Thread: Research

Hello all,

I am new to this forum, so if I do something which is against convention, please tell me.

I am currently preparing an enquiry which covers quite a big field. I'm not fully sure where to put this question/these questions. What my enquiry contains is yet a little vague, but I will attempt to explain it.

My enquiry will be about hierarchy and the change of it in the sixties. I want to use Bakhtin's study about Rabelais's Gargantua & Pantagruel. He explains social revolutions by comparing it to carnival, which is a "controled uncontroledness", during carnival the local village idiot can be the king, so the hierarchy changes, but it is planned that this change finds place, and after a certain period everything goes back to normal, and the idiot is idiot again. One could say the sixties started as kind of carnival, a planned change of hierarchies for example, but it is unclear whether it ever stopped or not. So want I'd like to write about is the legacy of the sixties, and (quite important) how it manifests in literature, since my professional realm is literature.

(I hope the above written indicates, despite all the vagueness, what my subject will be. I'm sorry for eventual vagueness which may be caused by language as well - I am Dutch, not British, American or Australian, or from another country where English is the native language).

Now my questions are:

*Which other theories (it can be any field, history, sociology, philosophy, literary sciences, political sciences) treat this topic/these topics?

*What literature would you suggest to use? (I was thinking, mainly, about Thomas Pynchon, but I want to have as many suggestions as possible from all sides)

Thanks in regard, and any critical note or other suggestion is welcome, of course,

Paul-Michel Novo

In terms of writing that reflected the gestalt of the times you could look at Carlos Castaneda.

Listen to all Frank Zappa records also.

Explore what went on in the Prague Spring and how the reality was different from what was perceived in the west.

all very vague, but I'm just trying to match your question. :wink:

Which other theories (it can be any field, history, sociology, philosophy, literary sciences, political sciences) treat this topic/these topics?

Sociology:

Any research involving the difference between social norms and individualism, the different roles people undertake because of different experiences in life. For instance, if you take any English 'reality tv' show for instance, as they seem to show the village idiots as stars and worthy people.

History:

Rapid change in freedoms and the wider spread of information, a mass collection of 'idols' and 'role models'. The more freedom of people themselves, in what they are allowed to do and also the freedom of information gave people more insight as to what is happening outside of the world, and all of a sudden people weren't following village, or local town 'norms', the information and norms of the world suddenly spread through into peoples living rooms via the television. The 60's was probably the height at which these changes were occuring.

Philosophy:

Freedom and change were big in the sixtiies; a lot of norms were being broken, women were starting to be more open and feminine and the whole thought concept of people in general was changing, this rapid fluctuation of thought and ideas probably created a temporary differential of societal norms and hierarchies that caused chaos for identity, admist the change certain social groups formed and people with similar mindsets followed a group that they fit into.... before the 50s there weren't really any major 'groups' or 'gangs' as such. The 50s gave us the teddy bears and the 60s was an incredibly diverse time for change and different appearances. In Britain for instance we had the Mod and rockers, there were hippies, freedom movement fanatics etc. Suddenly it was 'OUT' if you weren't in a group full stop... whereas ten years earlier it was not seen. Just like with joining the army before those years; men weren't men if they hadn't done their national service.

The thought system itself would have changed but I doubt there were a group of eggheads sat around a table that suddenly decided that they were going to create this mindset. It was probably an unrecognised philosophical development yet a very prominent one.

I am relatively young and ashamed to say I don't know many literary references to research I can give you. If you want any scientific studies or research then any psychology book in the 'abnormal behaviour' section will gladly shine light on the 60s. There are plenty of research archives to be found in psychology that can help you, you'll have to have a look though and apply specific theories to your own work because from my experience there aren't many actualy specific studies of behaviour in the 60s as opposed to the study of those behaviours themself.