Disciplinarity and Dissent in Cultural Studies

by Nelson, Cary; Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar

• ISBN13: 9780415913720
• ISBN10: 0415913721
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

As recently as the early 1990s, people wondered what was the future of cultural studies in the United States and what effects its increasing internationalization might have. What type of projects would cultural studies inspire people to undertake? Would established disciplines welcome its presence and adapt their practices accordingly?Disciplinarity and Dissent in Cultural Studiesanswers such questions. It is now clear that, while striking and innovative work is underway in many different fields, most disciplinary organizations and structures have been very resistant to cultural studies. Meanwhile, cultural studies has been subjected to repeated attacks by conservative journalists and commentators in the public sphere. Cultural studies scholars have responded not only by mounting focused critiques of the politics of knowledge but also by embracing ambitious projects of social, political, and cultural commentary, by transgressing all the official boundaries of knowledge in abroad quest for cultural understanding. This book tracks these debates and maps future strategies for cultural studies in academia and public life. The contributors toDisciplinarity and Dissent in Cultural Studiesinclude established scholars and new voices. In a series of polemic and exploratory essays written especially for this book, they track the struggle with cultural studies in disciplines like anthropology, literature and history; and between cultural studies and very different domains like Native American culture and the culture of science. Contributors include Arjun Appadurai, Michael Denning, Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, Constance Penley, Andrew Ross, and Lynn Spigel.

Table of Contents

Cultural Studies and the Politics of Disciplinarity
Cary Nelson
Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar
An Introduction	1	(22)
PART ONE: DISCIPLINARITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS
Diversity and Disciplinarity as Cultural Artifacts	23	(14)
Arjun Appadurai
Disciplining Anthropology	37	(66)
Virginia R. Dominguez
Literature as Cultural Studies
Cary Nelson
``American'' Poetry of the Spanish Civil War	63	(40)
Cultural History and Cultural Studies	103	(68)
Michael P. Steinberg
Toward a Genealogy of the State of Cultural Studies
Lawrence Grossberg
The Discipline of Communication and the Reception of Cultural Studies in the United States	131	(18)
Indian Country
Gail Guthrie Valaskakis
Negotiating the Meaning of Land in Native America	149	(22)
Cultural Studies and the Challenge of Science	171	(46)
Andrew Ross
Double Time
Bruce Robbins
Durkheim, Disciplines, and Progress	185	(18)
PART TWO: GOING PUBLIC, GOING GLOBAL, GOING HISTORICAL
Cultural Studies in Transition
Is Cultural Studies Inflated?
Herman Gray
The Cultural Economy of Cultural Studies in the United States	203	(14)
Between Nations and Disciplines	217	(34)
Benjamin Lee
From Nasa to The 700 Club (With a Detour Through Hollywood)
Constance Penley
Cultural Studies in the Public Sphere	235	(16)
Cultural Politics and Black Public Intellectuals	251	(38)
Michael Hanchard
Culture and the Crisis
Michael Denning
The Political and Intellectual Origins of Cultural Studies in the United States	265	(24)
PART THREE: TOWARD WILD CULTURE
Cultural Studies in a Postculture	289	(108)
Ackbar Abbas
High Culture in Low Places
Lynn Spigel
Television and Modern Art, 1950-1970	313	(34)
How to Use a Condom
Paula A. Treichler
Bedtime Stories for the Transcendental Signifier	347	(50)
The Face of America and the State of Emergency	397	(76)
Lauren Berlant
Dahmer's Effects
David A. H. Hirsch
Gay Serial Killer Goes to Market	441	(32)
Contributors	473