This presentation is about introducing Cultural Studies: Definition, Scope.

1. Introduction to Cultural studies
Lecture 1:What is Cultural Studies?
Facilitated by A. Behhar
2019-20

2. Can we define Cultural Studies?
▪ It is difficult to limit the scope of Cultural studies
▪ The subject matter is Culture
▪ The question is : How can we study Culture?
▪ There are many facets to Culture : Anthropology,
Sociology, History, Economics, Politics ,
Literature….
▪ Cultural Studies is best defined as an
interdisciplinary field of study

3. Colin Sparks (chapter 1) expresses the difficulty of defining the
field as follows:
“ It is extremely difficult to define 'Cultural Studies' with
any degree of precision. It is not possible to draw a
sharp line and say that on one side of it we can find the
proper province of cultural studies. Neither is it
possible to point to a unified theory or methodology
which are characteristic to it or of it. A veritable
rag-bag of ideas, methods and concerns from literary
criticism, sociology, history, media studies, etc., are
lumped together under the convenient label of cultural
studies.”
(Colin Sparks 1997, p. 14)

4. What makes Cultural studies
an independent field?
Culture has a special meaning in Cultural Studies
▪ Culture is not only related to art, aesthetics, literature,
classical music (High culture) but as it is , as Raymond
William defines it, 'a particular way of life, whether of a
people, a period or a group' ( Popular Culture)
(Storey,1997, P1)
▪ Culture is roughly concerned with all “ the changing ways
of life of societies and groups and the networks of
meanings that individuals and groups use to make sense
of and to communicate with one another”
(Hall, 1997, p.336)

5. What makes Cultural studies
an independent field?
Culture has a special meaning in Cultural Studies
▪ Cultural Studies aims at uncovering the intricate
interaction between High culture and Popular
culture.
( conflict, dominance, ideology, identity…)
▪ Culture is therefore political because it “ is a terrain
on which takes place a continual struggle over
meaning, in which subordinate groups attempt to
resist the imposition of meanings which bear the
interests of dominant groups. It is this which
makes culture ideological.” (Storey,1997, P3)

6. What makes Cultural studies
an independent field?
Cultural Studies approaches culture as a text
▪ All components of culture ( artifacts, practices and beliefs)
are cultural texts with cultural meanings
▪ Each cultural text is open to a multitude of interpretations
▪ Frow and Morris (Chapter 22) explain that “There is a
precise sense in which cultural studies uses the
concept of text as its fundamental model.
However, in the working out of this metaphor …
the concept of text undergoes a mutation. Rather
than designating a place where meanings are
constructed in a single level of inscription (writing,
speech, film, dress ... ), it works as an interleaving
of 'levels'.”
(Frow and Morris ,1997, P.355)

7. What makes Cultural studies
an independent field?
Cultural Studies approaches culture as a text
▪ Not every cultural text is worth studying. For a
cultural text to be significant, it has to represent
cultural interactions in society..
▪ Cary Nelson (chapter 16) believes that “ Cultural
studies conceives culture relationally.Thus, the
analysis of an individual text, discourse, behavior,
ritual, style, genre, or subculture does not
constitute cultural studies unless the thing
analyzed is considered in terms of its competitive,
reinforcing, and determining relations with other
objects and cultural forces.”
(Nelson,1997, P.280)

8. Reflection Questions
▪ What is your personal definition of culture?
▪ What makes Moroccan culture special?
▪ Cite three significant cultural texts in Morocco.

9. References
▪ Frow,J., & Morris, M. (1997). Australian cultural studies. J. Storey (Eds.), What is Cultural
Studies? A Reader. (2nd ed.). (pp. 344-367). Arnold.
▪ Hall,S. (1997). Race, culture, and communications: looking backward and forward at
cultural studies. J. Storey (Eds.),What is Cultural Studies? A Reader. (2nd ed.). (pp.
336-343). Arnold.
▪ Nelson,C. (1997). Always already cultural studies: academic conferences and a
manifesto. J. Storey (Eds.),What is Cultural Studies? A Reader. (2nd ed.). (pp. 273-286).
Arnold.
▪ Sparks,C. (1997).The evolution of cultural studies. J. Storey (Eds.),What is Cultural
Studies? A Reader. (2nd ed.). (pp. 14-30). Arnold.
▪ Storey, J. (1997). What is cultural studies a reader (2nd ed.). NewYork: Arnold .