Introducing
Cultural Studies
Icon Books (UK), Totem Books (USA). Republished 1999 (ISBN
1-84046-74-1)
Written by Ziauddin Sardar,
Illustrated / designed by Borin Van Loon
Cultural Sudies signals a major academic revolution as we movbe into
the
new millennium. But waht exactly is it and how is it applied? It is a
discipline
which claims not to be a discipline - a radical critical approach for
understanding
racial, national, social and gender identities.
Introducing Cultural Studies provides an incisive tour through the
minefield
of this complex subject, charting its origins in Britain and its
migration
to the USA, Canada, france, Australia and Southern Asia, examining the
ideas
of its leading exponents and providing a flavour of its use around the
world.
Covering the ground from Gramcsi to Raymond Williams, postcolonial
discourse
to the politics of diaspora, feminism to queer theory, technoculture
and
the media to globalization, itserves as an insightful guide to the
essential
concepts of this fascinating area of study. It is essential reading for
all those concerned with the quickening pulse of old, new and emerging
cultures.
The pages contains lots of grids and frames to contain and provide
background
for visuals
and text - this made a lot of extra work, but I think it was worth it.
The
whole thing is held together by frequent appearances of a little
character
I invented whom we came to call 'Cultural Studies Woman'. Yes, she does
appear to be little rotund but I don't think she's pregnant, just
nicely
spherical.
The Permeable Self
Three illustrations from Introducing Cultural Studies
were selected by the judges in 1999's Images Exhibition and
book
(organized by the
Association of Illustrators) and toured the U.K....
Ashis Nandy (brush & fingerprint) / Postmodern Girl (brush
& paper-print) / Antonio Gramsci (dip pen)
Review section
Don't be put-off by the comic book format. This beginner's guide
is peppered with names and ideas essential for understanding cultural
studies.
"Cultural studies started as a dissenting intellectual tradition
outside
academia, dedicated to exposing power in all its cultural forms...it
has
now become...a part of the academic establishment".
(http://www.bridactive.org/booklist.html
(East Yorkshire College Library))
...Of course, one reason cultural studies' history is currently
being
pored over is that it now has a past to revisit. It is this history
that
is depicted and retold in Sardar and Van Loon's "Cultural Studies
for Beginners". Unlike Sedgwick's methodical alphabetical listing
of definitions, this is a text telling a story with a narrative. With
its
liberally illustrated form containing pictures a-plenty it also
radically
differs from Edgar and Sedgwick's straight text layout. Sardar and
Van
Loon's effort is in fact the latest volume in the Icon
series,
which, itself paralleling the late 20th century popular culture fad of
the
graphic novel (i.e. comics for grown-ups), explains sometimes dense
academic
subjects in pictorial-strip style. From the outset the series, like the
Guardian's cult Biff cartoons, has had a vaguely cultural studies bent
with
previous titles on postmodernism, semiotics, Foucault, Baudrillard and
the
like. This particular title thus plugs a glaring and long-standing gap.
Fittingly enough, it is reviewed in Cultural Studies 12(4) by J.
Macgregor
Wise.
It seems we have come a long way from early manifestations of the
subject
which drew together critics including E. P. Thompson (1959), Raymond
Williams
(1958) and, most trenchantly, Richard Hoggart (1958; 1995) in a
negative
cultural consensus against a backdrop of Britain's declining status as
a
world power, where the end of its empire and a general fear of the
deluge
of lowbrow US trash are all seen as threatening to erode Britain's
cultural
identity. All of the above are pictured, although Orwell's (1937) fear
of
the insidiousness of mass culture and its attendant hidden agenda of
class
oppression and subjugation is absent; as is, even more oddly, the
similarly
oriented pre-war Frankfurt school critique (e.g. Adorno and Horkheimer,
1979) of the supposed manipulative powers and negative homogenising
effects
of popular culture. Lots of what Sardar and Van Loon seem to be
communicating
to us is the axiomatic truth that many of these arguments are cyclical.
Thus whilst Hoggart's (1958) attacks on the 'levelling down' process
through
which working class purity was under threat from mass culture may now
appear
quaint in form (e.g. railing against 'canned and packeted provision'
and
the 'juke box boys' as the 'rich full life' gives way to 'the
immediate,
the present, the cheerful'), parts of the analysis have been repeated
with
regularity since, although the targets have of course shifted: violent
videos,
McDonalds, Sony Playstation and the Internet being modern substitutes.
As
David Morley points out, cultural studies is attacked because much of
what
it says is common sense, but, importantly, in some ways it is the
inexorable
rise of cultural studies that has made this so. (from 'Culture Shock'
by
Rupa Huq) (http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Reviews/rev7.htm)
This is a great, short introduction to Cultural Studies in comic
book form (along the lines of Freud for Beginners) written by a fairly
heavy-hitter
in the field. An impressive overview. Some professors have had trouble
ordering
it locally, but it can be ordered from amazon.com for only $8.76.
(http://www.sou.edu/English/IDTC/Issues/CultStud/cultstud.htm (Southern
Oregon University))
You know, I love this series. I have the book on Mathematics and
the book on Chaos. You can read them in one sitting, they're in comic
book
format, and they give the basic info you don't seem to get in
university.
I don't know why that is. Maybe because you spend all your time reading
the original texts. And because survey courses, which give you an
overview
of the field, have died out for various reasons... (Caterina Fake from
caterina.net)
... The discipline of cultural studies must have a new paradigm
for
the common analysis of canonical as well as non-canonical texts. Ziauddin
Sardar and Borin Van Loon in their recent book "Introducing
Cultural Studies" have tried to show the presence of this exciting
field of study in academic work within the arts, the humanities, the
social
sciences and even science and technology. They take a fleeting, though
rather
interesting, view of the contribution of Raymond Williams, Richard
Hoggart,
Stuart Hall and E.P. Thompson to the whole enterprise of cultural
studies.
Interestingly, all these pioneers came from a working- class background
and tried to understand the role of culture at a critical point in a
deeply
class-ridden English society. Culture to them was more of a commodity
that
is constucted with the sole purpose of class struggle for cultural
domination,
a war for legitimacy and social status waged by the elites...
(Shelley Walia in the on-line edition of 'The Hindu', India's national
newspaper)
(http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/07/15/stories/1315017v.htm)
Cultural Studies is now a hot field of study, but actually what
is
it about? What is culture? What is Cultural Studies? This book tells
where
cultural studies originates and how it spreads all over the world. This
book also serves as a guide to the essential concepts that are covered
in
Cultural Studies that gives a clear basic concept on the subject.
(http://zerosbook.org)
LIGHT ESSAY OF CULTURAL STUDIES. Ziauddin Sardar's "Introduction
to Cultural Studies" is nothing more than the title indicates. This
lenghty essay merely presents basic concepts that are prevalent in a
postmodern
discourse between societal values, power relations, and the value
placed
on cultural "norms" given in various communities. Sardar presents
the history of Cultural Studies as a discipline, which begins in a
social
context, but the analysis of which, takes place by various
sociologists,
philosophers (primarily Freud, Nietzche, and Hegel), and literary
minds.
Overall, the essay is enlightening as an introduction, a good preface
to
the discourse(s) one finds in most disciplines today. Rating: 4 . [No
mention of the illustrations, then...]
(http://www.anybook4less.com/detail/1840460768.html)
Recommended Text. We won't be making direct reference to this
book
in the course, but I recommend it as an accessible introduction to key
theories
in comic-book format. (http://www.ucfv.bc.ca/scms/MACS_courses.htm)
Home / Email
©2004 Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon
Darwin...
Genetics...
Buddha...
Eastern Philosophy...
Sociology
Mathematics...
Media Studies...
Critical Theory...
Science...
Psychotherapy
Hinduism