So I tell people that my major in college is Cultural Studies because that's the best way I can describe it. It's kind of a new field, and a thoroughly postmodern one at that. When I was working at a camp after my freshman year in college, my brother sent this article to me: "All Cultures are Not Equal" by David Brooks for the New York Times (read it here). In it, Brooks told me to "Go into the field that barely exists: cultural geography. Study why and how people cluster, why certain national traits endure over centuries, why certain cultures embrace technology and economic growth and others resist them." So I did.
However, a more descriptive definition of cultural studies (in this context as a Literary theory) came my way in a book assigned for class, Texts and Contexts: Writing about Literature with Critical Theory:
"Cultural studies is indeed so open in terms of what it studies and the methods that are employed, that even its adherents are not entirely clear (or united) regarding what cultural studies is. People who say they are "doing" cultural studies share, one could argue, a commitment to a radical or alternative political stance. That is, they seem to be exposing how culture works from an antagonistic or at least questioning perspective." (26)
Ha. Well, that's what my major turned into, at least. Now that I'm in upper-level sociology classes I'm beginning to question my major. Like every reasonable student with senioritis, everything is starting to seem absurd and far-fetched. It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't have the energy to radically shift my worldview anymore.
I'm starting to think that maybe social-psychology might have been the field for me, studying more about the individual needs of people and how they try to fulfill them in society. That sounds more like the cultural studies I was shooting for. Alas. There's always grad school.
However, a more descriptive definition of cultural studies (in this context as a Literary theory) came my way in a book assigned for class, Texts and Contexts: Writing about Literature with Critical Theory:
"Cultural studies is indeed so open in terms of what it studies and the methods that are employed, that even its adherents are not entirely clear (or united) regarding what cultural studies is. People who say they are "doing" cultural studies share, one could argue, a commitment to a radical or alternative political stance. That is, they seem to be exposing how culture works from an antagonistic or at least questioning perspective." (26)
Ha. Well, that's what my major turned into, at least. Now that I'm in upper-level sociology classes I'm beginning to question my major. Like every reasonable student with senioritis, everything is starting to seem absurd and far-fetched. It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't have the energy to radically shift my worldview anymore.
I'm starting to think that maybe social-psychology might have been the field for me, studying more about the individual needs of people and how they try to fulfill them in society. That sounds more like the cultural studies I was shooting for. Alas. There's always grad school.
have you read sex drugs and cocca puffs?
ReplyDeleteim just bought it and started reading it. i hope you have read it, i like comparing notes with you!
yeah, i tried, but it seemed like he was talking about kind of normal ideas like they were super brilliant and that he had come up with them. maybe i'll read it after you...?
ReplyDelete