Cultural Studies

1
Cultural Studies

• General Intro. Subcultures

2
Cultural Studies Main Concerns

• Subjectivity and power relations (Race, gender,
  class relations) in culture (cultural hegemony).
  ? the circuit of culture

Political agenda of Marxism Postcolonialism
feminism
3
Cultural Studies History of Articulation

• 50's socialist humanism (or Marxism)
• -- Hoggart, Williams, Thompson New Left
• 60's -- culturalist
• 70s -- structuralist marxism semiotics
• -- e.g. Althusser Roland Barthes
• mid-70s Gramsci Foucault -- Derrida
  Discourse theories of Foucault   -- Althusser
  Lacan
• mid- 80's -- postmodern debate
• 90s regional Cultural Studies

4
Cultural Studies Main Concerns

• Points of contention
• Definitions of culture (high art vs. popular
  culture) popular culture (mass culture or
  peoples culture) culture as a process or a
  product.
• Disciplinary boundaries (what should a lit. major
  study?)
• Culture vs. economy Ideology/Hegemony vs.
  political economy
• Agency, ways and position of resistance
• Postmodernism globalization (glocalization)

5
Cultural Studies Psychoanalysis

• Disagreement with Freuds description of
  universal psyche
• Psychoanalysis used in analyzing
• ideologys interpellation (Althusser)
• male voyeurism and female spectatorship (by
  feminists) screen project
• desires colonial desire consumer psychology
  cultural symptoms or broader definitions of
  desire.

6
British Musical Subcultures 1. Mod

Small Faces
The Jam
7
Punk e.g. Sex Pistol

• The Sex Pistols may have only been together for
  two years in the late '70s, but they changed the
  face of popular music. Through their raw,
  nihilistic singles and violent performances, the
  band revolutionized the idea of what rock roll
  could be. (source)

8
Punk e.g. The Clash

• fiery and idealistic, charged with righteousness
  and a leftist political ideology. (source)

9
Rasta and Raggae

• Bob Marley

• Reggae is a music unique to Jamiaca, but it
  ironically has its roots in New Orleans RB.
  Reggae's direct forefather is ska.