Recent from talks
Cultural cringe
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Cultural cringe
In the fields of cultural studies and social anthropology, cultural cringe is an expression used to refer to an internalized inferiority complex where people dismiss their own culture as inferior (cringe-inducing) when compared to the cultures of other countries. In anthropology, cultural cringe is related to the concept of the colonial mentality (belief of inferiority), and usually is manifested in the anti-intellectualism deployed against intellectuals, scientists, and artists native to a colonized country or a former colony. Moreover, at the personal level, cultural cringe also is manifested as cultural alienation.
In 1894, Australian bush poet Henry Lawson wrote in his preface to his Short Stories in Prose and Verse:
The Australian writer, until he gets a "London hearing," is only accepted as an imitator of some recognized English or American author; and, as soon as he shows signs of coming to the front, he is labelled "The Australian Southey," "The Australian Burns," or "The Australian Bret Harte," and lately, "The Australian Kipling." Thus no matter how original he may be, he is branded, at the very start, as a plagiarist, and by his own country, which thinks, no doubt, that it is paying him a compliment and encouraging him, while it is really doing him a cruel and an almost irreparable injury. But mark! As soon as the Southern writer goes "home" and gets some recognition in England, he is "So-and-So, the well-known Australian author whose work has attracted so much attention in London lately"; and we first hear of him by cable, even though he might have been writing at his best for ten years in Australia.
The term "cultural cringe" was coined in Australia after the Second World War by the Melbourne critic and social commentator A. A. Phillips, and defined in an influential and highly controversial 1950 essay of the same name published in the Summer 1950 edition of literary journal Meanjin. It explored ingrained feelings of inferiority that local intellectuals struggled against, and which were most clearly pronounced in the Australian theatre, music, art and letters. The implications of these insights potentially applied to all former colonial nations, and the essay is now recognised as a cornerstone in the development of post-colonial theory in Australia. In essence, Phillips pointed out that the public widely assumed that anything produced by local dramatists, actors, musicians, artists and writers was necessarily deficient when compared to the works of their European and American counterparts. In the words of the poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe (quoted by Peter Conrad), Australia was being made to rhyme with failure. The only ways local arts professionals could build themselves up in public esteem was either to follow overseas fashions, or, more often, to spend a period of time working in Britain.
As Lawson continued in his 1894 preface: "The same paltry spirit tried to dispose of the greatest of modern short-story writers as 'The Californian Dickens', but America wasn't built that way – neither was Bret Harte!" The cultural cringe of Australians and the cultural swagger of Americans reflects deep contrasts between the American and the Australian experiences of extricating themselves from English apron-strings. Dealing specifically with Australia, Phillips pointed out that sport has been the only field in which ordinary people accepted that their nation was able to perform and excel internationally. Indeed, while they prided themselves on the qualities of locally produced athletes and sportsmen, whom they invariably considered first-rate, Australians behaved as if in more intellectual pursuits the nation generated only second-rate talent. Some commentators believe that cultural cringe contributes to the perceived anti-intellectualism that has underpinned public life in Australia.
The term cultural cringe is most commonly used in Australia, where it is believed by some to be a widely accepted facet of Australian culture. In Another Look at the Cultural Cringe, the Australian academic Leonard John Hume examined the idea of cultural cringe as an oversimplification of the complexities of Australian history and culture. His controversial essay argues that "The cultural cringe ... did not exist, but it was needed, and so it was invented." A manifestation of Australian cultural cringe can be expressed in the almost-obsessive curiosity of Australians in wanting to know what foreigners think of Australia and its culture.
Some commentators claim the cultural cringe particularly affects local television programming in Australia, which is heavily influenced by imported shows, mainly of American and British origin. The Federal government has legislated to keep a quota of Australian content.
Some argue that a form of cultural cringe resulted in anti-heritage attitudes which led to the demolition of many world-class pre-war buildings in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (Australia's three largest cities at the time), destroying some of the world's best examples of Victorian architecture. Modernism was promoted to many Australians as casting off imperial Europe to rebuild a new independent identity, and the existing pre-war architecture, which was a feature of Australian cities, was denigrated.[unreliable source?] This resulted in many calls to demolish the Royal Exhibition Building, labelled the derogatory term "white elephant". It was not until Queen Elizabeth II granted the building Royal status that Australians began to recognise its value. The building became the first in Australia to be given World Heritage status. This reaction against the cultural cringe continues in some fields such as architecture, where local architects are shunned for using introduced styles.
Hub AI
Cultural cringe AI simulator
(@Cultural cringe_simulator)
Cultural cringe
In the fields of cultural studies and social anthropology, cultural cringe is an expression used to refer to an internalized inferiority complex where people dismiss their own culture as inferior (cringe-inducing) when compared to the cultures of other countries. In anthropology, cultural cringe is related to the concept of the colonial mentality (belief of inferiority), and usually is manifested in the anti-intellectualism deployed against intellectuals, scientists, and artists native to a colonized country or a former colony. Moreover, at the personal level, cultural cringe also is manifested as cultural alienation.
In 1894, Australian bush poet Henry Lawson wrote in his preface to his Short Stories in Prose and Verse:
The Australian writer, until he gets a "London hearing," is only accepted as an imitator of some recognized English or American author; and, as soon as he shows signs of coming to the front, he is labelled "The Australian Southey," "The Australian Burns," or "The Australian Bret Harte," and lately, "The Australian Kipling." Thus no matter how original he may be, he is branded, at the very start, as a plagiarist, and by his own country, which thinks, no doubt, that it is paying him a compliment and encouraging him, while it is really doing him a cruel and an almost irreparable injury. But mark! As soon as the Southern writer goes "home" and gets some recognition in England, he is "So-and-So, the well-known Australian author whose work has attracted so much attention in London lately"; and we first hear of him by cable, even though he might have been writing at his best for ten years in Australia.
The term "cultural cringe" was coined in Australia after the Second World War by the Melbourne critic and social commentator A. A. Phillips, and defined in an influential and highly controversial 1950 essay of the same name published in the Summer 1950 edition of literary journal Meanjin. It explored ingrained feelings of inferiority that local intellectuals struggled against, and which were most clearly pronounced in the Australian theatre, music, art and letters. The implications of these insights potentially applied to all former colonial nations, and the essay is now recognised as a cornerstone in the development of post-colonial theory in Australia. In essence, Phillips pointed out that the public widely assumed that anything produced by local dramatists, actors, musicians, artists and writers was necessarily deficient when compared to the works of their European and American counterparts. In the words of the poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe (quoted by Peter Conrad), Australia was being made to rhyme with failure. The only ways local arts professionals could build themselves up in public esteem was either to follow overseas fashions, or, more often, to spend a period of time working in Britain.
As Lawson continued in his 1894 preface: "The same paltry spirit tried to dispose of the greatest of modern short-story writers as 'The Californian Dickens', but America wasn't built that way – neither was Bret Harte!" The cultural cringe of Australians and the cultural swagger of Americans reflects deep contrasts between the American and the Australian experiences of extricating themselves from English apron-strings. Dealing specifically with Australia, Phillips pointed out that sport has been the only field in which ordinary people accepted that their nation was able to perform and excel internationally. Indeed, while they prided themselves on the qualities of locally produced athletes and sportsmen, whom they invariably considered first-rate, Australians behaved as if in more intellectual pursuits the nation generated only second-rate talent. Some commentators believe that cultural cringe contributes to the perceived anti-intellectualism that has underpinned public life in Australia.
The term cultural cringe is most commonly used in Australia, where it is believed by some to be a widely accepted facet of Australian culture. In Another Look at the Cultural Cringe, the Australian academic Leonard John Hume examined the idea of cultural cringe as an oversimplification of the complexities of Australian history and culture. His controversial essay argues that "The cultural cringe ... did not exist, but it was needed, and so it was invented." A manifestation of Australian cultural cringe can be expressed in the almost-obsessive curiosity of Australians in wanting to know what foreigners think of Australia and its culture.
Some commentators claim the cultural cringe particularly affects local television programming in Australia, which is heavily influenced by imported shows, mainly of American and British origin. The Federal government has legislated to keep a quota of Australian content.
Some argue that a form of cultural cringe resulted in anti-heritage attitudes which led to the demolition of many world-class pre-war buildings in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (Australia's three largest cities at the time), destroying some of the world's best examples of Victorian architecture. Modernism was promoted to many Australians as casting off imperial Europe to rebuild a new independent identity, and the existing pre-war architecture, which was a feature of Australian cities, was denigrated.[unreliable source?] This resulted in many calls to demolish the Royal Exhibition Building, labelled the derogatory term "white elephant". It was not until Queen Elizabeth II granted the building Royal status that Australians began to recognise its value. The building became the first in Australia to be given World Heritage status. This reaction against the cultural cringe continues in some fields such as architecture, where local architects are shunned for using introduced styles.