Cultural cringe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in those countries to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. It is closely related, although not identical, to the concept of a colonial mentality.

The term Cultural cringe was coined in 1950 by the Melbourne critic and social commentator A.A. Phillips, and defined in an influential and highly controversial essay of the same name. 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 against the works of the British and European counterparts. 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. In some professions this attitude even affected employment opportunities, with only those who had worked in London being treated as worthy of appointment or promotion. Thus the Cultural cringe brought about the early to mid 20th century the temporary residence in Britain of so many young talented Australians across a broad range of fields, from the arts to the sciences.

Cultural cringe was subsequently explained by Australian sociologists Brian Head and James Walter as the belief that one's own country occupies a "subordinate cultural place on the periphery", and that "intellectual standards are set and innovations occur elsewhere". As a consequence, a person who holds this belief is inclined to devalue their own country's cultural, academic and artistic life, and to venerate the "superior" culture of another country.

A more sophisticated approach to the issues raised by the Cultural cringe, as felt by artistic practitioners in former colonies around the world, was developed and advanced by the Australian art historian Terry Smith in his essay 'The Provincialism Problem' (1974), and published in the leading New York journal Artforum.

1 In Australia
- 1.1 Examples of Cultural Cringe in Australia
2 In Ireland
3 In Canada
4 In other countries
5 See also
6 References

[edit] In Australia

The term is most commonly used in Australia, where it is widely (although not universally) accepted as a fact of Australian cultural life.^[1] In Another Look at the Cultural Cringe^[2], Australian academic Leonard John Hume examined the idea of cultural cringe as an oversimplification of the complexities of Australian history and culture. His essay concludes that "The cultural cringe ... did not exist, but it was needed, and so it was invented." This need is demonstrated by its frequent use to deflect criticism of almost anything, on the grounds that the critic is suffering from the cringe.

[edit] Examples of Cultural Cringe in Australia

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since October 2006.

The country's indigenous sport, Australian rules football, despite its immense popularity has also been suggested as an example of cultural cringe. However many Australians actively reject and deride the sport in favour of imported sports such as soccer, often citing the indigenous code's lack of international following, exposure, and claims of imported origin. This phenomenon is felt particularly in areas affected by intense interstate rivalries, such as Queensland and New South Wales, often using the term Victorian Rules rather than Australian Rules. ^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] Perhaps ironically, and to the surprise of many Australians, for the 2006 World Cup campaign, former players from the 1966 English Soccer Team plagiarized the legendary Up There Cazaly theme which is synonymous with Australian rules football to become "Up there old England".^[7]

The fame of such personalities as Steve Irwin,^[8]^[9] Dame Edna,^[10] Rolf Harris, Kylie Minogue or Paul Hogan internationally have perhaps not achieved quite the same level of affection at home in Australia.^[11]

A stereotyped theme often repeated in the media is that cultural cringe is the cause of the massive Australian expatriatism, with Australians moving overseas in search of success, particularly to London and the mother country, England.^[12]. While some like Peter Allen once did, "still call Australia home" many prominent Australians, such as Germaine Greer and Barry Humphries despite their obvious love for the country, have confessed to living overseas due to the effects of cultural cringe.^[13] When Cultural cringe is applied to prominent Australian personalities, it is often mistaken as another Australian cultural phenomenon known as Tall poppy syndrome.^[14]^[15]

Cultural cringe in recent decades has turned to the Australian suburban ideals and the Australian Dream. The Australian television soap opera Neighbours' immense popularity overseas is often contrasted greatly in Australia, where many people mock it.^[16]. Self deprecating comedies such as The Castle and Kath and Kim, which have cult followings in Australia, have a small audience overseas.^[17]^[18].

Some argue that a form of cultural cringe resulted in anti-heritage attitudes resulting in the demolition of many world class pre-war buildings in Melbourne and Sydney, despite Australian cities having some of the world's best examples of Victorian architecture.^[19] Modernism was promoted to many Australians as casting off imperial Europe to rebuild a new independent identity and the existing pre-war architecture, which were a feature of Australian cities, was somewhat insignificant.^[20] This resulted in many calls to demolish the Royal Exhibition Building, labelled the derogatory term White Elephant. Ironically, 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^[21]. The reverse can also be said, that local architects are shunned for introduced styles.^[22]

The local Information Technology industry also suffers from the cringe, which results in perceived imported talent.^[23]

Cultural Cringe also effects local television programming in Australia^[24], which is heavily influenced by imported shows. In Australia, the government has to legislate to keep a quota of Australian content (Australian Content Standard and Television Program Standard 23).

[edit] In Ireland

The spoken accents in many parts of Ireland are seen as a cultural cringe, frequently by the very same people that speak these accents. The Irish symbols of Aran sweaters, Leprechauns, certain Irish traditional folk music and dancing, as well as the rural Irish accents, cause a cultural cringe to emerge in varying degrees amongst many native Irish. The irony of this is that many Irish descendants in other countries such as the United States do not cringe, but conversely treasure these symbols. Much of this inferiority complex may stem from Ireland's colonial history. Many feel that the Irish tourist industry promotes the worst examples of Irish culture, including beer, primitive farming methods, substandard housing and pub ballads, while ignoring finer aspects of Irish culture, such as the Irish language, ancient manuscripts, Newgrange, the Gallarus Oratory, poetry of the Bards, countless monasteries testifying to the preservation of education and civilisation in Ireland when much of Europe was in the throes of the Dark Ages. A rich literature dating from ancient times (Ulster Cycle, Connacht Cycle) to the 18th century is dumbed down to folktales starring leprechauns. Likewise the contribution of Irish craftsmen, masons, sculptors, architects and artists to Neo-classicism in Ireland is often overlooked or falsely considered by visitors to be vestiges of a British authority in Ireland, ignoring the fact that many were Irish (Evie Hone, John Hogan, Francis Johnston, Edward Lovett Pearce, Reilly), these working in Ireland along with many foreigners (the Swiss Lafranchini Brothers, the Italian Alessandro Galilei, the German Richard Cassels) including surprisingly few British (notably James Gandon). Irish scientists particularly those from the 19th century are almost invariably considered British despite a life's work undertaken in Ireland. Too often these claims of Irish scientists as British go uncontested, famously William Rowan Hamilton, an Irish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who made important contributions to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebra and whose discovery of quaternions is perhaps the best known investigation.

It has been suggested that one reason for the prominence of the most tawdry aspects of Irish stereotyping is the disestablishment of the Irish aristocracy 400 years ago - this event in particular was responsible for the extinction of classical Irish. Negative British depictions of the Irish since that time as savages requiring British civilisation - excellent examples of the latter can be seen in British cartoons at the time of the Home Rule debates.

In many cases, "cultural cringe" is an accusation made by a fellow-national, who decries the inferiority complex and asserts the merits of the national culture. An example is the epithet "West Brit" applied by one Irish person to another who is felt to adopt excessively the mannerisms of the British (specifically, the English).^[25]

[edit] In Canada

Many cultural commentators in Canada^[26] have also suggested that a similar process operates in that country as well. The specific phrase "cultural cringe" is not widely used to label the phenomenon in Canada, although it has been used in isolated instances; more typically, Canadian cultural commentators speak of a "Canadian inferiority complex" ^[27], or label specific instances of the phenomenon with satirical terms such as beaver hour.

Prior to the 1970s, Canadian radio stations gave almost no airtime to Canadian music, and apart from CBC Television, Canadian television stations spent very little money on Canadian-produced programming. The CRTC adopted Canadian content regulations to resolve this, although even today such regulation is still criticized by some Canadians as representing inappropriate government interference in the right of Canadians to choose "superior" American entertainment.

Similarly, English Canadian film has an extremely difficult time garnering an audience in Canada.

In addition, it has also been claimed that some segments of Quebec society experience cultural cringe in relation both to the rest of Canada and to France. Some have proposed that Quebec sovereignty is a necessary step toward resolving this. (See section in Colonial mentality.)