s like a red, red rose.” Here, the image evoked is of a fresh, vibrant, and lovely object of adoration.

 The Value of Figurative Language:

The use of figurative language can create problems. It is difficult to turn poetry into logical respectable prose. Only through accuracy and precision is combined with recognition of the liberties which are proper for a poet, and the power and value of figurative language.

The use of figurative language can create problems. It is difficult to turn poetry into logical respectable prose. Only through accuracy and precision is combined with a recognition of the liberties is combined with a recognition of the liberties which are proper for a poet, and precision is combined with a recognition  of the liberties which are a recognition of the liberties which are proper for a poet, and the power and value of figurative language.

A Health, a ringing health, unto the king, of all our hearts today! But what proud song, should not followed on the thought, nor do him wrong? ………………….. Away into the sunset-glow.

There are various comments on the above piece of the hyperbole of sea-harp. The only concrete simile in the octave is the likening of the sea to a harp-surely a little extravagant.

There is no doubt that the similarity between the sound of a harp and the sea but in poetry such things do happen. It is clear that the effect proposed by the poets is, “an exhilarating awakening of wonder and a fusion of the sea, lightning and spring, those three ‘most moving manifestations of Nature.’

Mixed Metaphors :-

Mixtures in metaphors work well if in the mixture the different parts or elements do not cancel each other out. The mixture must not be of the fire and water like. ‘Woven’ does not mix well with sea and lightening and so here the mixed metaphor is a serious fault.

Figurative Language:

The poet is rather negligent in the choice of means he has employed to attain his end. The enjoyment and understanding of the best poetry requires a sensitiveness and discrimination with words, a nicely, imaginativeness and deftness in taking their sense which will prevent the poem in question, in its original form receiving the approval of the most attentive readers.

The Value of Personification:

Personification comes naturally to us. Personification may not express sense but it expresses the feelings of the poet towards what he is speaking about personification enables the poet to clear and comprehend the difficult work. Personification should not be over-elaborated. There are degrees of personification. If it is over-elaborated it becomes over-burdened.

Comparative Criticism:

Richards warns his readers against the dangers of over simple forms of ‘comparative criticism’. A critic has compared the poet and Shelley is clear in the conception. One thing should be noted that ‘end’ and ‘means’ both differ. As two poets are often closely paralleled in their intents, divergence in their methods does not prove one poem better than the other, ‘Comparative Criticism’ has value under conditions and circumstances.

“When after five years of ‘antics’ chiefly concerned with the cloud- shadows, he turns to the cloud itself in its afternoon dissolution, he cuts the personification down, mixing his metaphors to reflect its incoherence, and finally, ‘O frail steel issue of the sun,’ depersonifying it altogether in mockery of its total loss of character. This recognition that the personification was originally an extra vantage makes the poem definitely one of fancy rather than imagination to use the Wordsworthian division but it rather increases than diminishes the descriptive effects gained by the device. And its peculiar felicity in exactly expressing a certain shade of feeling towards the cloud deserves to be remarked.”

Analysis of the poem with the help of “figurative language of poetry”  by I.A.Richard

Joy and woe are woven fine

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so,
We were made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.

-  by William Blake

In this poem poet William Black uses some figures of language like Paradox, personification, exaggeration or Hyperbole. So let’s discuss it.

1.       Paradox : - Joy and woe. We know that Joy means Happiness and woe means sadness and this both are together in very first line of this poem. So, we can say that here poet used paradox in first line of this poem. 

2.    Personification:- clothing for the soul divine Personification gives human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or ideas. And here poet says that clothing for the soul divine. We all know that soul can’t  wear  clothes but here poet used personification in this line.

3.    Personification :-  Runs a joy it is also personification because we all know that joy can’t run.

So, we can say that here poet William Black uses so many figures of language for his poem

‘ Joy and woe are woven fine’.

Conclusion:

Briefly, a proper understanding of figurative language needs closer study. Its literal meaning must be traced. Its literal meaning cannot be found in any imaginative appreciation of it. There should be a judicious balance between literalism and imaginative freedom. One should comprehend the meaning of poetry properly and then come to the judgment whether it has any fault or not.

I.A.Richards says :-

 “The chemist must not require that the poet writes like a chemist, not the moralist, not the man of affairs, nor the logician, nor the professor, that he writes as they would. The whole trouble of literalism is that the readers forget that the aim of the poems comes first and is the sole justification of its means. We may quarrel, frequently we must, with aim of the poem, but we have first to ascertain what it is. We cannot legitimately judge its means by external standards which may have no relevance to its success in doing what it set out to do.”

( Words :-3,048 )