Description
Book SynopsisFully revised and updated, this second edition is an ideal introduction for those who are new to the study of culture. Featuring global case studies, selections of readings, exercises, and commentary throughout, it spans the subject from issues of identity through to technological trends.
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- Explores key issues and theories on identities, representation, histories, places, and spaces, discussing the various interpretations of culture and cultural studies
- Incorporates new work on the study of space, place, identity, gender, and cultural history, as well as new sections on cultural studies theories and methodology in each chapter
- Introduces more complex issues including high and popular culture, subjectivities, consumption, and new technologies, and a fully updated section on new and enduring trends in technology and culture
Trade Review“This is an invaluable introduction for students across the humanities and social sciences. A synthesis of carefully weighted comment, readings, images, and activities involves the reader in the pleasures, perils, and multiple meanings of that most complex word, ‘culture’.”
Mary Eagleton, Leeds Metropolitan UniversityTable of ContentsList of Figures.
List of Tables.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
1. What is Culture?.
Introduction.
The ‘Culture and Civilization’ Debate.
The ‘Mass Culture’ Debate.
Social Definitions of Culture.
Culture and Power.
Conclusions.
2. Identity and Difference.
Introduction.
Who am I?.
Social Constructivist Approaches to Identity.
‘Identity Crisis’ and the Modern World.
Representing and Narrating Identity.
Conclusions.
3. Representation.
Introduction.
Language and Representation.
Communicating Meaning.
Representation and discourse.
Representation, Discourse and Resistance.
Conclusions.
4. History.
Introduction.
The Past ‘As it Really Was’?.
Challenges to Objectivity: Post-structuralist Theories of History.
The Past and Popular Memory.
History as ‘Heritage’.
Conclusions.
5. Location, Location, Location: Cultural Geographies.
Place and Identity: A Brief Introduction.
Mapping Realities?.
Going Shopping.
Case Study: Mapping Los Angeles.
Conclusions.
6. Case Study: Global Tourism.
The Story of Tourism.
Tourism as Social Practice.
Tourist Places.
Tourism and Identities.
Tourism and Heritage.
Cultural Imperialism or Cultural Globalization?.
Conclusions.
7. Cultural Value: High Culture and Popular Culture.
Defining Culture.
Discriminations.
Versions of Literary Culture.
Rereading Literature.
Rereading Texts: The Wind in the Willows (1908) and English Masculinity.
Conclusions.
8. Subjects, Bodies, Selves.
Introduction.
Fragmented or Multiple Selves?.
Language and Subjectivity.
Discourse and the Subject.
Embodied Selves.
Conclusions.
9. Consumption.
Introduction.
What is a Consumer?.
Buying a Newspaper.
My High Street and your High Street.
Theories of Consumption.
Selling Identities.
Agency, Appropriation, and Ethics.
Conclusions.
10. Technology.
The Place of the Personal: Ethnography and the Practice of Cultural Studies.
Twentieth-century Technology: Cultural Studies of TV.
Living with Technology.
Working with the Web.
Conclusions.
Conclusion.
References and Further Reading.
Bibliography.
Index
