4.05.2006
Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture (Film and Media Studies)
Title
Storey, John. Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Unviersy Press, 1993.
Field
Film and Media Studies
Summary
This is nice little summary of Cultural Studies, mostly the British version, but a good measure of the American school in there too. The introduction explains the small c view of culture in CS and locates the British CS school's intellectual history in Gramsci and the Frankfurt School (Adorno, et al). It also mentions the use of Foucault, sometimes in contrast to Gramscian focus on modes of production, in the approach of examining representation and the construction of meaning. It then moves to discuss Television, Fiction, Film, Print Media, and Music in separate chapters. In Television, Storey starts out by summarizing Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding process of televsion watcing and production. Morley's concept of interpolation through the text, Hobson's look at soap operas and television as a mode of social practice, Ang's discussion of television as evil mass media or pleasurable pasttime (ok, reducing, but you know what I mean, right?), and ends with Fiske's take on television as financial and cultural commodity. Fiction begins with a discussion of Althusser's problematic "the theoretical structure which both frames and produces the repetoire of criss-crossing and competeing discourses out of which a text is materially organized."(37) He discusses reception theory, the need to locate the reader historically, intertextuality, Fish's discussion of the interpretation constructs the text, and ends with a discussion of feminism and romance reading. The chapter on Film focuses on the structuralist / poststructuralist impact on CS work on film and feminist work on film. He begins by discussing Sausserre in relationship to structuralist readings and Laura Mulvey in regards to feminist/poststructuralist/psychoanalytic. He goes on the discuss Gledhill and Stacey's (on escapism and film) reception studies of film. The chapter on Newspapers and magazines discusses the different classed ways print media is circulated, received and devotes a lot attention to feminist work done on women's magazines. He also brings up Barthes' idea of the second level of signification and myth ("ideology unserstood as a body of ideas and practices which defend and actively promote the values and interests of dominant groups in society"(104)) in relationship to visual culture. The chapter on music focus on pop music and the reluctance to see it outside the capitalist mode of production and therefore dissmissed - this is rooted in Adorno's view of it as music to dull the worker. Subcultures, particularly youth subcultures, use music as a way to defined their way of being in the world. Again citing Barthes and his discussion of the grain of the voice, CS of music must take into account the voice and not just rely on the transparency of lyrics. Finally, he discusses the interaction of politics and music (Liveaid, U2, I ain't gonna play Sun City,etc.) The last two chapters are arranged around theme. The first is about consumption - an important concern of CS because "to know how 'texts' are made to mean requires a consideration of consumption...Cultural studies ethnography is not a means to verify the 'true' meaning or meanings of a 'text'; rather, ehthnographic inverstigation is undertaken as a means to discover the meanings people make; the meanings which circulate and become embedded in the lived cultures of people's everyday lives."(130) Further, "Cultural studies has always rejected the 'pessimistic elitism' which haunts so much work in cultural theory nd analysis...[however], we should never lose sight the manipulative powers of capital and the authoritarian, and authoring, structures of production, we must insist on the active complexity, and situated agency, of consumption."(132) We can see this in the focus on subcultures and fan cultures. The final chapter looks at Globalization and Popular Culture, contesting the idea that world "culture" is becoming americanized - this assumes that the reception of people elsewhere isn't important in changing what is received through globalization, that america is the world's only cultural producer, that american culture is homogenous, etc. However, "to celebrate hybridity and to forget about global power relations would be to miss even more than those who see globalization as cultural Americanization; cultural hybridity is not without its relations to power."(162)
Storey, John. Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Unviersy Press, 1993.
Field
Film and Media Studies
Summary
This is nice little summary of Cultural Studies, mostly the British version, but a good measure of the American school in there too. The introduction explains the small c view of culture in CS and locates the British CS school's intellectual history in Gramsci and the Frankfurt School (Adorno, et al). It also mentions the use of Foucault, sometimes in contrast to Gramscian focus on modes of production, in the approach of examining representation and the construction of meaning. It then moves to discuss Television, Fiction, Film, Print Media, and Music in separate chapters. In Television, Storey starts out by summarizing Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding process of televsion watcing and production. Morley's concept of interpolation through the text, Hobson's look at soap operas and television as a mode of social practice, Ang's discussion of television as evil mass media or pleasurable pasttime (ok, reducing, but you know what I mean, right?), and ends with Fiske's take on television as financial and cultural commodity. Fiction begins with a discussion of Althusser's problematic "the theoretical structure which both frames and produces the repetoire of criss-crossing and competeing discourses out of which a text is materially organized."(37) He discusses reception theory, the need to locate the reader historically, intertextuality, Fish's discussion of the interpretation constructs the text, and ends with a discussion of feminism and romance reading. The chapter on Film focuses on the structuralist / poststructuralist impact on CS work on film and feminist work on film. He begins by discussing Sausserre in relationship to structuralist readings and Laura Mulvey in regards to feminist/poststructuralist/psychoanalytic. He goes on the discuss Gledhill and Stacey's (on escapism and film) reception studies of film. The chapter on Newspapers and magazines discusses the different classed ways print media is circulated, received and devotes a lot attention to feminist work done on women's magazines. He also brings up Barthes' idea of the second level of signification and myth ("ideology unserstood as a body of ideas and practices which defend and actively promote the values and interests of dominant groups in society"(104)) in relationship to visual culture. The chapter on music focus on pop music and the reluctance to see it outside the capitalist mode of production and therefore dissmissed - this is rooted in Adorno's view of it as music to dull the worker. Subcultures, particularly youth subcultures, use music as a way to defined their way of being in the world. Again citing Barthes and his discussion of the grain of the voice, CS of music must take into account the voice and not just rely on the transparency of lyrics. Finally, he discusses the interaction of politics and music (Liveaid, U2, I ain't gonna play Sun City,etc.) The last two chapters are arranged around theme. The first is about consumption - an important concern of CS because "to know how 'texts' are made to mean requires a consideration of consumption...Cultural studies ethnography is not a means to verify the 'true' meaning or meanings of a 'text'; rather, ehthnographic inverstigation is undertaken as a means to discover the meanings people make; the meanings which circulate and become embedded in the lived cultures of people's everyday lives."(130) Further, "Cultural studies has always rejected the 'pessimistic elitism' which haunts so much work in cultural theory nd analysis...[however], we should never lose sight the manipulative powers of capital and the authoritarian, and authoring, structures of production, we must insist on the active complexity, and situated agency, of consumption."(132) We can see this in the focus on subcultures and fan cultures. The final chapter looks at Globalization and Popular Culture, contesting the idea that world "culture" is becoming americanized - this assumes that the reception of people elsewhere isn't important in changing what is received through globalization, that america is the world's only cultural producer, that american culture is homogenous, etc. However, "to celebrate hybridity and to forget about global power relations would be to miss even more than those who see globalization as cultural Americanization; cultural hybridity is not without its relations to power."(162)
# posted by SMRT : 9:56 PM
