ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ КАК СРЕДСТВА УПРОЩЕНИЯ ПРОЦЕССА МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ

Крюкова Е.И.

ORCID: 0000-0002-8055-7460, Кандидат филологических наук, Доцент, Южный федеральный университет

ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ КАК СРЕДСТВА УПРОЩЕНИЯ ПРОЦЕССА МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ

Аннотация

В настоящей статье рассматривается роль литературных исследований как средства упрощения процесса межкультурной коммуникации, основываясь на идеях Дж. Каллера, Л. Гроссберга, С. Нельсон, П. Трайхер, Э. Истопа и других. Проведение исследований в области различных культур является актуальным для гуманитарных наук начала 21 века. В статье подчеркивается тесная взаимосвязь культурных и литературных исследований. Доказывается, что литературные исследования обрабатывают культурные артефакты как “тексты”, которые будут считаны и интерпретированы соответствующим образом. В заключении автор приходит к выводу о роли литературы в контексте культурных исследований как определенного речевого действия и / или текстового события

Ключевые слова: литературные исследования, межкультурная коммуникация, значение, интерпретация, культурные исследования.

Kryukova E.I.

ORCID: 0000-0002-8055-7460, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Southern Federal University

LITERARY STUDIES AS THE MEANS OF FACILITATING CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Abstract

The article deals with literary studies as the means of facilitating cross-cultural communication. It is based on the ideas of J. Culler, L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, P. Treicher, A. Easthope and others. The author defines cultural studies as the major activity in the Humanities of the current century arose out of li­terary studies arose as the application of techniques of literary analysis to other cultural materials. It is proved that literary studies treats cultural artifacts as “texts” to be read rather than objects that are simply there to be counted. In conclusion the present paper summarizes that when dealing with the problems of literary studies in view of the means of cross-cultural communication, we might define literature as a speech act or textual event that elicits certain kind of attention.

Keywords: literary studies, cross-cultural communication, meaning, interpretation, cultural studies.

Introduction

Cultural studies as the major activity in the Humanities in the 2000s has enormously enriched the study of literary work. The field of cultural studies has become widely interdisciplinary and difficult to define. The project of cultural studies in its broadest conception is to understand functioning of culture, particularly in the modern world is how cultural productions work and how cultural identities are constructed and organized, for individuals and groups, in the world of diverse and intermingled communities, state power, media industries and multinational corporations. In principle cultural stu­dies includes and encompasses literary studies, examining literature as a particular cultural practice. Cultural studies arose out of li­terary studies and in principle there is no conflict between litera­ry and cultural studies. Cultural studies arose as the application of techniques of literary analysis to other cultural materials. It treats cultural artifacts as “texts” to be read rather than objects that are simply there to be counted [1, 43-55; 2; 3, 2-4].

So, the aim of the present article if to prove that literary studies may gain when literature is studied as a particular cultural practice and works are related to other discourses. In principle cultural studies, with its insistence on studying literature as one signifying practice among others, and on examining the cultural roles with which literature has been invested, can intensify the study of literature as a complex intertextual phenomenon [4, 109].

Material and Methods

Arguments about the relation between literary and cultural studies can be grouped around two broad topics: 1) what is called the "lite­rary canon" (the works regularly studied in schools and universities and deemed to form “our literary heritage”); 2) the appropriate meth­ods for analysing cultural objects.

Literature that is widely taught today includes writings by women and members of other historically marginalised groups. These writings are often studied as representations of the experience and thus cul­ture of the people in question (in the US, of Afro-Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and African Latinos, as well as women). Such writings thought bring to the fore questions about how far li­terature creates the culture it is said to express or represent. Is culture the effect of representation rather than their source or cause?

There are three lines of response to such questions. The first is that "literary excellence" has never determined what it studies (what has changed is an interest in choosing works to represent a range of cultural experience as well as a range of literary forms).

Second, application of the criterion of literary excellence has his­torically been compromised by non-literary criteria involving race, gender, for instance. Finally, the notion of literary excellence it­self has been subjected to debate: does it enshrine particular cultural  interests and purposes as if they were the only standard of lite­rary evaluation?

As for the models of analysing in literary and cultural studies, when cultural studies was a renegade from literary studies, it applied literary analyses to other cultural materials. Freed from the principle that has long governed literary studies (that the main point of in­terest  is distinctive complexity of individual works) cultural studies could easily become a kind of non-quantitative sociology, treating works as instances or symptoms of something else rather than of inte­rest in themselves.

The suspension of the demand for immediate intelligibility, the willingness to work at the boundaries of meaning operating oneself to unexpected, productive effects of language and imagination, and the interest in how the meaning and pleasure are produced – these dis­positions are particularly valuable, not just for reading literature but also for considering other cultural phenomena, though it is lite­rary study that makes these readings practices available.

Discussion

Now let us turn to the conception of culture. There are valid meanings of the word "culture". It may be – intellectually and socially "cultured" person, it may refer to the arts – literature, painting, the opera, etc. The word "culture" means as well – an integral sys­tem of learned behaviour patterns that are characteristic of the members of any given society. Culture is the total way of life of any group of people. When these patterns of culture, which are built into each other of us, encounter other and different patterns of culture (as occurs when you go from your own culture group to live in another, for example), conflict, dissonance, and disorientation are the almost inevitable results. One of the key points here is that every culture is ethnocentric, it thinks its own solutions are superior and would be recognized. To each group, their own view of the world appears to be the “common sense”, or “natural” view.  For example, let us take Americans and the cultural characteristics of cleanliness (Gr. Green mocked in his “The Quiet American”). Americans consider themselves among the cleanest people in the world and they are quick to criticize many other cultures as being “dirty”. But consider the following:

1. When American bathe, they soak, wash and rinse their bodies in the same water (they would never wash clothes and dishes that way). The Japanese who use different water for each step, find the American way of bathing hard to understand and even dirty.
2. A Hindu from India considers it “dirty” to eat with knives, forks, or spoons instead of with his own clean fingers.
3. Is it dirty to spit and blew your nose on the street or to carry it around with you in a little piece of cloth which you keep in your pocket?
4. Many people in the world cannot understand why in so many American homes the toilet is placed so near the kitchen.

Of course we recognize that in any culture consisting of a large number of people, the whole range of possible human values and behaviors will probably be found, if only in a few individuals. When we talk of American or French or Chinese values we mean those which predominate within that group, sometimes we make preconvinced stereotypes about the nations, we generalize by using the past incidents to predict the behavior of the nationality. We may ever generalize and arrive, for example at a more broad attitudes, like “time is money” – the Western approach, and “time is fluid” – the Eastern approach.

By lowering our defenses and viewing ourselves through the eyes of the people from other cultures – from what is called the “cross-cultural” perspective – we can get a strikingly refreshing view of ourselves. We believe that every culture has a rough balance between positive and negative aspects along with the positive in the process of examining a culture or value system does not constitute an attack on that culture. For me to become more aware of my cultural self in its fullest dimensions is a source of strength because it reinforces my real worth rather than ethnocentric view of reality.

Communication takes place in the medium of one’s culture, which facilitates and reinforces it but also hides it. We stumble over it continuously – even if we have learned the language. That’s because not only do languages vary from country to country, but so do communication styles and, especially, codes of non-verbal communication. Also, words do not always translate from one language to another exactly as we would like.

“Perception” is at the heart of cross-cultural communication. We misperceive, misinterpret and misunderstand each other all the time, even when we share many values, attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing, being and thinking. When you are in your own culture there are dozens of little clues which help to convey meaning – gestures, facial expressions, body language, eye contact, voice inflections – all occur automatically and are interpreted immediately without conscious thought. Cross-cultural communication is a medium for finding out what expectations are creating trust and communicating sincerity and good will. It is a method of anticipating problems and solving them. It is a channel for reaching out and establishing links with people.

Conclusion

If we now return to the problems of literary studies in view of the means of cross-cultural communication we might define literature as a speech act or textual event that elicits certain kind of attention. When reading a book, readers interpret it to themselves, they do it formally when they talk to their friends about a book (interpretation may involve playing “the game”: so what is this work about?”). This question is appropriate even for simple texts. As for models of interpretation they are the accounts of what they take to be particularly important to cultural studies. In our case the mode of interpretation should be mapped into our target-facilitating cross-cultural communication. What is very important in this – is not the answer you come up with (answers may be predictable). It is important how you get there, what you do with the details of the text.

Список литературы на английском языке / References in English

1. Culler J. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, 2006. P. 43-69.
2. Easthope A. Literary into Cultural Studies. London: Routledge, 1991. P.109.
3. Grossberg L., Nelson C., Treichler P. Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1992. P.2-4.
4. Klein R. Cigarettes are Sublime // Cultural studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993.
5. Klein R. Eat Fat // Cultural studies. New York: Pantheon, 1996.