The title of this book could easily mislead. Despite a cursory treatment of the possible meanings of the word ‘culture’ and ‘cultural studies’ in the book’s opening pages, it is really another in a long line of introductions to ‘Critical Theory’ as practiced in university arts departments the world over. Its remit is to introduce fresher students to the kind of argumentation and terminology which characterizes so much academic literary analysis – for, despite the implied inclusivity of the title’s reference to ‘cultural studies’, painting, sculpture, architecture and music hardly got a look in.
‘Critical Theory’ (hereinafter just Theory) has, of course, made itself at home in many of academia’s nooks and crannies, but it does not enjoy a good reputation in the wider intellectual world. Its major practitioners have been accused of obfuscation, prolix taxonomizing, unsubstantiated generalization, and an ingrained reluctance to argue from common ground with properly defined terms in accordance with the dictates of reason. Proponents of Theory reject such accusations as the product of misinterpretation on the part of conservative and unimaginative critics, and claim that it is, though baffling at first acquaintance, fundamentally intelligible. One cannot reasonably expect that an author interested enough in Theory to write an introduction to the subject should approach it in a spirit of hostile scepticism.
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.37307/j.1866-5381.2013.01.35 |
Lizenz: | ESV-Lizenz |
ISSN: | 1866-5381 |
Ausgabe / Jahr: | 1 / 2013 |
Veröffentlicht: | 2013-05-23 |
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