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Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies . Some Central Issues from a Perspective of Literary Studies Based on Jonathan Culler’s Literary Theory. Outline. Why in our class? History of Cultural Studies in brief. Central Concerns: Culture and People ; Definition of culture ;

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Cultural Studies

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  1. Cultural Studies Some Central Issues from a Perspective of Literary Studies Based on Jonathan Culler’s Literary Theory

  2. Outline • Why in our class? History of Cultural Studies in brief. • Central Concerns: • Culture and People; • Definition of culture; • The Disciplinary Boundaries and Focuses of Literary Studies; • Modes of Analysis

  3. Why in our class? • “Theories” – not just of literature, but of ‘signifying practices,’ psyche and society. • Can serve as an example of how theories are connected to each other. (e.g. marxism + psychoanalysis + structuralism) • Can help connect what we have learned to our own society.

  4. Cultural Studies: Articulation of Theories • Subjectivity and power relations (Race, gender, class relations) in culture (cultural hegemony).  the circuit of culture Structuralism & semiotics Political agenda of Marxism + Postcolonialism + feminism

  5. Cultural Studies: History of Articulation • 50'ssocialist humanism; (or Marxism) -- Hoggart, Williams, Thompson; New Left; • 60's -- culturalist • 70‘s -- structuralist marxism; semiotics; -- e.g. Althusser; Roland Barthes; • mid-70’s – Gramsci & Foucault; -- Derrida +Discourse theories of Foucault;  -- Althusser + Lacan • mid- 80's -- postmodern debate • 90‘s – regional Cultural Studies

  6. Different Theoretical Schools • Roland Barthes – ‘connotation’ of culture in his studies of different languages (e.g. wrestling p. 45; cf – next time.) • central debate 1: culture and people – of the people or imposed on the people (p. 45-) ; -- agency vs. mass; hegemony vs.ideological interpellation;  strategies of identification, self-location, resistance, etc. -- e.g. Are cf’s a kind of art? How do we respond to the interpellation of cf’s?

  7. Cultural Studies: Main Concerns (2) • Points of contention: • Definitions of culture (high art vs. popular culture) & popular culture (mass culture or people’s culture); culture as a process and a product. • Disciplinary boundaries (what should a lit. major study?); • Relation between lit. studies, sociology and cultural studies (pp. 47) • Canon –e.g. the argument for “pure” or authentic literature; over principles of selection (pp. 48-49). •  Where does literary canon matter? In support of some power positions (of men, of some institutes in defining their identities) (response 2) • The choice of context determines the principles of selection. Even aesthetic values are determined by context. (responses 1 & 3) • Production of knowledge and cognitive flexibility

  8. Cultural Studies: Main Concerns (3) • 3. Modes of analysis • close reading vs. context analysis (including survey or quantity studies); appreciative interpretation vs. symptomatic reading;  not always in opposition • the lure of totality (e.g. gained through survey and statistics in studies of audience response)  combined with other methods; • “Is supposed” to make a difference in society.  Cultural Studies with Glo-cal concerns.

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