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Assignment 5 Cultural Studies
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Partim Assignment 5 Cultural Studies: Studium Generale and guest lectures Professor: Kris Rutten
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Claudia Blanco García Module 3 Cultural Studies 2020/2021Partim Assignment 5: Studium Generale and guest lectures
Introduction
Artivism (art + activism) has become one of the main means used in cultural studies to
represent and disseminate the effects of certain social problems in our current life. For its
part, art has typically been used to instil certain ideas or images in a wide range of people,
and together with activism it has become one of the most attractive ways for governments to
influence the way people see the world. Throughout these lectures we tackled some of the
current social issues as well as the actions that are being carried out among art practices to
fight against them.
Studium generale – Laura Nsengiyumva
Culture can carry a lot of problematic underlying ways of thinking, and this is what Laura
Nsengiyumva has shown us in this lecture. If we go back in time and take a step back from our
era, we become aware that these ways of thinking are so internalized in our subconscious
that we don’t even think about questioning them. The ideas and values that we are raised
with are normalized, and these ideas are then used to subjugate other cultures by convincing
them that western values are the only truth.
Decolonial thinking is a current of critical thinking that tries to analyse and deconstruct the
way the world work today – the global politics and social relationships. The decolonial thought
proposes us to be critical beings against postcolonial theories, which is basically imposed
cultural knowledge. This current encourages us to think about the effects of colonialization
not only on a large scale but also on an individual level.
When talking about the slavery of African people, for instance, we need to go beyond the
enslavement itself and try to analyse the theories and philosophies that justified it. This
matter has to do with power relations and hierarchy of cultures, and moreover with
patriarchal cultures: this describes a system where men are given authority over women in
different aspects, and historically most cultures have been developed within this framework.
Nowadays we can find colonial images all over our society – for example, the image of Zwarte
Piet, a submissive and joyful slave. The representation of these images is governed by the
ideals of the countries with more soft power – Western countries -, which is basically the use
of cultural influence to control and coax other countries. These representations form the basis
of our ways of thinking and therefore, of our cultural logics.
The decolonial current tries to break the hierarchy of cultures and deconstruct harmful ways
of thinking that are even internalized in colonised countries. The role of the arts lies on
spreading awareness among the population and encouraging people to participate in the
dismantling of old traditions. Decolonial thinking can be manifested in artistic practices , for
example by creating and propagating new traditions based on pre-colonial knowledge. By
doing so we can illustrate a different perspective and we can make people question the
universality of their ways of representing the world.
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