Cultural Criticism

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Cultural Criticism

• A Quick Introduction
• COMM 142John A. Cagle

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Assumptions of Narrative AnalysisWalter Fisher

• Humans make sense of their world by the stories
  they tell about it
• Beliefs and behaviors are based on good reasons
• Narrative is a persuasive and vital form of
  interpretive discourse
• Stories are symbolic actions that create social
  reality

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Nature of Stories

• Stories are linked to experience
• Stories are linked to values
• Narratives are based on experience, is a product
  of the memory, has a sense of chronology, is
  coherent, defines a central subject, and has
  closure.
• Narratives advance persuasion by disarming
  listeners, awakening dormant experiences and
  feelings, and exposing some sort of propositional
  argument.

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Characteristics of Narrative

• Theme
• Plot
• Structure
• Characters
• Narrator
• Setting
• Time and Causality

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Criticism of Narratives

• Mythic
• Narrative paradigm
• Dramatistic
• Fantasy theme analysis
• Fictitious
• Archetypal
• ETC.

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Narrative Critical Probes

• Does the narrative spring from a Master Narrative
  (older narratives)?
• What propositional content is the narrative
  designed to reveal?
• What propositional content is the narrative
  designed to mask?
• How effectively and how faithfully does the
  narrative deal with its subject matter?

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Dramatism Kenneth Burke

• The range of rhetoric is wide.
• All life is drama.
• Drama features human motives.
• Hierarchy is fundamental to human symbolism.
• Rhetoric promises transcendence.
• Rhetoric is fueled by the negative.

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Rhetorical Analysis of Narrative

• Kenneth Burkes Pentad act, scene, agent,
  agency, and purpose
• Pentadic ratios can be used to define the central
  relationship of any story scene-act,
  scene-agency, scene-purpose, act-purpose,
  act-agent, act-agency, agent-purpose,
  agent-agency, and agency-purpose.

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Burkean Critical Probes

• Can principles of hierarchy be found in
  discourse?
• What is rhetors vocabulary of motives?
• Who or what is being scapegoated?
• Are strategies of transcendence in evidence?

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Myth the Substance of Culture

• Myths are master stories that describe
  exceptional people doing exceptional things and
  that serve as moral guides to proper action.

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Types of Myth

• Cosmological myths why we are here.
• Societal myths the proper way to live.
• Identity myths what makes one cultural grouping
  different from another.
• Eschatological myths quo vadis?

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Why use myth?

• Heightened sense of authority
• Sense of continuity
• Sense of coherence
• Sense of community
• Sense of choice
• Sense of agreement

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Structuralism Claude Levi-Strauss

• Critic should track the source of the myth
• Effectiveness is tied to how mythic elements are
  combined
• Task is to discover the unique harmony (of
  emotions, images, ideas, etc.) myth provides

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Structuralism continued

• Standard chronology vs. synchronic time
• Narrative elements that share same context lead
  to myths basic argument
• Dialectical forces in myth to discover its
  motivational base

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Fantasy themes Ernest Bormann

• Fantasy themes are mythic shorthand
• Fantasy themes are local variations on mythic
  themes, prized tales of mankind in general
• Purpose is to dramatize ideas for listeners
• Listeners or readers lack the imagination needed
  to see what the world will be like if they accept
  new beliefs

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Fantasy Themes Critical Probes

• What are people like?
• What are possibilities for group action?
• On what people can you most depend?
• What is mankinds purpose on earth?
• What are measures of right and wrong?
• How can success be measured?
• What information is most valuable?
• Why do things happen as they do?

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Value Analysis in Criticism

• All statements express a belief about specific
  persons, places, things, or situations.
• A value statement expresses a judgment about what
  is the preferred end state or means of actions.
• Stories are linked to experience and to values.
• Humans make sense of the world by identifying
  values with it.
• All statements can be interpreted for values.
• Values and beliefs are linked together in
  cognitive systems.
• Value systems define the individual and the
  culture.

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Methods of Value Analysis

• What words are used to articulate positive
  values?
• What words are used to articulate negative
  values?
• What values are implied in belief statements
  without specific value terms?
• What values are implied by the formal elements
  used?

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Major American Value Systems

• Puritan-Pioneer activity, community,
  dedication, dignity, virtue vs. dereliction,
  disgrace, infidelity, laziness, waste
• Enlightenment democracy, fact, freedom, liberty
  vs. book burning, dictatorship, error
• Progressive change, efficiency, future, modern
  vs. backward, old-fashioned, impossible
• Transcendental affection, brotherhood,
  friendship vs. anger, insensitive, mechanical
• Personal Success career, dignity, family vs.
  coercion, disease, dullness, poverty
• Collectivist brotherhood, cooperation,
  humanitarian aid vs. disorganization, inequality,
  greed

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Defining a Culture

• What is the emphasis of the value system?
• What relationships exist among the values?
• What is the relationship between implied and
  stated values?
• What is the relationship between positive and
  negative values?
• What values are not present in the text that
  might be expected?