Final Assessment

Culture can be described as a way of life which is best understood by the dominant class.

Notions of structure and agency in Cultural Studies are thought to be important throughout Cultural Theory and Popular Culture.

Meaning is produced by establishing difference rather than it being an expression of something inherent in the text or practice.

Textual poaching means that texts can mean just whatever you want them to mean.

Fans do not just read texts, they continually re-read them and undermine the way a text might be thought to position readers in singular ways.

Gay, lesbian and queer fans of Duffy or Laverne Cox, Lady Gaga or Michael Sam are not just enthusiastic reader-consumers; they are, potentially, also active cultural producers.

There is little doubt that capitalist cultures are without contradiction in as much as they are completely homogenous and totally monolithic.

Ethnographic evidence suggests that the aims of production are always mirrored in cultural consumption.

Variations on Marxist theory continue to inform study and practice in contemporary Cultural Studies.

Freud argues that the creation of civilization has resulted in the repression of basic human instincts.

Jacques Lacan sought to anchor psychoanalysis in biology rather than culture.

William Morris insisted that the absence of popular art in modern times creates social divisions.

The incorporation of feminism into post-feminist popular culture is a classic example of the processes of hegemony.

Problematizing ‘whiteness’ is an important part of discussions of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ within contemporary Cultural Studies.

Culture is never merely mute materiality; it is always social, material and semiotic.

Climate fiction defends capitalism and its role in environmental devastation.