This is a summary of chapter two: Questions of Culture And Ideology, of Barker & Jane's textbook Cultural Studies: Theory & Practice. Made for my course Introduction To Literary And Cultural Analysis.
Barker & Jane CH 2: Questions Of Culture & Ideology
The concept of culture is a tool. The meaning of the word ‘culture’ lies in its use. Original: culture <
cultivation of crops > cultivation of human spirit. 19th C: culture = lived experience
British Cultural Studies: Hoggart, Williams, Hall
Matthew Arnold: “culture is the best that has been thought and said in the world.” Justification of
‘high culture,’ as opposed to the uncivilized masses.
Leavisism - F.R. Leavis & Q.D. Leavis (1930’s)
culture seen as highpoint of civilization, concern of the educated minority. Common culture of the
people and minority culture of elite were lost in industrialization.
to define and defend a canon of good works
to criticize mass culture
Cultural Studies has struggled against this high culture/low culture binary
Raymond Williams (1921-1988)
culture constituted as a ‘whole way of life,’ working-class experience, non-elitist education,
democracy, ‘the long revolution.’ Focus on working class and socialism. Critical of Marxist
economic reductionism. Anthropological approach centered on everyday meanings, values, norms
and goods.
Williams saw 2 aspects of culture
1) Known/trained meanings and directions
2) New observations/meanings, which are offered and tested.
Meanings are generated by collectives.
Culturalism: Hoggart, Thompson, Williams
An anthropological and historically informed understanding of culture, stressing ‘ordinariness’ and
class culture.
Richard Hoggart: The Vision Of Literacy (1957) described the culture of English working-class
1930’s-1950’s. Move from old to new culture.
John Hartley: Uses Of Digital Literacy (2009) extended Hoggart’s ideas to digital media. Moved
from a read-only to a read-write production: convergence of producers and consumers.
Edward Thompson: The Meaning Of The English Working Class (1963), also Marxist
‘history from below,’ culture is lived, the working class creates itself when people form groups
according to shared experience. Focus on the socio-economic,
Raymond Williams (1921-1988)
culture constituted as a ‘whole way of life,’ working-class experience, non-elitist education,
democracy, ‘the long revolution.’ Focus on working class and socialism. Critical of Marxist
economic reductionism.
Cultural Materialism - Approach centered on everyday meanings, values, norms and goods as an
expressive totality of social relations.
1.) lived culture
2.) recorded culture
3.) culture of the selective tradition
Aim: to reconstruct the “structure of feeling” in a specific context. That is institutions, formations,
modes of production, identification, reproduction and organization.
For Williams, culture is
the meaning generated by ordinary people
lived experiences of its participants
texts and practices people engage in
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