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All this makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to agree on any basic definition of the nature of the beast that is cultural studies. Cultural studies is not one thing, it is many things. It straddles the intellectual and academic landscape from old established disciplines to new political movements, intellectual practices and modes of inquiry such as Marxism, post-colonialism, feminism and poststructuralism. It moves from discipline to discipline, This is why cultural studies is not a discipline. It is, in fact, a collective term for diverse and often contentious intellectual endeavours that address numerous questions, and consists of many different theoretical and political positions. This is why cultural studies is often described as an "anti-discipline" a mode of inquiry that does not subscribe to the straitjacket of institutionalized 8
page 11
lharacteristics of Cultural Studies Just because cultural studies is practically impossible to define, it does not mean that anything can be cultural studies or cultural studies can be just anything. The history of cultural studies has provided it with certain distinguishable characteristics that can often be identified in terms of what cultural studies aims to do. 1. Cultural studies aims to examine its subject matter in terms of cultural practices and their relation to power. Its constant goal is to expose power relation ships and examine how these relationships influence and shape cultural practic es. 2. Cultu ral studies is not simply the study of culture as though it was a discrete entity divorced from its social or political context. Its objective is to understand culture in all its complex forms and to analyse the social and political context within ~ which it manifests itself. ;:- s;> 3. Culture in cultural studies always performs two functions: it is both the object of study and the location of political criticism and action. Cultural studies aims to be both an intellectual and a pragmatic enterprise. 4. Cultural studies 5. Cultural studies is attempts to expose and committed to a moral reconcile the division of 1 < evaluation of modern kno wledge, to overcome society and to a radical the split between tacit line of political action. (that is, intuitive The tradition of cultural knowledge based on studies is not one of local cultures) and va lue-free scholarship objective (so-called but one committed to universal) forms of social reconstruction by knowledge. It assumes a critical political common identity and involvemen t. Thus common interest between the knower and the known, between the observer and what is being observed. cult ural studies aims to understand and change the structures of dominance everywhere, but in industrial capitalist societies in particular. 9

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All this makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to agree on any basic definition of the nature of the beast that is cultural studies. Cultural studies is not one thing, it is many things. It straddles the intellectual and academic landscape from old established disciplines to new political movements, intellectual practices and modes of inquiry such as Marxism, post-colonialism, feminism and poststructuralism. It moves from discipline to discipline,

This is why cultural studies is not a discipline. It is, in fact, a collective term for diverse and often contentious intellectual endeavours that address numerous questions, and consists of many different theoretical and political positions.

This is why cultural studies is often described as an

"anti-discipline" a mode of inquiry that does not subscribe to the straitjacket of institutionalized

8

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