 Welcome to my channel, I am here with a very very important video. I think this is the most requested video which I am making today. Since the time syllabus has changed for UGN at English Literature, a lot of students have been demanding me to make a video on cultural studies. I don't know what made you guys think that cultural studies is some big monster which you can't tackle alone, you need somebody to help you out. I am telling you that by the end of this video I am going to clear the concepts of cultural studies in such a manner that this will become one of the most simplest section of English Literature. So, before any further delay, let's jump right into the topic, but before that I would like to tell you that I have a full detailed module on cultural studies which is available on my website. Cultural studies in this video would be looked at as a crash course where I am going to tell you only the major aspects. If you want to actually study cultural studies from the point of view of UGN at English Literature, it's better that you go to my website arpithakarva.com and check out the detailed course on cultural studies which also includes other important sections which we have not covered in this particular video. At the same time, if you have not yet subscribed to my YouTube channel, I think you should do that. And I am pretty sure that you must have watched my videos on English in India which was another new topic that was added in the syllabus. I have discussed that topic in detail in four videos. So, there is a video series on English in India containing four videos in which I have detailed explanation of all the aspects of English in India. So, if you have not watched that, make sure just after this video you are going to watch it because last time two questions were asked directly from those videos. So, I am pretty sure that this time as well you can get the benefit and you can get those extra marks if you can watch the video. So, let's begin with understanding what is cultural studies. So, a lot of people think that cultural studies is about understanding the popular culture. For example, during my parents' age when they were young, they said that mills and boons were in trend. People were reading. When I was a kid, Harry Potter was in trend or maybe if we look at today, then all these mythological writers, they are in trend. Some self-help writers are in trend. So, is it cultural studies? Is it looking at the contemporary culture? Even in 21st century, I think living relationship is in trend. So, is cultural studies about looking at how people perceive living relationship or people perceive dating apps and blind dates? No, cultural studies is not about looking at the popular culture. Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field, which means that it takes ideas from different subjects. For example, if you look at cultural studies, you will see that it has been inspired from Marxism, from history, from feminism. It has also taken things from sociology, from anthropology. So, it is an interdisciplinary field. Now, at the same time, if you want me to explain cultural studies in just one line, I would say that cultural studies involve looking at how culture is constructed and organized and the ways in which it has evolved over a period of time. Cultural studies started in the Birmingham Centre, which is in UK. So, there is a Birmingham Centre for Cultural Studies that was set up in 1968 in UK by one of the most important literary theorists who is Stuart Hall. So, he was the one who started the cultural studies field and later a lot of other people added and gave their own ideas to the same. In this video, I am going to talk about two major thinkers which are associated with cultural studies and two major concepts or terms that they have given in this field. I am pretty sure that by understanding these two thinkers, you will automatically gain a better understanding of what cultural studies is and you will no longer be frightened by this topic. The first important thinker associated with cultural studies is Raymond Williams. Raymond Williams is famous for coining the term cultural materialism. Now, what is important for you to understand here is that Raymond Williams has written two famous books which are repeatedly asked in net exam. The first one is culture in society and number two is keywords, the investigation of culture and society. So, make sure that you remember these two books because they are repeatedly asked in net exam. Coming on to what is cultural materialism, the term which is coined by Raymond Williams. Cultural materialism is basically looking or investigating the beliefs and ideas of a particular period through the study of the literary product or the cultural product. So, I would give you an example which would clarify this definition of cultural materialism. It is basically saying that you can understand a period in history by looking at the cultural products. In that period, what literary or artistic works have happened when you study them, you know a lot about that period. For example, if you look at Woodring Heights from the lenses of cultural studies, you will see that Heathcliff is not just a romantic hero. He is actually a major person who can tell you about the societal change that happened when England went through industrialization. He is the one who represents the class conflict. So, Woodring Heights, it is not just a romantic broody novel. It is basically a novel which is showcasing the Victorian mindset which is showcasing how people during that time were looking at the class structures. How people were looking or suffering from the demerits of industrialization. So, cultural studies will help you to understand the values and beliefs of a literary period by looking at the cultural products that were produced during that period. So, if you look at the works of Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre, Jane Austen, you will figure out that all these great writers, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, T.S. Eliot, they were actually giving you a true picture of the society of that particular period and that is what cultural materialism is all about. After looking at Mr. William, we are now going to look at another key figure in cultural studies who is Stephen Greenbelt. Stephen Greenbelt is famously known for coining a term cultural poetics. Now, he is also famous for writing two very impressive books. One was is Towards the Poetics of Culture and the other one is Renaissance self-fashioning. This man has done a superb work at analyzing the works of Shakespeare and how they represents the mentality and the mindset of the people who were living in the Renaissance England. So, let us first understand what is cultural poetics. Cultural poetics according to Mr. Greenbelt is the idea that no writer is free from his own interpretation. So, everything that a writer is writing is subjective. No writer, be it a historic writer, cannot give you an objective view of the past. No writer can actually accurately tell you what happened in the history because no matter how he writes, he is going to get influence from his personal biases, his personal interpretation, his perspectives. That is the reason why he looks at Shakespeare in works like Midsummer's Night's Dream and says that when we look at Midsummer's Night's Dream, it appears that the people during that time were taking a lot of interest in fairies they believed in magic and that is why Shakespeare has put that down and people appreciated it during that period. But then we really don't know whether that was true or that wasn't true because that was the interpretation of Shakespeare, maybe he was not interpreting it rightly. So, if you look at cultural poetics, we basically trying to say that no book, even if it is a fiction or a non-fiction book written on any historic event, can give us the true picture of that event because all of us have our own judgments, our own perspectives and that is reflected in the work that we are writing. There are a lot of other important writers and theorists associated with cultural studies. We have Antonio Gramski, Louis Althruiser, Stuart Hall. We are not able to discuss this in this video since we are running short of time but then if you want to get detailed lectures and PDF notes and mock test on these topics and on all the other important topics of UGC Net English Literature then you just need to go to my website arpitaakarwa.com and check out the full course syllabus that we have designed specifically and exclusively for the students who are preparing for UGC Net English Literature. If you like that course, you can join the course by enrolling on our website itself. For more details, you can also contact on the number given above. With that note, I would like to take your leave. If you have not yet subscribed to the channel, I think you should do it. Like and share this video with all the other Net aspirants who are struggling and are confused about what to study in cultural studies. You can also comment below if you want me to make further videos on any of these topics or if there is anything that is bothering you, we will definitely connect you to the team of best counselors and we are having a free counseling service available exclusively for the students who are a part of arpitaakarwa.com. With that note, I take your leave. That's it for this video lecture. We will meet very soon in the next video lecture. Till the time we meet next, happy learning, keep loving literature and stay tuned to arpitaakarwa.com.