What is Cultural Studies, what does it do, and does it matter?

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Student number:  5 3 2 4 0 3                                         November 2003

What is Cultural Studies, what does it do, and does it matter?

Cultural Studies is a complex and wide-ranging topic. Unlike conventional subject areas, there is no one clear definition of what it essentially is. However, throughout contemporary history, many writers have tried to explore what is involved within and around the themes associated with Cultural Studies itself. It is during this essay that I will try to investigate what these various writers believe and maintain as their standpoints. I will also account for what I think Cultural Studies is, what it does and whether or not I think it matters intellectually and politically and why.

The term ‘Cultural Studies’, according to Barker, 2000, page 4, constitutes what is known as the ‘language-game of Cultural Studies’. By this, Barker is explaining that what comprises Cultural Studies is the variety of interpretations developed by diverse writers, across different times and places. However, these interpretations are based on certain topics, which, although may change over time, focus on constant features making Cultural Studies what it is or what it is perceived as being.

One such topic, that Cultural Studies deals with, is power and its subsequent relationships. This implies that by looking at how power is distributed amongst society, cultural practices can be more easily observed and evaluated. Michael Foucault sets the foundations for this, when he argues: ‘Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere.’ (Cited in Baldwin et al, 1999, page 94).

Foucault highlights the fact that power is found all over, in every social institution and within all levels of society. He claims that knowledge and power are interrelated, as knowledge is formed within the context of power and thus affects its development (Barker, 2000, page 63). Arguably, those who have most knowledge in the world gain the most power, and vice versa.

Many writers agree with this perspective and define culture politically, being centred on who decides which meanings appear in society, why they decide them and how they are affecting the social relationships within our world (Ibid, page 65).

 

It is this dominance in society that pushes Cultural Studies to evaluate the structures that are formed over time and within different cultures. Therefore, further issues that Cultural Studies are concerned with can be exposed, for example ideology. According to Carey, 1996, page 65: ‘British Cultural Studies could be described just as easily and perhaps more accurately as ideological studies’ (Cited in Storey, 1997, page 3).

Ideology is seen as either a collection of political, economic and social ideas or as a disguise that can cover up images of reality in order to act in the interests of the controlling. Ideology can also be seen as the way texts represent our world or the way that capitalism is reinforced upon society in order to make people fit in with their given positions within the population. Ideology can also be seen as a ‘myth’, using connotations and the unconscious levels to sway particular cultural views in a way to seem that they are natural and universal (Ibid, pages 3-6).

Furthermore, Louis Althusser sees individuals as being able to be ‘sucked into ideology so easily because it helps them make sense of the world’ (During, 1993, page 5). By this Althusser means that ideology helps people to feel powerful in a society where they might otherwise be ignored.

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Therefore, it is evident that ideological considerations are significant in that they reveal the way in which cultural practices are carried out, throughout differing societies, and how messages are produced through texts, in the media, to influence how those perspectives are accepted universally (Berger, 1995, page 61).

How these practices are transferred in society is certainly one of the key issues with which Cultural Studies asserts. Characteristics such as signs, images and codes, make up an important area of cultural analysis known as semiotics (or semiology according to Saussure and his supporters). This is a key feature ...

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