Introduction to Cultural Studies

S4

Professor: Mouhcine El-Hajjami

Cultural Studies: An historical Contextualization

Social Classes and Marxism

The rise of Cultural Studies and its schools of thought

Cultural Studies and Multi/interdisciplinarity

 Modes of production and relations of power

10th -15th Centuries 16th Century 19th Century 19th Century

Feudalism Slavery Capitalism Colonialism

Lord/ Peasants Master/Salve Bourgeoisie/Proletariat Colonizers/ colonized
A class is defined by the ownership of
property. Such ownership bestows a person
with the power to exclude others from the
property and to use it for personal purposes.
In relation to property there are three great
classes of society: the bourgeoisie (who own
the means of production such as machinery
and factory buildings, and whose source of
income is profit), landowners (whose income
is rent), and the proletariat (who own their
labor and sell it for a wage)
The distribution of political power is
determined by power over production (i.e.,
capital). Capital confers political power,
which the bourgeois class uses to
legitimatize and protect their property and
social relations.

Class relations are political, and in the

mature capitalist society, the state's business
is that of the bourgeoisie. Moreover, the
intellectual basis of state rule, the ideas
justifying the use of state power and its
distribution, are those of the ruling class.
The intellectual-social culture is merely a
superstructure resting on the relation of
production, and on ownership of the means
of production.
Key elements in Marx's view of class conflict.

-Classes are authority relationships based on property ownership.

-A class defines groupings of individuals with shared life situations, thus interests.
-Classes are naturally antagonistic by virtue of their interests.
-Imminent within modern society is the growth of two antagonistic classes and their
struggle, which eventually absorbs all social relations.
-Political organization and Power is an instrumentality of class struggle, and reigning
ideas are its reflection.
-Structural change is a consequence of the class struggle. .
• The superstructure consists of institutions (political, legal, educational, cultural, etc.)
Marx names it ‘definite forms of social consciousness’ (political, religious, ethical, philosophical,
aesthetic, cultural, etc.). The base ‘conditions’ or ‘determines’ the content and form of the
superstructure.

High culture
Refers to the cultural aspects (material and nonmaterial) considered superior and held in the highest
esteem by a society. It is typically associated with intellectualism, political power, and prestige. It
encompasses a collection of beliefs, thoughts, practices and works that are not necessarily intended
for ordinary people, but for the distinguished elite of society
 Low culture

is the complete anti-thesis of high culture. It is the culture of the common

people and the mass; the philistines, not the aristocrats, to use olden times’
terms. (The masses: mostly non-elites like laborers, small-scale businessmen,
peasants, barbers, truck-drivers …)
 The rise of Cultural Studies and its Schools of Thought

Birmingham School
Frankfurt School
(1950s and early
(1930s)
1960s)
 Frankfurt School (1930s)
-Germany
 Max Horkheimer
 Theodor Adorno
 Herbert Marcuse
Birmingham School (1950s and early 1960s)
-Britain
 E.P. Thompson
 Richard Hoggart
 Raymond Williams
• They deployed Marxism to analyze the social relations within capitalist
economic systems and how society is ruled by the ideology of the powerful
elites.
• They believed that dominant groups used media and technology to
reproduce the ideas and culture of the masses in a way that serves their
interests.
• They attempted to preserve working class culture against onslaughts of mass
culture produced by the culture industries and the process of Americanism.
• They focused on valorizing resistant moments in media culture and audiences
interpretation of what they receive in media.
• They criticized modern forms of capitalism while trying to subvert the dividing
lines between low/high cultures.
 Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS): (1964-2002)

Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies was founded in 1963/64 by Hoggart and
Stuart Hall.
The Centre developed a variety of critical approaches for the analysis, interpretation, and criticism
of cultural artifacts.
Through a set of internal debates of social struggles and movements of the 1960s and the 1970s,
the Birmingham group came to focus on the representations of class, gender, and race in cultural
texts, including media.
They were among the first to study the effects of newspapers, radio, television, film, and other
cultural forms on audiences.
They also focused on how various audiences interpreted and used media in different ways and
contexts, analyzing the factors that made audiences respond in contrasting ways to media texts.
The Subversion of
Political Activism Regaining the
mass-culture
against forms of voice and the
Media and culture
cultural hegemony agency of the
industries
oppressed
defended the Resistance to
working class and Colonial Power
Its culture

Cultural Studies does not
have a clearly defined
subject area. Its starting
point is a very broad and all-
inclusive notion of culture
that is used to
describe and study a whole
range of practices.
What is Cultural Studies
Cultural studies is an
interdisciplinary field that
examines the political dynamics
of contemporary culture and its
historical foundations. Cultural
studies researchers investigate
how cultural practices relate to
wider systems of power
associated with, or operating
through, social phenomena..
Cultural studies functions by
borrowing freely from social
science disciplines and all
branches of humanities and
the arts. It appropriates
theories and methodologies
from: ……………..
 Interdisciplinarity

.
05
01 03 Sociology
Semiotics
Psychology
Media/film/video
Psychoanalysis Colonial studies
studies
Medicine Postcolonialism
Literature/ arts/ History Science Structuralism
Museums Ethnography Post-structuralism
translation anthropology Modernism
.
Feminist/gender Political/social/
studies 02 economic sciences 04
 “I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion… Let me be
myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a
woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.”
—Anne Frank, The Diary Of A Young Girl

“In each case, exclusionary racial categorizations and derogatory

racist ideologies were socially constructed to justify economic
theft/exploitation and political disenfranchisement”
—Kimberly Christensen

“White men are saving brown women from brown men”

— Can the Subaltern Speak? , Gayatri Spivak
“For decades, American films and TV programs have vilified Arabs
as villains and terrorists. Now a new generation of directors and
producers is challenging racial, gender, and religious stereotypes—
and making us laugh and think at the same time”
_ Hollywood’s Bad Arabs, Jack G. Shaheen

“The way we dress, what we eat and how we socialize also

communicate things about ourselves, and thus can be studied as
signs”
_ Ronald barthes

“Never trust the teller, trust the tale. The proper function of a critic
is to save the tale from the artist who created it.”
― D.H. Lawrence