How Richard Hoggart Challenged Traditional Definitions of Culture - Literature review Example

Explain How Richard Hoggart Challenged Traditional Definitions of Culture Richard Hoggart is an important figure in mass media and cultural studies due to his criticism of traditional definitions of culture. The critic provided an avenue for enhanced academic attention directed towards the working-class as being an authentic aspect of culture. The perspectives developed Richard Hoggart led to shift of cultural studies from the traditional definition of culture, which centred on the intellectuals to a focus on the masses. This essay explains the contributions of Richard Hoggart towards a broader definition of culture based on investigation on how he challenged the traditional definitions of culture. To begin with, there are three major approaches used by critics in an attempt to define culture: the ideal, the documentary and social definition (Dewdney and Ride, 2006). Critics following the ideal approach for defining culture believe that culture is a process of human perfection; therefore, only the very best could intellectuals and artists could be counted leading to the emergence of descriptions such as high culture as opposed to popular culture. Supporters of this approach to the definition of culture believed that the study of culture should involve universally accepted criteria that are true for all societies when assessing examples of culture. The ideal approach for defining culture provided a basis for making decision on what is good or bad due to the belief that humans experience a range of emotions that is also universal. Additionally, the definition was supported by the belief that only a small group of the best intellectuals and artists make a culture leading to the perception of the ideal approach as narrow and selective as large numbers of people were excluded from the definition while a small number enjoyed the privileged position (Kirby et al. 2000). The documentary approach considers a broader perspective that also includes all the works representing the body of intellectual and imaginative work apart from the intellectual and artistic component covered under the ideal approach. Therefore, when making critical appraisal of a culture, writers consider all the aspects representing culture of a society rather than only the best aspects of art and intellectual products. Although the documentary approach is broader than the ideal approach, it is still limited art and intellectual works created by a small group in the society (Kirby et al. 2000). The third approach relates to social definition of culture, which borrows heavily from early anthropological and sociological studies as opposed to documentary and ideal approaches that are based on traditional teachings in academic disciplines of art and English. The works of Richard Hoggart can be rightly placed in social definition approach to culture that has a wider perspective compared to the ideal and documentary approaches. As an approach that borrows from sociology and anthropology, social definition of culture is based on the belief that it can also mean a particular way of life in a study that also covers meanings and values in institutions and ordinary behaviour. This approach further diverts from the ideal and documentary approach by including the analysis of elements of ways of life that might not be representative of culture for a particular group. In this case, the making of a culture is not the reserve of a selected few but a contribution and consumption for all the members of a society (Kirby et al. 2000). Through his text The Uses of Literacy (1957), Richard Hoggart highlights the cultural transformations that took place in the post Second World War Britain by specifically focusing on the changes experienced in working-class life and culture (Dikovitskaya, 2005). In choosing to advance the interests of the urban working-class society as an authentic culture, Richards Hoggart sought to change the influence enjoyed by those in favour of traditional definition including Leavis. According to Leavis, literature represented an essential component of culture due to the role of great literary works in preservation of important moral qualities of the past British era. This perception of had negative perception of popular culture based on what critics such as Q.D. Leavis argued was conveying crude states of mind and posing a destructive danger to the to the historical fineness which needed to be preserved over time. Therefore, the elite based on categorise such as intellectuals or academics were called upon to uphold the legacy of cultured literature in a society experiencing rapid changes due to industrialization. Therefore, traditional definitions of culture were based on attempts by those who were considered intellectuals and academicians to introduce arbitrary distinctions of culture. This group wished to take advantage of the limited definition of culture to fight what was perceived as the harms of increased exposure to a popular mediated system attained the boisterous desires and immorality of the masses (Ott and Mack, 2013). Richard Hoggart was one of the post second world war critics who sought to refine social critique of contemporary culture provided by those who believed in the Leavisite school of thought. As protégés of Leavis, scholars such as Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams were keen on advancing cultural ideas advanced by scholars of the past generations (Scannell, 2007). During the early years of his academic growth, Richard Hoggart as was the case with many of literary students in Britain was greatly influenced by Leavis (Bailey, Clarke and Walton 2011). Richard Hoggart admitted the impact of Leavis on his development in literary studies, noting for those in the “F.R. Leavis was a looming and intransigent figure but one from whom many of us had learned more than from any other critic, even if we had reservations about some of his views” (Hoggart, 1994, p.10). Williams also supports Hoggart’s stand that the teachings they learned from Leavis provided useful insights that contributed to their their devolvement in literary studies but the ideas needed radical amendments. Therefore, although recognising the impact of Leavis, Hoggart criticised his ideas and their implications therefore providing ground for development of alternative models of cultural interpretations. The definition of culture provided by Richard Hoggart in his support of working class culture provides parallel perspective of culture that includes aspects outside the “traditional centres of cultural and economic power” (Bailey, Clarke and Walton 2011, p. 22). To demonstrate the authentic and validity of working-class life and culture, Richard Hoggart presents his account of life in Hunslet before the war which is also an attempt to increase focus on a social group that had been left out of public discourse or marginalised inside it. This focus is based on the belief by the critic that “culture is ordinary”, which provided the basis for a broader model that accounts for multiple histories and experiences (Bailey, Clarke and Walton 2011, p. 23). Among the prominent words present in Richard Hoggart’s text The Uses of Literacy (1957), are persist and resistance with the critic noting the unconscious resistance and persistence of urban working-class culture despite pressure from mass cultural products. According to Hoggart, although urban working-class culture is a coherent whole, there is consistent pressure that threatens the existence of this pattern of social life. The threat lead haggard arguing in opposition of continued traditional argument that there was no working-classes in England based on the belief that prior differences that existed between this group and lower middle to middle classes had been erased leading to a classless society (Smith and Riley, 2011; Handler, 2005). In his definition of the urban working-class culture, Hoggart notes the existence of distinct urban districts where members of the cultural group live and from where they commute to work although they favour renting instead of owning houses. Other characteristics of the group as noted by Hoggart include working for wages not salaries, have minimal level of education and work as either part of skilled or unskilled labourers. Based on his sketch of the patterns of urban working-class life and culture, Hoggart qualifies it as being alive based on features such as being adaptive, persistent and resistant (Handler, 2005). According to Bailey, Clarke and Valton (2011) Richard Hoggart’s work demonstrate the outcome of influences that goes beyond the social changes affecting the British population as it was also a result of long-standing debates around issues such as mass literacy, popular media and the role of literature in wake of industrialism and compulsory state education. Hoggart’s definition of culture included the addition of working-class culture as opposed to the idea of mass culture that was entrenched in the traditional definitions of culture. Richard Hoggart perceived authentic working-class culture as a valid form of culture that was distinct from the mass-produced commercial culture that had roots in the in the United States (Buckingham and Sefton-Green, 1994). The definition of culture provided by Richard Hoggart based on his belief about cultural studies provided the groundwork for enriching what culture should encompass with the critic noting traditional definition based on distinction of high culture from other culture forms was narrow. Therefore, Hoggart challenged the traditional definitions of culture by seeking to demonstrate that cultural studies was an interdisciplinary discipline that includes concepts of high culture, but not limited or providing an elevated status to such concepts of culture. Both Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams demonstrated that culture can take on a broader definition that extended, for instance beyond, the narrow concern with an approved canon of art and literature. In studies related to English teaching, the critics’ sought to bring about change in literary appreciation to include some forms of new media and wider range of books (Buckingham and Sefton-Green, 1994). Richard Hoggart therefore sought to challenge traditional definition if culture by instigating a shift of perspective from class to mass culture in order to minimise the role of Leavisism that was based on elitist distinction between culture and mass society. The Leavisist perspective of culture sought to limit cultural studies to the aesthetic forms mainly accessible to the the educated members of the society as a way of maintaining their superiority. However, Richard Hoggart sought to reverse this historical sidelining of the masses by noting their contribution to cultural studies (Abravanel, 2012). Therefore, Richards Hoggart sought to champion the interests of mass society through support for activities and products of the working classes. Though publication of his perspectives contained in The Uses of Literacy (1957), Richard Hoggart sought to enrich available texts that contribute towards eliminating the strong link between culture and the pursuits of upper class (Ott and Mack, 2013). While noting the aspects of working-class culture such as relationships with family and neighbours, the critic seeks to highlight this social group as possessing it own norms to support his argument that morality is not a reservation of the social elites. However, there have been critics who have noted that work provided by Richard Hoggart and other critics such as Raymond Williams represented only partial transition from Leavisism noting for instance that the new approaches favoured discrimination within texts as opposed to against them. Additionally, critics such as Len Masterman have noted that the methods of evaluating the cultural texts adopted by Richard Hoggart and other supports of the new approach were highly reliant on high culture (Buckingham and Sefton-Green, 1994). Hoggart and Williams’s reluctance to adopt perspectives with complete divergence from traditional perspectives emanates from their opposition to the rise of relativistic approaches. While noting the importance of broadening and democratising the study of culture, the critics maintain the importance of having standards and quality, which informs their consistent campaigns against relativism. Conclusion The foregoing explanation on how Richard Hoggart challenged the traditional definitions of culture, it is apparent that the critic used his educational background attained as a student of Leavis to develop a broader perception of culture. As a student of Leavis, Richard Hoggart had extensive knowledge of the traditional perception that isolated the masses by asserting the role of the social elite in creation and maintenance of culture. However, Richard Hoggart was in favour of a more inclusive perspective that included the urban working-class group as important contributors to cultural studies due to existence of their own norms and aspects of morality. While traditional definitions of culture favoured ideals and documentary approach to culture, Richard Hoggart advocated a social definition approach to culture as an approach to identifies with the social deference that contribute to the dynamics of culture. References Abravanel, G., 2012. Americanizing Britain: The Rise of Modernism in the Age of the Entertainment Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buckingham, D., & Sefton-Green, J., 1994. Cultural studies goes to school: Reading and teaching popular media. London: Taylor & Francis. Dewdney, A., & Ride, P., 2006. The new media handbook. London: Routledge. Dikovitskaya, M., 2005. Visual culture: The study of the visual after the cultural turn. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Handler, R., 2005. Critics against culture: Anthropological observers of mass society. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. Hoggart, R., 1994. A Measured Life: The Times and Places of an Orphaned Intellectual. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Kirby, M., Kidd, W., Koubel, F., Barter, J., Hope, T., Kirton, A., Manning, & Triggs, K., 2000. Sociology in perspective. Oxford: Heinemann. Ott, B. L., & Mack, R. L., 2013. Critical media studies: an introduction. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Scannell, P., 2007. Media and communication. London: Sage Publishers. Smith, P., & Riley, A., 2011. Cultural theory: An introduction. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Read More