Chapter 3 – Culturalism into cultural studies

In this chapter I shall consider the work produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, and Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel. This body of work, despite certain differences between its authors, constitutes the founding texts of culturalism. As Hall (1978) was later to observe, ‘Within cultural studies in Britain, “culturalism” has been the most vigorous, indigenous strand’ (19). The chapter will end with a brief discussion of the institutionalization of culturalism into cultural studies at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.

Before you read

Warm-up

Watch a video introducing cultural studies as a university course [link] . Write down the most important aspects of cultural studies mentioned there to later compare them with the discipline’s premise explained in Chapter 3. How does that presentation reflect on the ideas and method(ologie)s of cultural studies?

Preliminary questions

Chapter 2 established the significance of Arnold and Leavis to the study of cultural theory and popular culture and explored some of their key ideas.

This chapter discusses how their influence is seen in the work of Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams and E.P. Thompson. However, perhaps more importantly, Chapter 3 also details the ways in which this new work was also the beginnings of a different direction in Cultural Studies, marking a break with the Culture and Civilization tradition. The work of Hoggart, Williams and Thompson should not be underestimated in terms of how it informed and shaped the thinking of other cultural theorists who came later, particularly Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel. Significantly, the development of the field led to the formation of The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in 1964 by Hoggart. It established Cultural Studies as an academic discipline. Some of the questions the Centre explored –and which you yourself may like to consider – centred on the following:

Should culture simply be defined as ‘a way of life’?
If so, how do we study and document a way of life and lived cultures?
Who and what counts as evidence of a way of life? What counts as history and whose history are we talking about? Were the 1930s really better than the 1950s?
What is the relationship between working-class culture and popular culture? Is it possible to identify, specifically, a working-class way of life?
To what extent are people active in the production of culture as opposed to their supposed passive consumption of it?
What kind of transition in the intellectual practice and institutionalizing studies on culture is being discussed in the chapter?

After you read: Important ideas

Chapter 3 transitions from traditional cultural criticism towards “disciplined” cultural studies. As such, it outlines the people and ideas associated with the Birmingham School of cultural theory. By doing Quizzes 3.1 and 3.2. you will have the opportunity to better understand that association and test your understanding of the importance of the shift Chapter 3 presents for you. While doing that think of conceptual changes regarding mass culture and working-class culture, and those regarding culture appreciation.

Important names

Chapter 3 mentions theorists and academics responsible for the emergence of Cultural Studies. Use the following flashcards to revisit their direct or indirect connection to the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies with regard to their prominent ideas and their work.

Richard Hoggart

Raymond Williams

E. P. Thompson

Stuart Hall

Paddy Whannel

Terry Eagleton

Complementary materials

<Insert Icon 4 here> Listen to a radio programme that plays music from the 1950s (e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/bestyear/1950s.shtml) and consider the following.

What was Hoggart worrying about? The songs, the producers, the consumers or something else?
Have any of these songs or the music been re-worked, re-played, re-used in other different contexts at a later time?
If this is the case, does this suggest that meanings are more complex than Hoggart assumes? Can one song have different meanings depending on when it is played, who is singing it, in what context and who its audience is?
Which is your favourite artist? Nicki Minaj? Taylor Swift? Or Janelle Monáe? Ed Sheeran or mewithoutYou? Meghan Trainor or Young Fathers? Charles Hamilton or Kanye West? Adele or Of Monsters and Men? Alabama Shakes? How do you defend your own musical preferences? What is the meaning of these musical tastes for you?