How To Do Things With Cultural Theory

by Hills, Matt

• ISBN13: 9780340809150
• ISBN10: 0340809159
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-26
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Instead of approaching cultural theory as a set of pronouncements to be learned, this book considers why lecturers, students and cultural producers and consumers outside the University system might all want to theorize what culture is and how it works. Taking its cue from J L Austin's infamousHow to Do Things With Words, which argued that language doesn't just reflect the world but is used to achieve things in the world, this book approaches cultural theory as something to be used, performed, adapted, transformed and created in new contexts by its own consumer-producers. How To Do ThingsWith Cultural Theory considers how key theories have been constructed and written, treating theory as a text to be analyzed. What narratives recur across different cultural theories? And what does it mean to construct one's cultural identity as a "theorist"? Addressing the cultural and subculturalidentities that "theory" generates and sustains, this book asks what desires, fantasies, ideals and politics drive people to become "cultural theorists." As well as analyzing the production and circulation of theory, this book also tackles the thorny question of how best to read theory. Despitebeing what lecturers and students spend much of their time doing, the act of reading theory has typically been taken for granted or rendered invisible within cultural theory itself.

Author Biography

Matt Hills is a senior lecturer in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies and has contributed to a wide range of books.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction -- Doing Cultural Theory	1	(10)
Part 1: Outlining Cultural Theory
Defining: What is Culture?	11	(19)
Making ordinary	13	(3)
Structuring, ordering and mattering	16	(9)
Textualizing culture	25	(5)
Evaluating: What is Theory?	30	(21)
Legitimating and authorizing: Theory's Others outside the academy	30	(13)
Valuing and devaluing: Theory's Others inside the academy	43	(8)
Part 2: Consuming and Producing Cultural Theory
Reading Cultural Theory	51	(19)
Prescribing, analysing and romancing	52	(9)
Decoding, see-sawing and poaching	61	(9)
Using Cultural Theory	70	(24)
Disciplining and innovating	70	(4)
Highlighting and annotating	74	(3)
Succeeding: Using cultural theory as a strategic-tactical reader	77	(17)
Writing Cultural Theory	94	(31)
Contrasting and careering	95	(7)
Publishing, commercializing and mediating	102	(9)
Creating: Writing cultural theory for purposes of assessment	111	(14)
Part 3: Exploring Theory Culture
Being Set Apart: Subculture and Pop Culture	125	(25)
Distancing and mirroring	126	(4)
Politicizing	130	(2)
Re-defining and networking	132	(7)
Othering and pleasing	139	(6)
Storytelling and moralizing	145	(5)
Being Set Above: Celebrity and Fan Culture	150	(24)
Individualizing and autonomizing	150	(9)
Fan-worshipping and affecting	159	(10)
Relating	169	(5)
Conclusion -- Performing Cultural Theory	174	(8)
Bibliography	182