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Post-colonialism is the perspective of the colonizer perceiving the colonized. Deeply rooted in racism, classism, xenophobia, ignorance and general prejudice, this gaze has been part of our day to day lives for most of recorded human history.

Post-colonial criticism is dissecting this perspective and pointing out the flaws of history defined by oppressors.

Famous theorist

Chinua Achebe was born november 16th 1930 and passed away march 21st 2013. He was a writer, with his most famous work being a book titled Things fall apart. He would go off to write many more books such as, No Longer at ease and arrow of god. Creating was dubbed the African trilogy.

His first book, his most famous one, is a great read on post-colonialism and his views on how he was treated being from nigeria and how he was seen from a colonialist lens.

Question:

Question from OWL purdue ”how does the literary text in the western canon reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology through its representation of colonization and/or it's inappropriate silence about colonized people”

Response

0:40 to 0:46 and 0:56 to 0:59

Those represented were those living in ”the first world”, even as the video seemingly was trying to represent those around the world. Music is something that is enjoyed by many different kinds of people from many different places,  for as long as it has been around. The lack of representation in this text has reinforced post-colonialist ideology

In conclusion because we live in a western society, post colonialism can show itself in places as small as a google doodle about avicci, proving how prominent it is in our everyday lives. This cultural text is not inherently bad because of the small details of colonialism it upholds, it’s just important to point out the way these details can play into a much bigger picture.

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Famous Theorist

Lawrence Buell is a Powell M. Cabot Research Professor of American Literature at Harvard University. He is most well known for his contributions to the studies on the concept of eco criticism. Although he is one of the more well known contributors, he is not the founder of eco criticism, which is believed to be William Rueckert.

Main ideas of ecocriticism

First Wave focuses more on written works and scientific documentation, accepts the distinction between nature and humanity but doesn’t question or go into depth about said distinction, focusing more on the nature aspect.

Second wave goes into detail of the relations between humans and nature, broadening the term “environment” to encompass both urban and natural landscapes, takes more of a focus on activism and and society.

The distinction between nature and humans

Ecojustice ties material conditions and identity to the environment

New World wilderness approach portrays wilderness as a retreat to seek repose, Old World wilderness approach portrays nature as a source of danger and fear

Pastoral trope often romanticizes the idea of rural civilization and criticizes or outright demonizes urban civilization. This approach is mostly seen within written work and media rather than theory or activism.

Ecofeminism compares the oppression of women by men to humanity’s control of nature. This approach sees both relationships as “Hierarchical, gendered relationships”, relating the spirit of nature to “feminine essence”. Additionally, it seeks to identify historical biases in history in relation to oppressed groups who had strong relationships to nature.

Ecofeminism is split into two main approaches. One approach reveres wilderness, that which is not human, and the emotional state. This approach also believes that women are more connected to nature. The other approach is based more on logic, rejecting the idea of “feminine essence” and disagreeing with the idea that women are more connected to nature.

How is nature represented in this text?

Nature, solely focusing on the landscapes, can be seen scattered throughout the video. The first can be found at (0:32- 0:35), where a headphone-wearing Avicii can be seen in a train passing by a quite dull and dead desert landscape. He seems quite disinterested, completely ignoring the nature surrounding him, too engrossed with his music. A very similar image can be seen later on (1:00 - 1:04) with a car driving though that same desert. The video finishes with Avicii playing his guitar on a much brighter and lively sandy beach (1:14 - 1:17). These three scenes demonstrate his journey and connection with nature. In the beginning, Avicii’s connection with nature seems almost, if not completely, nonexistent. Nature simply faded into the background of his life, never playing a very big role or having any importance to him. Similar to his lyrics, the environment around him is simply passing by him. This is a significant contrast to Avicii and his connection later in the video. At the end, he seems much more in tune with nature and has a much stronger connection and relationship with it.

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Kimberlé Crenshaw is a well known scholar in the Critical Race Theory.

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Critical Race Theory (Kaushihan, Soohwan, Isabel, Sarah)

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Critical Race Theory (Kaushihan, Soohwan, Isabel, Sarah)

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*To quote Kimberlé Crenshaw: “You gotta dig a little on the ground you think you’re standing on, so you can actually see that much of what you take for granted in society is actually layers upon layers of inequalities.”
*The Critical Race Theory is a movement and an interpretive way of thinking that explores the presence of race and racism in more prominent types of cultural expression. They are based on the premise that race and racism is not a natural and biological way of identifying different human subgroups, but rather a socially constructed concept used to oppress racial minorities.

*How does racism continue to function as a persistent force in American society?

*When applying the lens of a Critical Race Theorist to the September 8 Google Doodle, we can see examples of normalized racism implemented in the text. The people that appear to be listening to music in the first, third, and fourth image are Caucasian (00:00:41–00:00:45). The people have uncoloured skin, straight colourless hair, and are wearing normal western clothing in short sleeved shirts and denim.

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Lennard Davis, Critical Disability Theorist

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Lennard Davis, a Critical Disability theorist, grew up in a deaf family speaking sign language and participating in the deaf community. He has published fiction and non-fiction and teaches English and Disability Studies.

He is concerned with the word “normal” and how we use it to describe a “normal person” or a “normal body”

Combining his interest in the conventions and form of a novel with his disability studies, Davis posits that the novel is supported by the normalcy of the main character

The lens of Critical Disability Theory can be applied to any text that includes an idea of normalcy—meaning almost any text

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Readers response (Claire, Olivia, Eliza)

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Readers response (Claire, Olivia, Eliza)

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Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and a passionate advocate of educational and social equality for women. She called for the betterment of women's status through such political change as the radical reform of national educational systems.

To quote the OWL "Feminist criticism is...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women"

*This idea of theory takes aspects of our culture that are predominately male dominated in aims to expose misogyny in writing about women.

*To quote the OWL "Misogyny can extend into diverse areas of our culture: "Perhaps the most chilling example...is found in the world of modern medicine, where drugs prescribed for both sexes often have been tested on male subjects only"

How are the male and female roles defined?

* In the video, the males are portrayed as sociable and engaged in many activities. The women are only shown listening to music alone it what seems to be inclosed rooms. During the duration of the video, we see men driving cars (0:45), making music (0:59), hanging out in groups (0:07) which creates the idea that men should be out in this world working while women stay home.

* The women are only shown listening to music at the (0:45second) mark and watching the men make music at the (0:59seconds)mark. This enforces the stereotype that men are more capable than women, by giving the men a more complicated role including a variety of tasks, unlike the women in the video who are only given a simple role, including a couple of un demanding tasks.

*Feminist criticism began in the 1960s and has continued up to the present day. This School of theory is a viewpoint that is troubled with belittling ways that men portray women in cultural products such as film and books or the lack thereof. Feminists criticism also strives to reveal the misogyny in pieces of work about women.

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Virginia Woolf is known for her contributions to 20th-century literature and her essays, particularly on feminist criticism.

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Gender Theory and Queer Studies (Eman, Laura, Mackenzie, Margo)

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Gender Theory and Queer Studies (Eman, Laura, Mackenzie, Margo)

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To quote from the Owl: “Gender studies and queer theory explore issues of sexuality, power, and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and culture.”

Much of the work in this theory is done through a queer lens, heavily influenced by feminist criticism. This includes focusing on the breakdown of binaries such as male and female, the in-betweens.

A question one could use with this lens is:
- What elements in the text exist in the middle, between the perceived masculine/ feminine binary? In other words, what elements exhibit traits of both?

- Answer: Examples include the watch and beaded bracelet on the hands (0:18), the vague rainbow background, the genderless crowd (0:52) and the faceless people (0:54). These all go past the boundaries of gender, leaving the binary lens behind and focusing on the people for themselves and their shared love for the music, rather than their genders and the things that separate them.

Further Gender & Queer Studies Analysis:

- A study featured on CBC explained that  97.9 percent of music producers are men. For every 1 female music producer, there are 47 male ones. There are even fewer queer and trans people in the industry.

The video further perpetuates the standard of this predominantly male industry by showing all the DJs and music producers as men by default (ex. 0:08). This video also focuses mainly on his successes, rather than his struggle -- successes which would have been much harder for women and non-cis-gendered people to achieve.

However, mental health problems such as depression are more common for men due to the way men have been socialized to feel like they can’t share their thoughts and feelings.
The video ends with Avicii standing alone barefooted with just a guitar in his hands. The lyrics sing, “All this time I was finding myself, and I didn’t know I was lost”. This symbolizes Avicii's journey to self-recognition and highlights the depressive times in his life where he turned to music to cope. In addition, his music resonated with his supporters because of how relevant mental health is in everyone’s life.

Because it’s a tribute video it isn’t the Avicii team creating this video, it’s people who looked up to him, who connected to his music. This is why the video includes many people who can’t be put into a specific gender as well as the  LGBTQ+ colour representation because this is how people of every background, gender, and sexuality were impacted by his music.

The choice of song was one of his most popular songs potentially because it didn’t focus on the typical male experience, not focusing on specific sexuality or gender, instead, it is a song with lyrics that the majority of people can relate to which is struggling to be yourself/ find yourself.

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Marxist Theory by Austin, Julia, Morgan, and Zoe

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Marxist Theory by Austin, Julia, Morgan, and Zoe

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Karl Marx was a 19th century philosopher, historian, and sociologist who was the founder of Marxist Theory.

In a stable society, the classes will clash. The lower/working class (debated) will cause a revolution.

Economics drive society rather than other factors, such as politics.

Revolution shows in the arts and media, such as visual arts and music.

Once the middle and upper class are overthrown, the intellectuals will step in to form an equal society (socialism - not to be confused with maoist and soviet communism).

According to The Nielsen Company, the electronic music (the type of music Bergling made) listener is a college-educated, mostly white individual. The age group broadly incorporates people between 18 and 35 years of age.

According to The Scotsman, Tim Bergling started releasing music at the age of 16. With that information, we can infer that he grew up upper-middle class. To have had access to the technology needed to create and release his songs he would have needed to be well-off. From 00:00:06 to 00:00:09 seconds there are lots of computers and tech equipment, which further proves our earlier point that he grew up upper-middle class, the technology being fairly expensive.

At 00:00:28s we see him touring, which is obviously in relation to fame, and with fame comes money and a class change.

At 00:00:44s we are introduced to his fans, who are listening with headphones, in the car, and over speakers in their room. This implies that anyone can listen to his music, and his fans aren't a specific class demographic.

At 00:00:49s we see him at a concert, which costs more than headphones, or a CD. Since people who can afford concert tickets have some money to spare/saved up, we can assume his average concert was filled with people of the middle class or weathlier.

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Wolfgang Iser is known for his reader-response criticism in literary theory. 

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* Reader Response began in 1960s to present.

*Reader-response criticism suggests that the way a reader interprets or reacts to a text is an essential part of the meaning of the text. This means that depending on the viewpoints of the reader, the texts can hold different meanings.

* Quote from owl “ However, reader-response criticism can take a number of different approaches.”

* Question for readers response lens: Do the sounds/shapes of the words as they appear on the page or how they are spoken by the reader enhance or change the meaning of the word/work?

*The sounds/shapes of the words and how they are spoken by the reader defiantly enhances and changes the meaning of the video. For example, the song chosen for the video is one of Avicci's most popular songs which makes people more emotionally connected to the video. When the song is combined with the clips of people listening to his music (0:40-1:00) it makes me the reader feel remorseful about the loss of a great artist. However, readers-response criticism suggests that a person who is not familiar or who did not enjoy Avicci's music maybe have a different outlook on this text or feel a different way