Cultural Studies

What is, or are, Cultural Studies? In this outstanding critical and historical account, Fred Inglis, strips away the philosophical incoherence of Cultural Studies to reveal a common focus within the protean subject–matter and complex history of the field. Inglis begins with a concise, ambitious review of the historical circumstances which made Cultural Studies both necessary and possible in the inter–war years. He then charts the development of the field from its often contradictory origins (in Cambridge, England, and Frankfurt, Germany through its encounter with Marxism. French structuralism and linguistic philosophy, to contemporary anthropology. Focusing on the study of the value as the defining content of Cultural Studies, Inglis illuminates the work of such key figures as F. R. Leavis, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Theodore Adorno, Antonio Gramsci and Clifford Geertz. Balancing the claims of the Grand Theory against the charms of local knowledge, Inglis charts a fascinating course through the theories and methods of Cultural Studies as it seeks to refashion the traditional academic disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Ending with a chapter on "How to do Cultural Studies", this book provides a much needed critical introduction to an exciting new field of inquiry. Sympathetic but non–partisan in approach, and refreshingly clear in its framework, Cultural Studies should be welcomed by students and teachers alike.

A Summary of the Argument. Acknowledgements. Part I: The Politics of Experience: . 1. The Politics of Experience. Part II: Origins: . 2. English for the English. 3. Marxism under Fascism: the intellectual in Politics. 4. Doing things with Words. Part III: For and Against Method: . 5. For and Against Method. 6. Relativism and Heumeneutics. 7. Grand Theory and Local Knowledge. Part IV: The Varieties of Intellectual Experience: . 8. Art or Culture?. 9. Experience into History: Theory and Biography. 10. How to do Cultural Studies. Bibliography. Index.

Fred Inglis is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. He has also been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, USA. His previous books include Media Theory (Blackwell, 1990) and The Cruel Peace?