Assessment 3. Major Essay (45%) due 4th June

Length: 2000 words

Question:

Nominate a popular culture text and critically analyse it with reference to one of

the following analytical approaches;

1. Culture and/or Identity

2. Sex, Sexuality and/or Gender

3. Globalising Asia

Your chosen text must come from either of the following media genres:entertainment media (cinema and television), broadcast news media (radio, television and print), social media (social networking sites), and new media (dvds, cds, online websites and blogs).

You can choose which Asian cultures and societies you want to discuss, but you should make it clear in the introduction to your essay how you are going to answer the question posed.  This will involve setting out clearly which Asian countries/cultures you are going to focus on, as well as describing the structure of your argument.  You must have at least 8-10 academic resources to pass this assignment

The essay topic is a discussion question, deliberately posed in general terms.  There are no right or wrong answers – rather it is the quality of your arguments and how well they are backed up by appropriate research that are the major criteria being assessed here.

The essay topic will be discussed in tutorials.  We will use some time during tutorials in Weeks 11 and 12 to workshop your essays.

As this is a formal academic exercise, you must adhere to the conventions of essay writing. .  Your essay will be marked on research (types of resources used and the way they are used), content (argument and analysis) and presentation (language and writing style).  Please use the Harvard Referencing Style when you cite and reference your sources; examples of are listed in your course reader and course guide.

The following are some essay writing guide which you might find helpful.

Anderson, J & Poole, M 1994, Thesis and Assignment Writing. 2nd edn., Brisbane, John Wiley & Sons.

Barzun, J & Henry, FG 1992, The Modern Researcher. 5th edn., Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.

Bate, D & Sharpe, P 1996, Writer’s Handbook for University Students, Sydney, Harcourt Brace.

Campbell, WG, Ballou, SV & Slade, C 1990, Form and Style: Theses, Reports, Term Papers, 8th edn., Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.

Clanchy, J & Ballard, B 1991, Essay Writing for Students: A Practical Guide, 2nd edn., Melbourne, Longman Cheshire.

Seyler, D 1993, Doing Research: The Complete Research Paper Guide, New York, McGraw-Hill.

Taylor, G 1989, The Student’s Writing Guide for the Arts and Social Sciences, Cambridge & Melbourne,  Cambridge University Press.Final Essay Feedback Sheet

Name (Student No.):______________________________________________________

Mark (Grade):___________________________________________________________

Marker:________________________________________________________________

PTO

Comments

Essay Style Guide

Submission and due date

All essays must be submitted via the Essay Submission Box located in Building 9, Level 4 by 5pm on the date due.  Late essays face a penalty rate of 5% per working day.

Cover page

All essays must have an official School of Media and Communication cover page.  You can obtain a cover page from Building 9, Level 4 or online here: http://rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=vxhlfmk4a4wn

Cover pages must have the relevant course coordinator and tutor information.  Please DO NOT fill in the coordinator and tutor spaces wrongly as this leads to an unbelievable amount of logistical and administrative confusion, not to mention missing essays that wander into the pigeon-holes of other academics.  Please get to know who your tutor is in the first week of semester.

Please state your name, student number and contact phone number and email clearly.

All essays must:

Use the Harvard Referencing Style (see below)

Have page numbers

Be double-spaced

Justified

In 12 point Times Roman

Be securely stapled

Have a softcopy backup just in case the hardcopy goes “wandering”

Harvard Style Referencing System

For examples of how to reference this way, please see the following websites.

RMIT University Library

http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=8rwjnkcmfoeez;STATUS=A;SECTION=4;PAGE_AUTHOR=Karen%20Macvean

Bournemouth University.

http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/citing_references/citing_refs_main.html

Curtin University Library.

http://library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/harvard.html

Leeds Metropolitan University Library.

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/lskills/open/sfl/content/harvard/downloads/harvard_2004.html

Monash University Library.

http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/harvard.html

University of Leicester.

http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/harvard.html

University of Western Australia Library.

http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/education%5Ftraining%5F%5F%5Fand%5F%5F%5Fsupport/guides/how%5Fto%5Fcite%5Fyour%5Fsources/citing%5Fyour%5Fsources%5F%2D%5Fharvard%5Fstyle

University of Newcastle Library.

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/biol1030/harvard.html

ADVENTURES IN ASIAN POP CULTURE

 The Popular Indian Cinema and its Global Power to Globalise Asia

Indian Cinema also known as Bollywood popularly has been in focus quite predominantly for being historical, critical and theoretical (Schaefer and Karan, 2012). Thus Bollywood being one of the popular culture in Asia in today’s scenario, has been picked for studying its impact on globalising Asia and rest of the world. Popular culture is about getting the “Satisfaction”, but the major concern related to popular culture is that it needs to make sure that people get what they want in spite of whether they require that thing or not (Nachbar and Lause, 1992). Not getting what you want is meant for communists, monks, but getting what you want is what popular culture does and that is why Indian Cinema evolved and rose to popular scenario by getting globalised.

The main purpose of popular culture is, not to make their audience sweat a lot in order to get what they want, but to deliver everything at the comfort of your home. They have discovered the secret of perpetual motion in the age of relativity which means just stay at one place and everything you desire will reach out to you. All around the world in just thirty minutes and all you need are just stay tuned (Nachbar and Lause, 1992).

One of India’s most successful film production studios, Yash Raj Films has a massive global market. Film directors from the Yash Chopra’s production house; create a powerful influence of Indian Diaspora combined with an enormous and awesome international setting. These international settings in the Yash Raj Movies help in providing a site for an assertive Indian nationalism which is totally based upon the espousal of the lifestyle which is cosmopolitan (Pugsley and Khorana, 2011). The three recent and most famous movies of Yash Raj Films ‘Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Ghum’, ‘Salaam Namaste’ and ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ are a nice depiction of how the International cities of London, Melbourne and New York can be reconfigured as cities where Indian immigrants can create a special niche for themselves. They depict that the Indian immigrants are very successful in their careers and very comfortable with their surroundings which are totally new. These films are true examples of new trend of cinema getting globalised, where the geographical confinement of national cinema are broken and stretched to the international boundaries (Pugsley and Khorana, 2011).

While exploring the heightened patterns of consumption, global cosmopolitanism trend and the thematic framework, it has been found that all the movies try to convey the centralised theme and the sentiment that ‘home’ is the idealised paradise which is typical feature of Indian culture (Shome and Hegde, 2002). In these Bollywood films or rather other movies too they show that how Indian immigrants adopt the new cosmopolitanism in very easy manner. This highlights the thought that Indian nationals are it their own home turf or in even global environments they are able to find success and a home like environment too.

Globalising the Indians has been evaluated regarding the  construction of the dream world created in Bollywood is it real picture of the Indians and Indian culture through Indian cinema needs to reviewed as a popular culture (Power and Mazumdar, 2000). With the discovery of diasporic Indian population centralised by the Indian directors, producers and writers, they developed the idea of globalising the Indians which started evolving for the past 15 years. The ever expanding markets of South Asia, Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai, most renowned Bollywood producers commenced their international operations by opening their distribution offices in the U.S. and the U.K just to capitalise on these growing markets (Pendakur, 2003) .

The main outcome of such steps is ‘interpenetrating globalism’ which is a very complicated mesh of structure and narration-based production, based on these themes the Indian producers and directors direct films based upon the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who are totally based abroad and directors feel that depicting such Indians movies on screen will attract not just the Indian nationals as well as the Indians staying outside India too. This trend started in the 1990’s when films started depicting ideology of Indian identity, so that they can appeal not just the Indians residing in India , but also Indians across the Indian borders as a part of project which covered the important aspect of Indian culture and nationhood inclusive of  “ common identity” (Malhotra and Alagh, 2004). In the mid 1990’s the Non resident Indian, who was popularly referred to as NRI came into view as the diasporic entity in most of the Bollywood movies. This NRI depicted in the Indian cinema in 1990’s illuminated the screen in a very surprising manner by complimenting both the spheres and cultures shown in the movie that is abroad as well as home (Shukla, 2003).

The hard to achieve success yet, record breaking success of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (also known as DDLJ) and Pardes depicted the NRI as the central figure around whom the whole story moved. In the movie DDLJ Raj’s father is shown as rich businessman who is settled in London. In the movie Raj (played by Shahrukh Khan) falls deeply in love with a middle class Punjabi immigrant’s daughter by the name of Simran (played by Kajol). The story progresses in both Indian as well as NRI context where Raj tries to convince Simran’s father to give them permission to get married. The whole movie was a true depiction of an Indian as a hybrid, who is ready to enjoy the materialistic comforts of western culture and at the same time follows the spiritual comforts existing in the Indian culture (Chopra, 2004). This popular culture of Indian cinema portrayed in DDLJ where the central character Raj wears Harley-Davidson jacket, while Simran is an epitome of Indian culture as she hardly wears mini-skirts. Both the lead actor and actress in this movie epitomise being true cultural conformists, this is a            meticulous yet clean way of showing the living trends of second generation  Indian NRI’s (Chopra, 2004).

Thus all the movies of Bollywood which were made during this phase were mostly based on the lives of Indians who live abroad, yet they still follow the Indian culture and cherish it to the core. These movies showing the mix of real and reel life experiences of diasporic immigrants are set entirely outside Indian borders. Now the recent trend has emerged where the movies starts and ends in foreign soil only. This shows the true adaptable nature of the real Indian culture.

It is not just that the Indian hero is needed to be depicted in NRI form to represent the globalised Indian, but in the other Bollywood films the upper class urban Indian is being represented as globalised Indian too as he is in possession of enough wealth and is materialistic enough to cross the national as well as cultural borders very gracefully (Lakha, 1999). The globalised Indian can very fluidly travel to any exotic locale around the globe and treats himself as a modern-day hyper consumer who is ready to spend as much he/ she wants. In the contemporary Indian movies the Indian hero arrives with well settled status and ubiquitous wealth as totally globalised Indian figure. Materialistic struggles which the earlier Indian hero used to depict in the older Indian cinema are not shown any more. It has been observed that now Bollywood itself has started exporting Indian nationalism which has been nicely commoditised and has been globalised into a feel-good version of Indian culture (Rajadhyaksha, 2003).

All these Indian movies have had great impact as they have been populating the whole world with highly successful and materialistic Indians , who did not forget their traditional Indian values by retaining them wherever or whichever part of the world they went (Ganti, 2002). The global markets also started liking them as they connected well with the foreign environment or the background in which the whole movie is based where they get to know a totally new culture where people still respect their traditions and carry them wherever they go. Even the song and dance sequences in the Indian cinema which are one of  the main attractions of the movie like action sequences, sets and costumes, grandiloquent dialogues, and star power (Dwyer and Patel, 2002).

‘Popular culture in its literary meaning is the true culture related to their people and the popular cultural texts are the various things which tell about popular culture. These popular cultural texts cover a whole range of things from graphics novels, advertisements, films, magazines, popular fiction, television, popular music, videogames, and popular internet sites like “Facebook”, “MySpace”, and “Twitter” etc. Being immersed in popular culture, the communities absorb them unknowingly and without considering the effect it will have on the individuals or on the society. Bollywood cinema is also en example of popular culture text which has shown huge expansion in the recent decade as it has gone global. Actually if we consider the cinema is the public space which can be seen growing completely in tandem with modernity in the public sphere (Donald and Donald, 2000). Thus if we analyse cinema is a popular medium which  creates modes of conduct, gives visibility helps in practicing judgement and tastes which if seen together form a popular culture. That is why Bollywood has been considered as a good example of popular culture which gives space to its audience to take part in their culture as a leisure activity.

Globalisation related debates have shown the political and economic taken in to pieces of the national borders and helps in promoting the transnational cultural formations (Sehgal, 1994). That is why the contemporary Bollywood movies are considered to be good examples of global cultural texts and  diasporic , because they are able to travel and go beyond  the national sensibilities not just in relation to production but also  in relation to their  division across the national boundaries. The diasporic South Asian population has been very much influenced by the cultural impacts of Bollywood. It is not just that the South East Asian population just watches the Indian movies but they also but the related products too which depict Indian culture which are being produced in huge numbers to cater to their demands. These cultural Bollywoood products include the music albums of the films which are sold in numerous numbers all across the globe and at the same time the readership of various Bollywood related magazines like Stardust, Filmfare, Cineblitz and Movie which carry film related content like movie reviews, star profiles, gossips and various electronic WebPages related to movies and the movie stars.

The movies called ‘Dil Se’ was not a success in the Indian cinemas however it became very popular and very much liked by the South Asian Diaspora, which shows the huge size, scope and  the appeal of the Bollywoods cultural phenomenon. The spread of the Bollywood’s cultural phenomenon can be analysed form this example that there are two Asian-run cinemas at present in the city of Birmingham along with the multiplexes. The location of these movie theatres is predominantly in the areas where Blacks or Asians are more in density. Reaching these inner areas of the city to watch the movie itself can be taken as creating social urban formations where the South Asians in order to watch movie.

The movies like ‘Hum Apke Hain Kaun’ and 1942: A Love Story were very well recognised not just in India but also across the Indian borders in the Diaspora too (Juluri, 1999). The reason being they contained the ideological customs of Indian soil and various norms well connected with marriage, birth and death. These highly successful movies were able to cater to the effect of Western globalization too as they fore-grounded the family values and traditions (Kazmi, 1998). These examples clearly indicate that globalisation and the Diaspora are inevitably the part of Indian  society  starting from visits to their kiths and kins or being on travelling vacations, exchanging of commodities related to culture (Gokulsing, Keenarain and Wimal, 1998), enhancing the gap between rich and poor , and business trips for professional and middle classes, filmmakers have very well used this popular culture to globalise and bridge the gaps across the borders.

Bibliography

Chopra, A. (2004) Dilwale dulhania le jayenge: The making of a blockbuster, New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers India & India Today.

Donald, J. and Donald, S. (2000) The Publicness of Cinema, London: Arnold.

Dwyer, R. and Patel, D. (2002) Cinema India: The visual culture of Hindi film, New Brunswick,NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Ganti, T. (2002) And yet my heart is still Indian’: The Bombay film industry & the (h)indianization of Bollywood, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Gokulsing, M., Keenarain and Wimal, D. (1998) Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultuiral Change, London: Trentham Books.

Juluri, V. (1999) ‘Global Weds Local: The Reception of Hum Aapke Hain Koun? in India’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 27*-46.

Kazmi, N. (1998) The Dream Merchants of Bollywood., New delhi: UBS Publishers’.

Lakha, S. (1999) The state, globalization, and Indian middle class identity, New York: Routledge.

Malhotra, S. and Alagh, T. (2004) ‘Dreaming the nation: Domestic dramas in Hindi’, South Asian Popular Culture, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 19-37.

Nachbar, J. and Lause, K. (1992) Popular Culture: An Introductory Text, Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

Pendakur, M. (2003) Indian popular cinema: Industry, ideology, & consciousness, New York: Hampton Press.

Power, C. and Mazumdar, S. (2000) ‘Bollywood goes global’, Newsweek, 28 February, pp. 88-94.

Pugsley, P.C. and Khorana, S. (2011) ‘Asserting nationalism in a cosmopolitan world: globalized Indian cultures in Yash Raj Films’, Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 25, no. 3, June, pp. 359-373.

Rajadhyaksha, A. (2003) ‘The ‘bollywoodization’ of the Indian cinema: Cultural nationalism in a global arena’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 25-39.

Schaefer, D. and Karan, K. (2012) Bollywood and Globalisation:The Global Power of Popular Hindi Cinema, Routledge.

Sehgal, M. (1994) ‘Indian Video Films and Asian-British Identities.’, Cultural Studies from Birmingham, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 52-57.

Shome, R. and Hegde, R. (2002) ‘Culture, communication, and the challenge of globalization’, Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 172-189.

Shukla, S. (2003) India abroad: Diasporic cultures of postwar America and England, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

LI22

But you can order it from our service and receive complete high-quality custom paper.  Our service offers MEDIA  essay sample that was written by professional writer. If you like one, you have an opportunity to buy a similar paper. Any of the academic papers will be written from scratch, according to all customers’ specifications, expectations and highest standards.”