Fwd: [csaa-forum] Is cultural studies inherently left-wing?

[Jason Jacobs]

Perhaps the problem is located in the idea that cultural studies teaching 
is a form of 'recruitment': how many students get marked down because they 
refuse to accept the various political shadings of cultural studies (which 
are broadly, in their own understanding, Left)? Perhaps none, - I've never 
encountered a cultural studies scholar who is no less than absolutely 
scrupulous about this. Charlotte Brunsdon's work on pedagogies of the 
feminine (collected in her 'Screen Tastes') is interesting in this 
respect. I think there are a lot of very well meaning scholars who believe 
themselves to be left-wing and yet endorse ideas that are quite 
reactionary. In my previous posts I've tried to stress that the really 
important divide (at this present moment) is between the pro- and 
anti-human (which could be understood as pro- and anti modernity or pro- 
and anti-Enlightenment); the trouble is the really nasty, local, attacks 
on basic ideas (such as Howard's immediate cancellation of funding for the 
New Media Arts Board) tend to overwhelm wider alignments. In this sense I 
absolutely reject Liz Jacka's idea of concentrating on local, tactical 
battles in all their specificity; this is an approach derived from one of 
the most conservative trends in history and philosophy of the past 300 
years, namely German historicism, the small is beautiful (exemplified by, 
among others Von Herder), of course arising from the fragmented nature of 
Germany before unification, but still a powerful draw after it (see 
Lukacs, The Destruction of Reason, and the trend toward 
Alltagsgeschichte).  (Not to say that I don't adore Liz's work on TV 
history.) We need to be able to grasp *both* the macro and the micro - and 
the mediating strands between them - simultaneously ( I s'pose this is 
related to Marx's dialectic, but even Marx didn't predict the parlous 
state of affairs we find ourselves in today). 
Still, I think all cultural studies scholars believe themselves to be 
left-wing. Whatever that means. 
My two cents.

over to Bill O'Reilly to explain why I shouldn't be paid any more....


Jason 

Dr Jason Jacobs
Senior Lecturer
School of Arts, Media and Culture
Griffith University
Nathan Campus
Queensland 4111
Australia
Phone: (07) 3875 5164
Fax: (07) 3875 7730
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