Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Volume

15

Issue

2

Publisher

Purdue University

Publication Date

6-1-2013

Abstract

Marshall McLuhan coined the term "the global village" associating globalized human experiences in an electronic age (4). Although transnational relations existed for many centuries, McLuhan predicted in the 1960s that new technologies not only facilitate the growth of international interconnectedness, cross-border exchanges, as well as trans-cultural phenomena, but also help foster cultural transactions. Referring to the dramatic and unprecedented break between the past and the present, tradition and modernity, Arjun Appadurai argues that media and migration have been two major forces impelling the circulation of world cultures (3). In the phenomenon of globalization, people from every part of the world tend to embrace the concepts of democracy, human rights, and technical assistance, but globalization did not and does not go smooth in all aspects of life. Globalization was originally characterized as a power to diminish the gap between the developed and developing worlds. However, there continue to be resistance against globalization because of the West's — i.e., technologically and industrially advanced countries with now "soft" imperial agendas. As Fredric Jameson suggests, globalization has become a philosophical issue because through cultural adaption, integration, and transformation, globalization has triggered the development of mass culture and restructured the production of cultures in various ways (54-60).

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