Cultural studies lectures
Cultures studies lectures
Inhoudsopgave
Lecture 1 3
Culture, a contested concept 3
Cultural studies. A little more in dept 4
Lecture 2 5
Cultural studies – it's Marxist heritage 5
Revisions of Marxism. Ideology and Hegemony 6
Globalization: A new world disorder 7
Lecture 3 8
The linguistic turn in cultural studies 8
Structuralism #1: semiotics and the Saussure 8
Structuralism #2 Roland Barthes and the Myth 8
Lecture 4 9
Post-structuralism 9
Michel Foucalt: discourse 9
Lecture 5 11
Television, text and audience 11
The manipulative model 11
The pluralist model 11
The hegemonic model 12
From encoding to decoding 12
Lecture 6 14
Subculture 14
Lecture 7 16
Five major shift – leading to the decentered subject 17
Freud / feminism / Foucault 18
Lecture 8 19
Feminism & cultural studies 19
Break down the binaries: queer theory 19
Race and ethnicity 20
Imaged communities 20
M.D.N. Janssen
, Cultural studies lectures
Lecture 9 21
Posthumanism 21
Posthumanism, Micheal Foucault and the questions of agency 21
Foucault’s analysis of power: disciplinary power and biopower 21
Lecture 10 23
New media, globalization and convergence culture 23
How this affected our concept of community: imagined communities in a digital age 23
So what happens to this imagined community in the era of globalization? 23
Social media 24
Information overload and the almighty algorithm 24
Understanding what’s happening: convergence culture 24
Lecture 11 25
Culture, web activism and the information society 25
Cyberspace & cyberutopia / dystopia? 25
Cyberdemocracy and cyberactivism 25
Information society 26
Lecture 12 27
Space and place in contemporary theory 27
Urban space: understanding the city as a specific kind of space 27
Postmodern city 28
M.D.N. Janssen
, Cultural studies lectures
Lecture 1
The starting point is that cultures are never monolithic – there are always tensions, and culture is
dynamic and full of contestation
§ Between elite and mass culture
§ Between different global trends and local culture
§ Between what is available in the mainstream and what is produced by subcultures
Why culture matters?
§ Because it shapes how we think and how we react.
§ Because today global exchanges and communication are reshaping the outlines of our culture.
§ Because studying culture allows you to understand globalization, nationalism, customs, and
rituals of people, communities, and groups.
Culture, a contested concept
Culture is one of two or three most complicated words in the English language.
As Raymond Williams says:
§ Noun: growing crops
§ Expanded: cultivating the mind
§ Culture as lived experience connected to a specific group: a more anthropological definition of
culture as a whole and distinctive way of life.
Two possible definitions of culture
High culture: culture is the best way what a society produces
§ Literature
§ Fine arts
§ Ballet, classical music
Ordinary culture: culture is a society’s way of life
§ Every day lived experience of a group of community
§ Traditions and habits of people
Culture is ordinary
Culture belongs to a group of people
Culture is about everyday meanings:
§ Values
§ Norms
§ Material / symbolic goods
Why this matters?
Humanities traditionally study high culture in its Arnoldian Sense paying little or no attention to
ordinary culture.
Culture studies use a broad, anthropological definition of culture, and studies both elite and mass
culture. It studies the tensions between these two and looks at how ordinary people give meaning to
their lives through culture.
M.D.N. Janssen
Cultures studies lectures
Inhoudsopgave
Lecture 1 3
Culture, a contested concept 3
Cultural studies. A little more in dept 4
Lecture 2 5
Cultural studies – it's Marxist heritage 5
Revisions of Marxism. Ideology and Hegemony 6
Globalization: A new world disorder 7
Lecture 3 8
The linguistic turn in cultural studies 8
Structuralism #1: semiotics and the Saussure 8
Structuralism #2 Roland Barthes and the Myth 8
Lecture 4 9
Post-structuralism 9
Michel Foucalt: discourse 9
Lecture 5 11
Television, text and audience 11
The manipulative model 11
The pluralist model 11
The hegemonic model 12
From encoding to decoding 12
Lecture 6 14
Subculture 14
Lecture 7 16
Five major shift – leading to the decentered subject 17
Freud / feminism / Foucault 18
Lecture 8 19
Feminism & cultural studies 19
Break down the binaries: queer theory 19
Race and ethnicity 20
Imaged communities 20
M.D.N. Janssen
, Cultural studies lectures
Lecture 9 21
Posthumanism 21
Posthumanism, Micheal Foucault and the questions of agency 21
Foucault’s analysis of power: disciplinary power and biopower 21
Lecture 10 23
New media, globalization and convergence culture 23
How this affected our concept of community: imagined communities in a digital age 23
So what happens to this imagined community in the era of globalization? 23
Social media 24
Information overload and the almighty algorithm 24
Understanding what’s happening: convergence culture 24
Lecture 11 25
Culture, web activism and the information society 25
Cyberspace & cyberutopia / dystopia? 25
Cyberdemocracy and cyberactivism 25
Information society 26
Lecture 12 27
Space and place in contemporary theory 27
Urban space: understanding the city as a specific kind of space 27
Postmodern city 28
M.D.N. Janssen
, Cultural studies lectures
Lecture 1
The starting point is that cultures are never monolithic – there are always tensions, and culture is
dynamic and full of contestation
§ Between elite and mass culture
§ Between different global trends and local culture
§ Between what is available in the mainstream and what is produced by subcultures
Why culture matters?
§ Because it shapes how we think and how we react.
§ Because today global exchanges and communication are reshaping the outlines of our culture.
§ Because studying culture allows you to understand globalization, nationalism, customs, and
rituals of people, communities, and groups.
Culture, a contested concept
Culture is one of two or three most complicated words in the English language.
As Raymond Williams says:
§ Noun: growing crops
§ Expanded: cultivating the mind
§ Culture as lived experience connected to a specific group: a more anthropological definition of
culture as a whole and distinctive way of life.
Two possible definitions of culture
High culture: culture is the best way what a society produces
§ Literature
§ Fine arts
§ Ballet, classical music
Ordinary culture: culture is a society’s way of life
§ Every day lived experience of a group of community
§ Traditions and habits of people
Culture is ordinary
Culture belongs to a group of people
Culture is about everyday meanings:
§ Values
§ Norms
§ Material / symbolic goods
Why this matters?
Humanities traditionally study high culture in its Arnoldian Sense paying little or no attention to
ordinary culture.
Culture studies use a broad, anthropological definition of culture, and studies both elite and mass
culture. It studies the tensions between these two and looks at how ordinary people give meaning to
their lives through culture.
M.D.N. Janssen
