Arnold, Matthew (1869) ‘Culture and Anarchy’ and Leavis, F.R. (1930) ‘Mass Civilization and Minority Culture’ in Storey (2007)

Matthew Arnold

Why should sweetness and light prevail? 

The idea of sweetness and light is a term used to describe culture and it’s use, however, through Arnold’s work it seems to work as a late Nineteenth century view on the world and associated cultures.

Arnold discusses how ‘people will try to give the masses an intellectual food prepared and adapted in the way they think proper for the actual condition of the masses,’ however he thinks this and other techniques of religious and political conditioning as completely dissimilar to how culture works.

e.g BBC

‘Social Idea’

Sweetness and Light ‘works to do away with classes, to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere.’ This is seen as a social idea to engage everyone in knowledge and to humanise it by making it easily accessible and not just reserved for the highly educated and therefore ‘of sweetness and light’.

Barbarians, Philistines, Populace

Barbarians, Philistines and Populace are the idea of Arnolds contemporary society as compromising of groups.

High Class-Barbarians, seen as lacking courage for resistance, believe in personal individualism, liberty and doing as they like. Exercise strength and money. Their manners, accomplishments and powers are inherited from the Barbarians.

Middle Class-Philistines, known for wisdom and expertise in industry and commerce, they are the creaters/builders within society.

Low Class (Working Class)- Populace, this class is most effected by poverty and disease and exploited by the barbarians and philistines.

Culture and Anarchy

Arnold was concerned about the threat of anachary in particular the threat of revolution from the past, he looked at the idea of making culture available to all helps prevent this.

-Solution was to offer and make culture more accessible to all to prevent anarchy and create ‘Sweetness and Light’ to work away with classes and rulings to humanise culture.

FR Leavis

Canon

Leavis perspective on culture introduced the idea of the ‘canon’, is an elitist view on culture. Within which minorities are the lower class, culture is reserved only for the higher classes; the rich and educated. The Canon is a list created by Leavis which (in his opinion) is a selection of the best works of literature that people should read in order to be cultured. Ruling Class, Government etc decide what is canorial as these people have the most power and are the most influential in society.

Americanisation

Leavis discusses Americanisation as the ultimate standardization of culture as a result of advances in industry and in the production of culture in America through the market place. Reliance on America has helped the world in terms of technology, medical advances and cultural standardisation.

‘For those who are most defiant to America do not propose to reverse the processes consequent upon the machine.’

e.g Hollywood films according to Leavis have become standardised to point so that audiences are passive, they act as diversion and make active recreation more difficult ( dumbing down)

Culture is at a crisis, ‘the lines have blurred, the boundaries are gone and the arts and literatures of different countries or periods have flowed together’

Globalisation

Leavis states that the future of culture with globalisation playing a key factor in the ‘triumph of the machine’ as a standardised civilisation is rapidly enveloping the world.