Tuesday, September 21, 2004
THE US AS A CULTURAL PRESENCE IN EUROPE
Lecturer: R. Kroes
Weekly discussion paper on Emily S. Rosenberg ("A Century of Exporting the American Dream") and Lothar Bredella ("How is Intercultural Understanding Possible?") Comments by Agustin.
(1) "A Century of Exporting the American Dream"
After surveying the history of "Exporting America" --which begins early in the XXth century after the Spanish-American war-- Rosenberg outlines a number of conceptual explanations used by scholars to assess the significance of American cultural exports.
Three different approaches are outlined: (1) the Marxist school of 'Teoría de la dependencia'; (2) the Neo-Marxist school (Gramsci and others); (3) postmodernism. To help the reader grasp the differences, Rosenberg uses the hypothetical example of a Busby Berkeley musical playing abroad in the 1930s.
The Marxist explanation would view the Busby Berkeley musical as stimulating "US-style consumption" and thus producing and reproducing dependency relationships. Rosenberg criticizes this framework for its excessive determinism.
The Neo-Marxist approach elevates the status of cultural production as an autonomous realm. Thus, the Busby Berkeley musical is more than a reflection of cultural relations: it is also a product capable of either reinforcing or satirizing a set of power hierarchies.
Finally, the postmodern explanation looks at different responses according to the context in which an audience meets the cultural product. In this case, the Busby Berkeley musical could produce a number of reactions that could take place simultaneously. Here, the meaning of the cultural export cannot be generalized.
(2) "How is Intercultural Understanding Possible?"
The starting point of cultural understanding is the "liberating" insight that each culture is a creative answer to the human condition. This is the first step, not to be forgotten when one perceives another culture. However, perception itself is –from its very nature- selective and constructive: we tend to supplement what is not given.
Thus, stereotypes are not such a bad thing after all. Although they are never neutral, they help us categorize things and events. Using stereotypes with a self-critical attitude (forcing us to remember that each man is only a small part of the world) can be a profitable experience.
Bredella criticizes Wittgenstein’s "extreme relativism" (which denies the possibility of cultural understanding), because it fails to grasp the one thing we all have in common: the human condition. "All cultures", he says, "are creative responses to the human condition."
Lecturer: R. Kroes
Weekly discussion paper on Emily S. Rosenberg ("A Century of Exporting the American Dream") and Lothar Bredella ("How is Intercultural Understanding Possible?") Comments by Agustin.
(1) "A Century of Exporting the American Dream"
After surveying the history of "Exporting America" --which begins early in the XXth century after the Spanish-American war-- Rosenberg outlines a number of conceptual explanations used by scholars to assess the significance of American cultural exports.
Three different approaches are outlined: (1) the Marxist school of 'Teoría de la dependencia'; (2) the Neo-Marxist school (Gramsci and others); (3) postmodernism. To help the reader grasp the differences, Rosenberg uses the hypothetical example of a Busby Berkeley musical playing abroad in the 1930s.
The Marxist explanation would view the Busby Berkeley musical as stimulating "US-style consumption" and thus producing and reproducing dependency relationships. Rosenberg criticizes this framework for its excessive determinism.
The Neo-Marxist approach elevates the status of cultural production as an autonomous realm. Thus, the Busby Berkeley musical is more than a reflection of cultural relations: it is also a product capable of either reinforcing or satirizing a set of power hierarchies.
Finally, the postmodern explanation looks at different responses according to the context in which an audience meets the cultural product. In this case, the Busby Berkeley musical could produce a number of reactions that could take place simultaneously. Here, the meaning of the cultural export cannot be generalized.
(2) "How is Intercultural Understanding Possible?"
The starting point of cultural understanding is the "liberating" insight that each culture is a creative answer to the human condition. This is the first step, not to be forgotten when one perceives another culture. However, perception itself is –from its very nature- selective and constructive: we tend to supplement what is not given.
Thus, stereotypes are not such a bad thing after all. Although they are never neutral, they help us categorize things and events. Using stereotypes with a self-critical attitude (forcing us to remember that each man is only a small part of the world) can be a profitable experience.
Bredella criticizes Wittgenstein’s "extreme relativism" (which denies the possibility of cultural understanding), because it fails to grasp the one thing we all have in common: the human condition. "All cultures", he says, "are creative responses to the human condition."
# posted by Agustin @ 8:30 AM 
